1-800 Flowers got a very painful lesson in customer service, customer expectations and social media last week. They were hit with a firestorm of negative social media as many of their Valentines Day customers loudly expressed their disappointment over the gifts that were delivered. Here’s the story
There aren’t many industries that rely more on seasonal sales than the florist business. I don’t know the numbers, but I would imagine that Valentine’s day is by far their biggest opportunity. It’s probably a good time not to screw up.
The lesson to all of us is that mediocrity in customer service is no longer an option. Customers have a voice that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and are getting more and more comfortable using it. Sometimes even one single mistake is all it takes to negatively impact a brand.
I suspect that 1-800 Flowers likely did a pretty good job with the vast majority of their customers during the craziest week of the year for them, and it could have been less than 1% that had a service failure. The truth is, 99% customer service just isn’t good enough any more. It will be interesting to see how they respond, and if they are able to reverse the impact of all the negative publicity
Shaun Belding
CEO
The Belding Group
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