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Extra Features and Video Online FloristsReview.com R E A D O N L I N E 49 QUICK RECAP. Use the G.R.O.W.T.H. method to attract new and maintain existing clients. Go where people gather to find new clients. Reach out and connect with people to get conversations started. Greet people with warmth and kindness so they can feel your vibe. Build trust with your clients and staff, layer by layer, and be careful not to shatter it. Use humor and honestly as your sword and shield. Use these tools regularly to become a beacon for your ideal clients and keep them coming back for more. TRUST HUMOR & HONESTY H T Believe it or not, not everyone is out to get you. Although having boundaries is healthy, you don't want to build an impenetrable fortress around you that prevents anyone from getting in. Instead, build trust with people. Trust is the magic ingredient that often turns a customer into a client. A customer is simply a transaction; a client is a relationship. How do you start building trust if you have been burned before? Trust is built in layers, and you simply start at the bottom. You trust, they trust, you trust a little more, they trust a little more—and so on. For some people, the trust will go only a few layers up, and that's where it ends. For others, you may end up developing deeper connections and have lifelong clients who turn into friends. This also applies to employees. If you don't trust your staff, you will never empower them to make their own decisions and act like a healthy team. You build trust with them just like you do everyone else—one layer at a time. I see many entrepreneurs and managers screw this up the moment there's a misunderstanding, and they immediately shatter the tower of trust. Trust is remarkably easy to build, but it's extremely difficult and, sometimes, impossible to repair. Before you shatter any trust you've built, ask yourself if whatever it is is worth the risk of severing a relationship. There are times where trust is broken by the other party and you need to step away from the connection, but you can't let that be your automatic leadership style. If you find yourself struggling to trust, go back to adding some warmth. It may give you a little clarity to see through the emotions you're experiencing This last one is a double. Humor is crucial if you're going to survive in a creative industry. Don't take yourself so seriously; it's OK to talk to your clients like they're real people; they are. A little humor goes a long way and can often be a great icebreaker when you're meeting with a new client. Laughter is a universal language, and it indirectly gives your clients permission to let their guard down and be comfortable with you. Speaking from my experience, the only clients I didn't book for weddings were the ones whom I couldn't get to laugh during their consultations. Stop underestimating the power of being human and having a giggle with your clients. Last, let's talk about honesty. Just like humor, a little dab will do. When I talk about honesty, I'm not saying to share every tiny detail about your personal life or overshare your problems with people. What I am talking about it is if you screw up something and it needs to be addressed with a client, fess up to it. Admitting to a mistake goes further than apologizing. You can actually increase a customer's loyalty to your business by professionally handling a mistake. You must offer a plan for resolution. For example, you promised a delivery by a specific time because the recipient was leaving work early and, for whatever reason, it didn't happen. Your customer calls asking where the item is. Tell him or her what happened—whatever the situation was—and apologize that you didn't get the order to the recipient on time. Then, offer a resolution. If the recipient is no longer at the delivery location, offer to deliver the item to him or her at home, or ask the client if he or she would like the item delivered to the recipient the next morning. Do whichever the client chooses, and as a little extra, email the client a coupon for a $20 upgrade on his or her next order—and, possibly, refund any delivery charge on this order. This can not only salvage the trust between you and your client— and even strengthen it—because even though you dropped the ball, you had an amazing recovery and still provided great service to the client.

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