Presenting

52 March | 2023 Business to ensure that what he orders and what is received are the same. Without a proper POS system in place, the customer will have to call his mother, ask her to take a photo of the gift, and then send it to him so that he can view it against what he saw on the florist's website. e common—and often unavoidable—practice of flower substitution is what typically causes consternation for customers. It's also possible that the arrangement received had only six red roses instead of the eight that were shown in the web photo, and the filling flower shop might be unaware that the customer chose that specific arrangement because of the number of red roses—the number eight has special meaning for the recipient. With a good florist POS system, specific notes from or about a customer can be input so that the filling designer sees them when constructing the arrangement. For example, within the conversation—whether in person or on the phone—a retailer may learn that the recipient has cats and, therefore, the filling florist should refrain from including daffodils or lilies. Or the order could note that the recipient dislikes the color orange or has allergies to a particular plant. At some future date, for another order going to this recipient, this type of information could be important. at is why customer notes remain within the POS system—or at least they do within a good system. As well, to ensure customer satisfaction, via a POS system, a shop can provide a photo of the completed arrangement to the purchaser before delivery—either gratis or for a nominal fee. at can be done—and cataloged—in GotFlowers' Florist POS System, Natarajan says. Because the photo is sent to the purchaser, it creates customer satisfaction. Should there be an error in the design and the customer asks that it be changed, there is a place for that on the POS system, as well. "A good florist POS system should be able to handle every scenario that a florist could—not necessarily will— come across, regardless of frequency," he explains. Another way a POS system can generate customer satisfaction is via its card/message-generating capabilities. Some systems offer pre-generated common messaging—"Happy birthday!" or "Sorry for your loss"— while others are richer and more complex and can even use a translator to convert English into another language. With the GotFlowers Florist POS System, Natarajan informs, "e message can be in any language. It's pre- translated, colloquially, and should the desired language be Russian, the message would appear in Cyrillic Russian." ALWAYS UP TO DATE "A good florist POS system will be cloud-based and will have inventory controls that are updated immediately when flower design recipes are accessed," Natarajan says, adding that the GotFlowers system is, indeed, cloud- based. "Within the gifting industry that is the florist "A good florist POS system will be cloud-based and will have inventory controls that are updated immediately when flower design recipes are accessed," Natarajan says.

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