Tell-Tale Tell-Tail Signs

by Danny Summers

A week or so ago, as I was walking into our favorite Pet Supply Store (Petco), I saw an English Pointer walking his owner towards the door. For anyone who is not familiar with the English Pointer, they are a short-haired spotted bird dog.

I was especially attracted to this one since it was a liver and white (dark brown and white), much like one our family had when I was about five years old.

February is Loaded with Opportunities!

by Danny Summers

February is a unique and busy month of the year... it's the shortest month of the year, the coldest month of the year, and the month of the Groundhog Day, Presidents' Day, Valentines Day, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and the Grammies. But most importantly for you, February is Loaded with Opportunity for you within The Group!

You may have already seen Rachel Reynolds is presenting But is it Shoppable? Creating Displays that Customers Actually Buy From, a new session on Visual Merchandising during our regular GROUPtalk LIVE on Tuesday, February 10th at 2:00 PM Eastern (our new day and time for 2026). Full details on her message is below.

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 7

by John Kennedy

Dealing with Difficult Customers

With the four expectations of our customers established (a perfect product, delivered in a timely way, by caring friendly people, with world-class problem solving), let’s focus on the last one—world-class problem solving.

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 6

by John Kennedy

Keeping Your Customers

Now that we know why customers leave, let’s find out what it would take to KEEP them.

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 5

by John Kennedy

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 5

by John Kennedy

Consistency is Key
Continuing with "Delivering an Exceptional and Consistent Customer Experience,” John picks up where he left off with the importance of “consistency.”  In fact, consistency is key to a sensational customer experience.

The session also addresses the top reasons customer leave your business, the insanity of 4% of your revenue being invested in marketing,  yet a small fraction, if any,  being invested in training your employees on what you are promising, and finally understanding the four basic expectations of your customers.

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 4

by John Kennedy

The Hampton Inn of IGC’s!

The word CUSTOMER has two 2-letter words that mean everything in delivering an exceptional and consistent customer experience.  Your team will learn why they both matter when it comes to the customer and learn how not to be a “Gwen!”

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 3

by John Kennedy

The Four Reasons Customers Buy

In this video, your team will learn the difference between having an “A-Team” or the “F-Troup” of customer experience. Does the journey of your customer, at every single touch point, align to your brand identity, support your brand strategy, and deliver on your brand promise?”

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 2

by John Kennedy

Attitude Defines Altitude

In this video, your team will understand how important it is to arrive at work ready to deliver an exceptional retail experience…every single day.  And in order to do that, it has to be from within…an inside job.

The Power of Attitude (good or bad) can dictate the entire day for the team and the entire experience for the customer. Is your attitude contagious or a contagion?  Because when the customer arrives at your garden center, they don’t really care about what happened prior to work, or that it’s hot, or that you are two folks down, or the POS is off-line, or a truck just arrived, or a storm just blew over your entire tree selection, or, or, or…

Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 1

by John Kennedy

Part 1 - Introduction: Setting the Table for Success

As Danny mentioned a few weeks back, the Starbucks story was built upon a hyper-focus on the customer experience. The idea of dusting off this video series from Member Clicks and reintroducing it (or introducing it to new folks) would be a great chance to “sharpen the saw” for your training and development goals during the summer.

Keep it REAL!

by Danny Summers

Last week many of us were at TPIE in Ft. Lauderdale. It was the largest TPIE ever with their newly expanded show floor and more booths - featuring many more amazing plants!

The General Session Keynote featured on Wednesday morning was Jill Hawkins, born in the UK and now living in Denmark. She says, "I'm a trends and human insight researcher and fashion psychologist, exploring the relationships between fashion, lifestyle, well-being and creativity."

Reading the Tea Leaves

by Danny Summers

The ability to read your audience (and market) is probably one of the most important roles in managing any business today. I sometimes call this "reading the tea leaves."

I wonder if anyone truly has all the secrets for doing so. But establishing a culture or practice for you and your team to monitor trends and understand your audience on an ongoing basis is essential. With this in mind, I want to challenge you to develop a regular schedule for discussing this topic as a team. Maybe call it "Trend Watch" or perhaps even... Reading the Tea Leaves. (just kidding)

Our Promise - Part 2

by Danny Summers

In Part 1 of Our Promise, I shared examples of several Group Centers' 5 Star Commitments. They help set the standards for how each Center expects the Guest should experience should be.

I ended Part 1 with, there's more to this story...

Our Promise - Part 1

by Danny Summers

One of the most important connections a customer can have with you and your Garden Center is a sense of trust and dependability. And the most successful brands are those with well-established and well-known consistency in their products and services.

Dan Gingiss, our keynote speaker at The Fall Event 2025, told us...

Forest Bathing – A New Event in Your Center?

by Danny Summers

The term "Forest Bathing" might sound a little weird at first glance. Just the basic perception might conjure up an image of filling your bathtub with every green leaf you can find and soaking in it. But put any "that's weird" thoughts out of the way and let's explore further

Here in The Group, the first time Forest Bathing has been shared was this past May in the GROUPtalk LIVE session when Nicholas Staddon presented "What's Your Therapy." Nicholas covered a number of the benefits and activities of plants and nature in our lives. One of those he mentioned was Forest Bathing.

Lots of Stuff! (Group News)

by Danny Summers

As I was trying to decide what to share this week, I quickly realized... I have a lot to share... so why not just title this... Lots of Stuff?

So, here goes... a quick overview of lots of stuff I want you to know:

To Be a Gardener

by Danny Summers

Last week, I received an email from Dr. Allan Armitage, sharing news of his newest book, "The Common-Sense Gardener." Through the process of ordering a copy, I read some of the preface. I have to admit, as I read the words, I realized that Allan is absolutely right. Here's a sample...

Trial Box Program for 2026

by Danny Summers

On April 7th of this year, I shared news of the new Trial Box Program by Peace Tree Farm. You can see that announcement HERE. Here's a quick recap of how this began...

Last September I first shared "A Surprise Inside" as I explained being part of the Ball FloraPlant New Introductions Sample Box Program the past several spring seasons. You can see that Blog message HERE.

Leveraging Group Knowledge & Experience

by Danny Summers

The Fall Event 2025 set new records for The Group. Obviously, the easiest one to recognize is overall participation. It was the largest attendance since The Fall Event began in 2001.

But if you were with us, there are several other areas that are easily recognized as gaining momentum... Peer-Sharing and Use of Technologies.

Building TeamWise

by Danny Summers (with tons of help from John Kennedy and others)

When we were developing programming for The Fall Event 2025 and we connected with Dan Gingiss to present his Experience Maker message, I asked John Kennedy if Team Building could be dovetailed into the momentum of this message we wanted to create. He quickly said, "Absolutely... It's an easy bridge to build!"

What John created for us was this TeamWise program. Here's an overview of his message:

Made You LOOK!

by Danny Summers

Early this year, we introduced Rachel Reynolds, Birds Eye Visual Merchandising, as our new Group Visual Merchandising Coach. In April, Rachel shared the message "Creative Visual Merchandising" during our monthly GROUPtalk LIVE (Group Centers can revisit that presentation in The Group WebSystem: Clients-Only Menu/Training-GROUPtalk LIVE Series 2025).

During my introductions at The Fall Event 2025, I introduced each of our Group Team Members with a funny title, and we called Rachel our "Chief Window Dresser." This is a reference back to a time decades ago when major department stores would devote tremendous effort to their large store-front windows to attract attention. That's where I thought of the title for this message... Made You Look!