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.
Keeping Your Customers
Now that we know why customers leave, let’s find out what it would take to KEEP them.
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...
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:
If you were with us at The Fall Event 2025, you may have seen me introduce all three Young Retailer of the Year Finalists for 2025. This was the very first year all three finalists were from Group Centers, and all three were with us at The Fall Event 2025. We traditionally offer all three finalists full registration to the upcoming Fall Event. The 2025 finalists shown here are:
Who is the RISING RETAIL STAR at your Center? Nominating them for this award could be an amazing experience for them and could also have a significant impact on your Center's future.
In the book, “The Four Disciplines of Execution,” the authors introduce the concept of a “WIG”—a Wildly Important Goal.
It is achieved by focusing on “Lead Measures” which, when combined, help you to reach your overall outcome (referred to as a “Lag Measure”). These three principles can be shared in a real -life example some of us go through at some point in our lives---getting into better shape.
Look at the faces above.
Just imagine, this could be your top management team some years from now.
Where does the idea... that really changes things begin? We could say it begins with a spark. A single thought. It might be called "the lightbulb moment". A quick search at Merriam-Webster defines spark as...
Spark - as a noun
Last month, I saw the news that Harris Rosen, founder of the Rosen Hotels & Resorts in the Orlando, Florida, area, passed away. That brought back thoughts and many memories of The Fall Event in 2015 and is the basis for this message. Harris was kind enough (and we were fortunate enough) to have him give The Group a personal welcome at the start of The Fall Event 2015. More about that a little later. But first, let me share what I have learned about Harris Rosen.
The Fall Event 2015 was in Orlando and our host hotel was the Rosen Plaza (one of three Rosen Hotels located in this area of International Drive), just across the street from the Orange County Convention Center, where The Landscape Show is held each year. The Landscape Show, produced by the Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association (FNGLA), is a sister event to TPIE and serves the more general industry segments, more non-tropical, you might say. On the final day of The Fall Event 2015, participants were able to experience The Landscape Show.
It is easy to make light of or dismiss a single idea, no matter how small it may seem at the time. What we most likely don't see at the time is the potential impact of that idea.
It could appear just to be a SPARK of an Idea. And, if we are not paying attention, we may miss opportunities.
Past:
A few years back, I wrote and presented to The Garden Center Group about a healthy business being equivalent to a healthy body. The similarities are easy to see and the approach is easy to execute.
When we go to the doctor’s office for our annual check-up (or unfortunately when we are sick), there are a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or body metrics that they measure---Blood Pressure, Height/Weight, Temperature, Pulse and BMI (Body Mass Index). These provide a window into your current condition and are usually compared to your last visit.
As we see the initial signs of the 2023 economy play themselves out in April’s numbers, and forecast for May, June and July are just around the corner, we should never underestimate the investment in your people.
One of the Centers within The Garden Center Group has committed to a “People First” vision for 2023. Another has committed to “Build the Bench!” in 2023, and both are poised to propel themselves into the future of their businesses by focusing on the soft skills just as much as the hard goods of their retail operation.
It’s that time of year again!
Yup! You guessed it… Baseball is back!
As the dust from The Fall Event settles and the lessons and blessings found in Cincy are applied back home, I thought it important to share the message I delivered on the final day to all of The Garden Center Group members who may not have attended or had to catch a flight home.
Ultimately, the presentation centered around the common threads of excellence found inside of great leaders, athletes, business owners, and garden centers in the world. Three attributes that they all share which place them at the top of their game—the best of the best!
As the Spring season begins to take shape throughout most of the US, and as IGC’s fill the new and returning roles of retail (hiring or re-hiring), this is the time to reinvest in training and development.
I recently had the chance to present a webinar for one of The Garden Center Group Partners for Success—Proven Winners, titled “Batter Up!” where we compared spring training in baseball to spring training in garden centers. The same “Back to Basics” approach is a wise way to kick start the body and the brain to ready for the season ahead.