Dispatches from the Frontline of the Arena Customer Service Team
We love our customers – we really do - and absolutely nothing gives us more pleasure than to make someone’s day by delivering our flowers. But sometimes customers can make life very interesting for us here at Flowers HQ, and they sometimes think we have almost magical powers of divination!
Here, in a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek way, are some of our favourite customer interactions over the last two years…
To speed up your order, always have your recipient’s full address to hand:
♥ Arena CS: “I’m afraid the order to Mrs X will be delayed, as you indicated that the delivery address, in Columbia, South America, is within Greater London, UK.”
♥ Customer: “I don’t have the full address of where he lives, can I send you an aerial image of the house, taken from space?”
♥ Customer: “I know he lives in Bromley but I’m not too sure where; your driver can ask a local shopkeeper, he’s very popular in the area.”
International enquiries are sometimes a challenge:
♥ Customer: “I’m trying to find out the price of the flowers, but I can’t see it. They all have a funny looking L by the side of them.”
Arena CS: “That is a pound sign, madam.”
♥ Arena CS: “And what is the delivery instruction, madam?”
Belgian Customer: “No!!!!!!!!!!”
When it comes to the goodies to send, we can be quite flexible with the delivery of our service, one of our favourite orders has included:
24 pink lilies
24 balloons
Prestat Banoffee truffles
Bailey’s Irish cream
A Mohican chicken
Plus a request from the sender that Arena’s driver sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the lucky recipient on delivering the flowers!
Pure genius.
Although we’ll cross hot coals to get your order delivered within the time frame published, sometimes - especially on our ‘Mega Days’ - you can’t always expect the moon on a stick:
♥ Customer for Valentine’s Day: “My girlfriend is going to be in lectures from 11am-12pm. Can your driver deliver them at 11.59 and give them to her in her class?”
Arena CS: “On the busiest day of the year!! I’m afraid not, sir!”
When our beautiful fresh flowers are delivered to the safety of the recipient, the fun doesn’t always end there…
♥ Customer: “I have received no message card with my order”.
Arena CS: “I’m so sorry about that, there should be a card in with the flowers.”
Customer: “No. All there is is an orange card with your logo on it.”
Arena CS: “If you open it, you’ll find that the card message is inside the card…”
♥ Alarmed Elderly Lady: “I’ve received a large box with a clear lid, sent by a florist. I didn’t order anything! Can I ask what’s inside the box, my dear?”
Arena CS: “They are flowers, madam.”
Elderly lady: “Really? What a lovely surprise!”
And it’s a hard life being a Customer Service Team professional - what with all the amorous advances, Vanessa spills the beans:
I received a call from a customer who wished to send flowers to a girl he had just met in a restaurant. Whilst he was giving me the address and message, which stated how much he wanted to get to know her, he was flirting shamelessly with me. At the end of the phone call, he said that he enjoyed speaking to me so much that he was going to send me some flowers too. I thought nothing of it as I’ve heard this before and it had never happened. But lo and behold, a couple hours later, a bewildered looking lady walked in carrying some pink roses and asked for me. I was so happy having received some flowers that I didn’t initially care that they were delivered by another company (Interflora no less).
He called the next day to ask if I liked them and why hadn’t I called to arrange ‘something’. I answered, that I liked them very much but could not be possibly entertain the idea ‘getting to know him’ whilst he was sending other women flowers. He then said that if it didn’t work out with her he’d give me a call. So I’ll just be waiting by the phone then shall I..?!
Similarly, a customer called up wishing to have an arrangement of flowers made up in the shape of boat and then said that he found talking to Josephine such a pleasure that he proposed! (Prank call??…We think so!)
For more on our adventures at Flowers HQ, check out the following blog posts: The Mother of All Orders, Everlasting Orchids, and Our Lips Are Sealed.
Filed under: Christmas Flowers, Customers, Distribution, General, Mega Days, Mother's Day, Operations, Valentine's Day on August 13th, 2008
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Gotta love the customers! I’m not sure if we’ve quite reached your levels yet but we’ve had some fun with US sellers who don’t quite get the concept of the UK being somewhere outside of the States when it comes to phone calls.
Keep it up Arena!
Very very funny.
The big question is “Did your driver sing Happy Birthday”, and can he do me Sinatra too?
And I thought eBay buyers were bad - those are superb! Alarmed Elderly Lady is my favourite.
Actually, this particular driver did sing “Happy Birthday” - we put a lot of pressure on him! He is really nice and loves to please people. But, although his voice is very loud, it is awful - not in the least tuneful, so I wouldn’t suggest that he attempt Sinatra. That wouldn’t please anyone, I’m afraid!
Can you tell me how you all deal with funeral flowers and sympathy flower orders? I work with FTD in the states and am curious to know how you all deal with such orders as many must be delivered before the funeral service. Do customers order online or by phone for funeral flowers? On a final note, do you offer a 24 hour phone number?
Our customers order both online and by phone. We have a section on our checkout which says ‘If for a funeral, please check you have given both name of the deceased and of funeral director’. We always suggest that the flowers be delivered the day before the service - most funeral homes are perfectly happy with that. On the website we have certain arrangements that we are unable to deliver outside the Greater London area as they are not suitable to be sent by courier; these are larger arrangements which are more delicate. Our phone lines are only open 8am to 6pm Mon-Fri and 9am to 3pm Saturday but orders can be placed online 24hours/day.
Hope this helps.