Help Customers Find the Perfect Plants
Help Customers Find the Perfect Plants By Faith Savage

No, I am not looking for a date! But I do have an idea for you that could be both profitable and fun. We all know that our customers (and potential customers) are busy, busy, busy… And they’re looking for ways to get projects done in less time. Whether young or old, they use the Internet as a valuable tool to do research and seek out supply sources. The dramatic rise in the popularity of online dating speaks to this very point: There are loads of folks out there who are too busy to find romance by conventional means, so they now seek soul mates through a multitude of computer dating services that are ready and willing to match them up.

Combine that with the fact that — unlike those of us who work around plants on a daily basis — potential customers visiting your garden center can easily be overwhelmed by the choices in front of them. It can be really intimidating, and that means it might take more time than they are willing to spend to sort it all out and make their purchase. So, how can we make it easier for them to spend money with us and get the results they are looking for?

PlantMatch.com?

Let’s take a cue from those dating services and start your own “perfect plant match” program. Think about it! Whether you set up a little colorful kiosk in the entrance of your store or offer the service through your website, you can make it fun for them to “find the perfect plant match” with a tool they know, are comfortable with and have confidence in: the computer. Talk about a way to appeal to those younger customers!

Create a simple form for them to fill out — in your store or online, before they come into the store — with no more than five or six questions about their needs. (Remember, we want maximum information with minimum time spent on their part.) Questions like:

1. Do you have sun or shade to plant in?
2. Do you like to spend time working in your yard, or do you prefer a garden that mostly takes care of itself?
3. What is the color of your house? The trim?
4. Do you have overhead sprinklers or a drip watering system?
5. Do you have a preference for annuals or perennials, or would you prefer a mix of both for maximum impact?
6. Do you like lots of color, or do you enjoy texture and foliage?

Once they fill out the questionnaire, have someone on your staff ready and willing — and enthusiastic — to help them quickly find their perfect match choices. Offer an assortment of suggestions, such as hanging baskets and containers that complement one another and work well with the garden beds they want to plant.

Give them plenty of ideas that make sense for their needs, and do it quickly and painlessly. This will require some additional staff training, but it will be worth it. If you make it enjoyable and fun, they will be back time and time again.

A Worthwhile Investment

Now, I know this might sound like work to get it up and running, but it is work that can pay for itself quickly. Once you have the database of basic information on the customer, and you track what plants they have purchased, when the next season rolls around you can send them their “new plant match” suggestions that are customized to really work for them.

For example, a customer buys great containers in the spring to go with their new outdoor dining set, filling them with lilies, gerbera daisies and verbena for their springtime entertaining. Come summer, you know what the containers and their furniture look like, so you can easily suggest some great new “perfect plant matches” to rejuvenate their home for summer. Suggest a nice hanging basket or two to complement the look for summer entertaining, and you have an additional summer sale thanks to the statistics on the customer in your files. The biggest benefit of all? They feel like you really care and are looking out for them — and that builds loyal customers!

Maintain Your Relevance

In Stan Pohmer’s article “Survival of the Fittest” in the March issue of this magazine, he recommends that garden centers “focus on the benefits of what you’re selling, how your product (and buying at your location) can enhance [a customer’s] lifestyle and make them more successful. You need to provide a compelling reason to walk through your front door.”

Finding a customer’s “perfect plant match” easily is a compelling reason. P. Allen Smith says, “I find that more and more customers are looking at plants as a way to accent a setting, rather than plant a garden.” Well, with the data you collect in your “perfect plant match” system, you can help them time and time again to accent their backyard entertainment setting, fulfilling their needs and making them loyal customers — young and old alike. This can work… think about the possibilities!

Faith Savage

Faith Savage is retail manager for Goldsmith Seeds. She can be reached at (626) 918-1353 or at [email protected].