A Surprise Inside!

by Danny Summers

Growing up as a kid, one of my favorite treats was Cracker Jack. That savory combination of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts was certainly the draw, but there was something more... A Surprise Inside!

A Surprise Inside was never anything really valuable. It wasn't like finding a winning lottery ticket inside or even a coupon for a free box of Cracker Jack. More importantly for me, it had something inside to make me read and think. Often it was something that sparked curiosity and rallied my imagination.

The Bridge

by John Kennedy

One single word can have so many different meanings, and one of my favorites is the word “bridge.”

In a song, “the bridge” is the musical passage that connects two parts of the composition. There are many wonderful examples of bridges in great music…so much so, that Billy Joel has a remarkable 80’s album named “The Bridge.” A beautiful “bridge” in the song “A Matter of Trust!”

A Feeling of Fall

by Danny Summers

We all live in different parts of the country, and I know for some, there may be one season that is dominant over the others. Areas in the farther parts of either north or south, you certainly can have much more extremes in either winter or summer months.

Karen and I have lived in North Georgia since the Fall of 1989. We moved from Central Florida and even today, we can remember so vividly our trip to Atlanta to look for a home. It was October, and what we were about to see was so different than what we were used to.

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.

What You Know Can Be Priceless

by Danny Summers

If you saw John Kennedy's blog message* last week here in GROUPtalk (Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience - Part 6), and if you followed the link to the full blog story version and watched John share his thoughts, you saw him refer to "Keeping Your Customer." He actually had details relating to each of the 4 letters in the word Keep.

His idea around the first letter "K" was about "Knowing Your Customer." This got me thinking... how much do Garden Centers know about the customer?

Celebrating with Signs!

by Tom Kegley

Signage in your Garden Center can be one of the most effective, efficient, and timely marketing tools in the toolbox. This year marks the 50th year of business for Fairview Greenhouses and Garden Center in Raleigh, NC. As part of the commemoration, I was proud and pleased to work with Fairview’s Heather Rollins to create a set of large format banners honoring Fairview founder, Jo Ann Dewar and the 3-generation tradition of the ‘Fairview Family’ she has dedicated her working life to (and still does to this day!)

In addition to banners featuring Jo Ann and family, we took the opportunity to update a series of banners used as backdrops to the shade perennials section of the garden center and entrance to the large greenhouse shopping area. Finally, a 50th-anniversary logo was created to enhance various messages throughout the year of celebration.

I Can Only Imagine...

by Danny Summers

It is not easy to envision how a garden may develop or how a group of plants should be planted, and ultimately how they will look in a couple of years. A common example is seeing how many plants are installed too close to the house, only to be moved or even removed entirely just a few years later.

We can Imagine what many, if not most, consumers stress about when making these decisions. And if we think of our newest audiences, those younger with even less experience in plants and working in their gardens, there may even be increased stress levels. Most importantly, this stress can lead to not buying and planting at all!

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.

An Observer & Difference Maker

by Danny Summers

We have talked before about how important it is to keep an attitude of Lifelong Learning and what we can call being An Observer. I often think about long-time Group friend and mentor, Ernest Wertheim and how he exemplified this idea. Even into his 80's and 90's Ernest was always An Observer to what was around him and what could be learned and improved upon. He was also one of the most positive and objective people I have ever met and he challenged us to think in new ways during every conversation.

Being forever a student or An Observer should apply to just about everything in our lives. I see it beginning as we first awake in the morning. Whether we are observing our health, the weather, our garden, or all the people and circumstances we experience throughout the day, each can provide an opportunity to be An Observer. And from this, we should consider ways we can be a positive influence.

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.

A Pattern of Five

by Danny Summers

Over the past week or so, a pattern has been emerging... A Pattern of Five!

Seeing the first major patterns then gave me the idea for this message to share today. But before I highlight the major ones that gave me this idea, I will first step back to some basic thoughts.

Retailers' Choice Awards at Cultivate'24

by Danny Summers

If you have ever been part of our Retailers' Choice Awards or Cool Product Awards, you know it is a wonderful hybrid of both fun and productivity. Meeting peer Centers at the end of the day to share what each has found and nominating products for awards can be like opening presents at Christmas... OK, maybe not quite that exciting, but close!

All the interactions surrounding each new plant or product help define why each should be considered the best for making the winning impressions. There is laughter, intrigue, and some great surprises along the way.

Monitoring Your Audience

by Danny Summers

As a Garden Center Owner or Manager, you are constantly in what we might call "observation mode" as you go through each week, watching in-store traffic, as plants and products move through. And all this is parallel to also studying your POS data, Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Year-to-Date against your budget and plans.

Group Owners and Managers have another important level of observation advantage, what is happening across The Group in peer Centers. The benefit of seeing peer Centers in the same region as well as regions that might be ahead of your area in the seasonal cycles, is a unique position. When are certain categories surging or falling off? When are traffic levels changing? And how does this all compare to or point to what you can watch for just a few weeks ahead in your Center?

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!”

Drilling Down for Higher Performance

by Danny Summers

We are excited to announce a whole new level of Awards that we will present at The Fall Event 2024. They have been developed through collaboration within The Group Team, particularly Tim Quebedeaux and Sid Raisch. In the last 3 years, the level of benchmarking through The Group's Annual P&L Study has become more detailed. For years, Group Centers were comparing themselves to Total Group Averages and then against the Best Practices Group Averages.

But, as the terms apply, these are Averages and within each of these groups, there are Centers that are higher and lower to produce the Average. But what about the best-performing Centers? Who is performing best?

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?”

Knowledge, Perspectives and Ideas!

by Danny Summers

The search for knowledge is as old as time itself. Mankind's earliest wonder was on things like how fire worked and how they could use it for their advantage. It is beyond comprehension how the quest for knowledge and level of learning over centuries has brought us to where we are today.

Just considering our industry and the study of Horticulture is a small example. And really, all the knowledge gained about the Plant Kingdom is no minor matter. And the search continues.

ReThink Marketing - Degradation

by Sid Raisch

Marketing Degradation - Marketing has become degraded to an undisciplined practice of rapid-fire social media posts with messages covering dozens if not hundreds of topics to the point that - there is no real net message, or benefit of creating them.

Let’s begin with the end in mind. The end in marketing is a purchase. I will come back to that notion.

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…

Studying Your Audience

by Danny Summers

As we have wrapped up spring in most regions the last few weeks, you now have the majority of your Spring 2024 Customer Data available to study. We can see in Week 22 of the WDR, year-to-date Average Sale remains virtually flat with this same week last year. But Transaction Counts year-to-date are down about -5%.

These compare to Average Sale being flat and Transaction Counts being +2.6% as of this week last year. And then end-of-year for 2023 being virtually even with Average Sale & Transaction Counts resulting in near-even sales against 2022.