Customer service is not a fire extinguisher

The bridge from plants leaving the nursery’s loading dock to arriving at the customer’s receiving bay is built long before the truck arrives at the destination. Before the journey even begins, the foundation must be laid through the customer service experience.

Transparent communication is the heartbeat of a successful customer service relationship. When a buyer knows exactly what is coming, and how and when it will arrive, transactions are smooth. When it’s as quiet as a silent night, customers are left guessing. And then, it’s time to put out fires, which is not a good experience for anybody.

I’ve been counseling on reputation management for decades and I’ve seen smart business leaders treat customer service like damage control. It can be mistaken for the department that handles late shipments, quality complaints and clerical errors. But customer service isn’t a fire extinguisher.

It’s a strategic marketing function that is centered on effective communication. Good customer service intentionally balances external messaging with internal operations. And that’s hard sometimes. It takes courage to provide transparency, especially when news from the field may not be 100% positive.

When it’s the outcome of not-so-great news, frustration for the client and the service manager is almost always found in an information gap. By providing transparent information upfront and all along the sale’s pipeline, resolution is baked into the process. Customers then have all the information they need to make their own business decisions.

Like the nursery trade, garden center buyers and landscape contractors manage a complex timetable where unknowns can be profoundly affected by the weather and other outside factors. If a landscape contractor is staging a multi-million dollar installation for a corporate campus, they don’t just need plants. They need certainty. From the nursery’s distribution schedules to the physical quality of the products, that customer’s success relies on the thoroughness of communication the nursery provides.

Out-of-sync service

Customer service is left to the client’s imagination when sales communications and marketing materials are vague or outdated. If customers are left to fill in the blanks with their own expectations, they probably won’t align with the reality of the nursery’s production. By using strategic marketing principles to provide concrete, real-time information, the ambiguity that leads to frustration is eliminated.

Customers feel a lack of control over the process when issues arise. Strategic marketing restores confidence. Improving customer service may begin with an audit of a typical order’s journey. Benchmarking what works and what could work better can remove blocks and improve processes, ultimately providing a roadmap.

In addition to issuing regular plant availability email blasts, consider sending out a production schedule that is based on the customer’s operational priorities. For a perennial grower, this may include hardening-off schedules or height measurements two to three weeks before shipment. It allows the retail manager to prepare bench space and the landscape contractor to adjust crew schedules based on the information the nursery provides.

Plant growers work in a visual industry. Nothing “sells” nursery plants better than quality photography and videography. Investing in images that tell the crop’s story without a single word is one of the best ways to improve customer service. When a customer sees with their own eyes the exact stage of a hydrangea’s bloom or the true caliper of a shade tree, the potential for dispute on delivery vanishes because a realistic expectation has been set.

Investing in professional plant photography and starting a YouTube channel with shareable links, for example, highlights the quality of the nursery and the vitality of the plants. Customers can see what they’re paying for because the nursery has built trust through transparency.

This approach also helps eliminate unpleasant surprises. If a certain variety of plant is running smaller than usual due to weather, marketing materials with visuals is a great way to state that clearly. This integrity builds a reputation for reliability that no amount of traditional customer service can replicate.

Plant growers work in a visual industry. Nothing “sells” nursery plants better than quality photography and videography.

Respect pays dividends

Efficiency is respect that pays dividends in long-term loyalty. Burying the “meat and potatoes” on websites and in marketing materials is a time consuming and frustrating experience for customers who need information quickly. On the other hand, providing in-depth detail makes it easy for them to do their jobs because service marketing information is smooth to use.

Is the plant inventory list an unsearchable PDF or a streamlined, live-link database? Is the nursery’s phone number obvious in marketing materials and at the top of the website? Is a hyperlinked button to the plant catalog visible on the website landing page? Is direct contact information for the sales team easy to find? These details are good first steps to providing effective customer service.

Strategic marketing also acts as a pressure valve during peak shipping windows. By using personalized, automated messaging, growers can keep customers informed of their orders, which reduces the need to check each one manually. An automated email that confirms or informs clients of their order’s status provides peace of mind and sets expectations for their receiving team.

There is nothing more damaging to customer service than production and marketing departments that are out of sync. Please don’t forget to communicate with the marketing team. Service failures happen when customers hear one thing from a sales representative and read something completely different in marketing materials. Constant feedback between the office and field is vital to ensure authentic communication that does not over-promise or mislead. Both functions must be able to rely on each other.

If the production team sees that a crop is exceeding quality standards, marketing should grab that success and run with it. On the flip-side, if a pest issue or weather event damages a specific crop, marketing must immediately adjust the message. Out-of-sync communications can lead to mistrust and potentially lost sales.

Once the heavy lifting of the shipping season subsides, use the nursery’s marketing channels — e-blasts, blogs, social media posts and the like — to share key learnings from the season. What varieties were the season’s top performers? Did the nursery exceed quality and safety benchmarks? What plants may be strong sales leaders in the next growing season? What plant care information can be provided in an engaging format, one that customers can easily share with their clients?

Commitment to education

This level of communication provides trusted content. It shows the nursery’s commitment to education about the plants it grows. When customers see that a nursery is investing in operations that better inform and serve them, they are more likely to remain loyal.

Customer (and, therefore, consumer) education is our industry’s best friend. A nursery’s commitment to service marketing includes keeping up on industry trends. This puts the plant grower in the enviable position of consultant.

Say there’s a new market trend regarding waterwise plants or there’s something unique happening with native landscapes. What plants does the nursery grow that might meet the needs of garden center customers? For example, a blog post or email newsletter from the nursery may identify white gardens as a consumer trend and give detailed information about white varieties it grows.

Customer service uses strategic communications to think “five steps ahead” about where the customer is headed next. This level of service positions the nursery as a leader and moves the conversation away from price to value. If, for example, the nursery can tell a landscape professional why a specific cultivar of oak is better suited to mitigate the increasing urban heat island effect, it has provided a service that transcends the invoice.

Many businesses have gone away from “customer service” to “customer care” and this is a good approach. It better explains the goal of the experience and the business’ commitment to their customer. Ultimately, the goal of using marketing communications to improve customer service is to build a more resilient business.

Trust built through strategic communications during the good times becomes the greatest asset during difficult ones. When leadership prioritizes external messaging with internal operations, it ensures the nursery is known for its transparency and reliability as well as its inventory.

Sue Markgraf is a veteran journalist and industry marketing professional with decades of experience in strategic communications for the horticulture and agriculture industries. Contact her at  smarkgraf@greenmarkpr.com.