Why 1800 Flowers Should Hire Our 24 Hour Telephone Answering Service

Valentine’s Day has come and gone and here at A Courteous Communications, we hope you all enjoyed the lover’s holiday. Reading over the headlines in the news, we learned that hundreds of customers were less than pleased with 1-800-Flowers this Valentine’s Day. We wanted to discuss why we believe that if they had hired our 24 hour telephone answering service, February 14^th would have gone a little more smoothly for their customers.

How our 24 hour telephone answering service could have helped

More flowers are sold and delivered on Valentine’s Day than any other day out of the year. One can expect floral shops and on-line delivery services to be in high demand and in full operation come February 14^th. Just like Christmas Eve is the most important day for Santa, Valentine’s Day is the most important day for 1-800-Flowers.

This year, however, there were hundreds of tweets, FB posts and blogs published from angry customers that faced a rude realization that their valentines would be ignored and placed on hold while the telephone lines backed up with angry callers.

Can’t Come to the Phone; Busy Delivering Smiles?

Our live receptionist service agents were in shock to learn that callers were not helped with their telephone and on-line orders when they called 1-800-Flowers. How can such a large company not have the telecommunication resources to be available for their paying clients?

One angry customer told the NY Daily News that his wife missed out on a beautiful bouquet when the flowers didn’t arrive at her office as planned on V-Day. After placing the order on February 4^th and forking out $200 for the arrangement, Darin’s wife told him that she did not receive the shipment. “He called 1-800-Flowers right away, but it was no use. No matter what option you choose on their telephone tree, it basically said they were ‘busy delivering smiles’ and could not answer the phone.”

In today’s modern age of 24 hour service, there is no reason why any company should not be able to attend to their calling customers. When just one customer brings your business $200, your business cannot afford to be unavailable for customer service complaints and concerns.

If We Handled Their Phone and Order Processing

If our live receptionist service answered Darin’s call, we would have handled that important call a lot differently. Our custom telephone answering services would have:

• Answered his call within the first two rings;
• Listened to his complaint with empathy and compassion;
• Apologized profusely for the delay in delivery;
• Detailed the circumstances for the non-delivery;
• Taken a detailed message with any alternative delivery instructions;
• Apologized once more to try and mend the relationship with our customer’s customer.

45 Minutes on Hold?!

When looking at 1-800-Flowers Facebook page, you may become dizzy with all the posts by disgruntled customers. It seems 1-800-Flowers is in need of some serious customer service care that a 24 hour telephone answering service like A Courteous Communications can offer.

Emilie shared, “Spent 45 mins on hold and spoke to a woman with very broken English that could not even get my name right… only offer was to resend.”

If our live receptionist service had answered Emilie’s call, we would have:

• Answered her call within the first two rings;
• Never would have placed her on hold for 45 minutes;
• Provided native English speaking representatives from our call center here in Orlando, Florida;
• Confirmed the spelling and pronunciation of her name and contact information;
• Inquired how we can make the situation better and noted what it would take for 1-800-Flowers to make her a satisfied and happy customer.

Annoying Commercials Played While Holding the Line

When you have spent your hard earned money on a product or service, you naturally demand that you get what you pay for; and, that you are able communicate with the seller when you don’t get what you paid for. Unfortunately, it seems that not only were the Valentine customers placed on hold for an inexcusable amount of time, they were also forced to listen to commercials selling more products of the company.

Becky shared, “[When calling in] you can expect to listen to extremely annoying commercials while they keep you on hold while they don’t fix your problem.”

If our order processing and customer service team had answered Becky’s call, we would have:

• Answered her call within the first two rings;
• Never would have placed her on hold to listen to commercials while she was upset;
• Apologized for her dissatisfaction and offered to help solve the issue;
• Used elite customer service techniques to calm her down and listen to her complaints and concerns.  

When a customer is calling to complain about a product or service, it is the duty of the company to provide empathetic and compassionate customer service agents to listen and provide any support available. Most of the time, people who feel wronged just want to have their complaints heard. If they are able to take their frustrations out on one of our virtual receptionists, they are less likely to go on a social media mission to badmouth your company.

1-800-Flowers, Our 24 Hour Telephone Answering is Here For You!

Replace your current 24 hour telephone answering service, 1-800-Flowers with our award winning customer service agents. Let us help you mend these relationships and provide your callers with elite service, attention and pre-discussed solutions. Your customer service should match your amazing reputation for delivering amazing arrangements. We want to help!