iMessage for florists

Flowers have a structural problem: the person paying is almost never the person receiving. The buyer cannot see whether it arrived, whether it looked right, or whether the recipient was pleased — and that uncertainty is the thing they are actually anxious about.

Photograph the arrangement before it leaves

One photo, sent to the buyer before the van goes, resolves nearly all of that. It shows the money was well spent, it catches a mismatch before delivery rather than after, and it is the single most-forwarded message a florist sends.

export const order = {
  ready: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.shop}: ${c.recipient}'s flowers are made up — photo attached. ` +
    `Out for delivery ${c.window}. Card reads: "${c.cardMessage}"`,
 
  // The card message is worth reading back. Typos in it are unforgivable
  // and entirely preventable.
  delivered: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.shop}: delivered at ${c.time}, ${c.receivedBy}. ` +
    `Hope it goes down well.`,
 
  noAnswer: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.shop}: nobody in at ${c.address}. We've ${c.action}. ` +
    `Want us to try again tomorrow, or leave them somewhere?`,
};

The four days that matter

Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and the two or three local peaks either side of them will produce more volume than the rest of the quarter. Messaging helps in two specific ways, and both need doing in advance.

1. 01Take orders early, by text, from last year's customers. They bought from you before, they will buy again, and they will forget until it is too late. A single message ten days out captures a large share of them.
2. 02Set delivery expectations honestly. On Valentine's Day a window is a hope, not a promise. Say 'sometime on the day' and over-deliver, rather than promising morning and failing.

Weddings are a months-long thread

Wedding flowers behave like catering rather than retail — a long conversation, moving details, and a hard date. Keep it in one thread, confirm the final stem count and colours in writing, and send a photo of the finished work before it goes to the venue.