Art Conforti, PFCI
Over 35 Years of Floral Retailing
My father was a florist. He worked very hard and taught me many important lessons about running a business that I still think about and use every single day. One of the best pieces of advice he ever gave me was that there are two types of service that people will never forget: exceptional and horrible.
Most customer service today falls somewhere in the middle -mundane and routine- but that has never been my style. I wanted each and every one of my customers to have that unforgettable exceptional experience that they couldn’t get anywhere else in town! I wanted a buzz around my shop and wanted it to be the most fun and exciting place in town to work or shop. My goal wasn’t just to sell flowers, I wanted to provide a first class experience. That’s why I never stopped searching for new ways to excite my customers and keep them coming back for more.
Beneva Flowers was built on the foundation of quality products promoted with creative marketing. To me, they are equally as important and one cannot be fully successful without the other. I knew that I had to dedicate as many resources as I possibly could to marketing, even if I couldn’t afford to buy fancy television commercials or radio advertisements. I had to get the word out about my new shop somehow, I had to get people excited about buying flowers. Most importantly, I had to find some creative ways to do so!
Teleflora Technology Board member for over 10 years
Created Flower Manager: a floral retailing application used in over 75 markets
Created Floral Prodigy: telephony and integrated POS systems for the retail floral industry
Created FloralApp: the #1 most used mobile application in the floral industry
Created Retailing Unleashed: unlocking the retail potential and creativity of local businesses.
A lifetime of Leadership in the floral industry
After 25 years in business, earning many achievements and growing to be recognized as a Top 50 Retail Florist in an industry that includes over 18,000 florists, Art’s clear determination for quality and excellence has been recognized by many different organizations.
Conforti was awarded “40 Under 40” Top Business People in Sarasota, Philanthropist of the Year, Boss of the Year, and was voted #1 Florist by Sarasota Magazine and the Sarasota Herald Tribune Reader's Choice Awards for fourteen consecutive years. He was also honored by the Society of American Florists as one of its “Stars of the Industry.”
Currently, Art devotes his time to helping florists and other small business owners take control of their business through a special formula of smart digital marketing strategies and outstanding customer service.
Art was honored at the SAF Stars of the Industry Award Dinner in Palm Beach, FL in 2017.
Certified PFCI Floral Business Educator
Art is a proud member of Professional Floral Communicators – International (PFCI), a network of professional floral business educators certified by SAF.
PFCI is the service mark of the floral industry’s leading floral educators. As an active member of PFCI, Art has proven - through education and experience - his ability to speak authoritatively about topics pertinent to the floral industry, such as the principles and elements of floral design, the proper care and handling of flowers, and effective business management techniques.
Yes we can
Customer service is a dying art. For many people it means doing just enough to earn that five-star review, but for me it meant never saying ‘no’ to a customer’s request and doing whatever I possibly could to exceed their expectations. The key is listing to the customer, finding a solution and then letting the customer decide if it’s worth the additional cost. If someone called me and wanted a delivery at midnight I had two choices: tell them no and remind them that we don’t deliver that late, or say “yes we can” (for an additional fee) and let them decide from there. We charged an additional $50 for delivery that late and I offered my drivers half so I never had a problem finding someone willing to make the delivery. Best of all, we found a solution for the customer and didn’t just tell them ‘no’ like everyone else.
24-Hour Delivery
One of the first decisions I made at Beneva was to stay open seven days a week and hire delivery drivers who would deliver 24 hours a day! Nobody else in town was doing that, but I made sure to let people know they had a place to go buy flowers when everyone else was closed.
Of course, our shop wasn’t actually open 24 hours, but we made sure to have phone agents available around the clock and delivery drivers on call after we closed each evening so we could truly deliver at any hour if needed.
We charged accordingly for after-hour delivery and customers were thrilled to have the option of having their flowers hand-delivered any time they wished. This was back before you could order online - your only options were to visit the store in person or order over the phone. When someone called my phone, I made sure it was going to get answered - no matter what time it was!
community involvement
There are so many innovative ways to advertise and market your business and most of them come with a price. I’ve always said that my best investment at Beneva was the one I made in my community. I was involved, I sponsored everything I could and showed up to every event under the sun as long as they’d let me bring some flowers - who can say no to that?
I went on local morning talk shows, I randomly dropped off beautiful bouquets unannounced at local businesses and made sure everyone in town knew all these beautiful flowers were not just ordinary flowers - they were Beneva Flowers!
Spot-a-van
Our delivery vans also served as mobile billboards because I had them all wrapped so that everyone who saw one driving around town knew exactly what it was. I also made sure my phone number was big and bold and visible from every angle. I wanted to create an excitement about seeing our vans out and about so I started a promotion where anyone who saw one of our vans driving around could take a picture and tag us on their social media accounts for a free gift card. The value of the card was a mystery and the recipient had to come into the shop to pick it up - and I like my odds when someone is standing inside my beautiful shop with a gift card in their hand! The promotion also worked well to keep the drivers focused and safe because they knew people were encouraged to take photos of them. That was never an issue though, my drivers knew how important delivery and presentation was in the overall experience and knew their role was just as important as everyone else who handled a particular order.
www.benevaflowers.com
I have always been an early-adopter when it comes to new technology. I love tinkering with new gadgets and I’m constantly looking for fun and exciting ways to interact with my customers. I was one of the first florists in the world to have my own website when I debuted www.benevaflowers.com back in 1995 and became one of Google’s first customers when they were founded three years later. At the time, a website seemed like a frivolous novelty in the floral industry where most transactions were done over the phone, but it completely changed the way we buy flowers today.
BALTIMORE ORIOLES SPRING TRAINING
As a huge sports fan, I’m always going to games and looking for opportunities to market to new audiences! One of my favorite partnerships took place every spring when the Baltimore Orioles came to town for spring training. I figured since the birds were playing in paradise, why not give away Birds of Paradise to every fan on Opening Day? We also gave away a bouquet to one random fan at every single game. People were there to have fun and I wanted to be a part of that. It also didn’t hurt to have thousands of people see my flowers make someone so happy live on the jumbotron.
mall kiosk
Our website quickly became one of my greatest tools because I could showcase all of the beautiful designs we create at the shop and people could get a good visual of what they were sending. Smartphones weren’t around yet in those early days - it even predates Wi-Fi, so online access was typically limited to a hardwired connection We had our website I wanted to make it as fun and easy as possible for everyone to order flowers from Beneva and the local mall was one of the hottest spots in town. I knew it wasn’t feasible to set up shop and sell flowers from the mall, so I rented some space and put up my very own Beneva Flowers kiosk in the middle of the mall! It looked like an arcade game and earned second glances when people walked by.
Helping Hands
Helping Hands is a unique fundraising program we designed as a way to continuously give something back to our community all year long. Through this program, Beneva Flowers donated 5% on every dollar spent to one or more of our participating organizations that included local charities, schools and other non-profit organizations that were important to our customers who could choose where their donation would go.
cooler cam
Live cameras are everywhere! You can visit the beach in real time or check out the happenings of your favorite osprey nest from anywhere in the world. But what if you could peek in on your local florist and see what amazing bouquets they have available in their cooler? You can do that with Cooler Cam!
Cooler Cam was more than a camera in the corner of our fresh flower cooler, it was one of the original online sales tools. For the first time in the history, customers could not only log in to our website and see what was available 24 hours a day, but they could also select a specific bouquet and purchase it online to pick it up later.
I was very specific when it came to hiring floral designers. They either “had it,” or they didn’t. In their downtime, I challenged each and every one of them to put their skills to the test. - they were fantastic! It didn’t take long for it to become a well-mannered contest to see who could design the best bouquet They knew the world was watching!