Freedom Within Limits: Building Resilience by Honing Customer Expectations

Currant branches, white daffodils, and yellow tulips arranged in a brown ceramic vase on a wooden table

How realistic is it for a customer to expect an exact replica of something they found on Pinterest?  In general, I think it’s completely unreasonable.  Nowadays, with AI becoming increasingly prevalent (and at times harder to detect), the average consumer lacking key knowledge about flowers like seasonality and genetics, and ongoing political shifts that may affect product sourcing, this has the potential to become a bigger issue.  So, I really don’t care for Pinterest, at least when it comes to flowers.

Our society’s obsession with perfection is a recipe for burnout.  It’s not that we shouldn’t strive for excellence, but rather that we can only achieve excellent results within the limits of the world around us.  For flower professionals like us, the challenge is bridging customers’ expectations with the realities of working with perishable materials.  There is a substantial mental load in sourcing high quality flowers, whether it’s because large industrial farms are still recovering from the early years of COVID-19 or because we are uncertain how new tariffs may unfold in the global floral industry.  On top of this, costs across all sectors are on the rise.  There is immense pressure in juggling product quality, availability, pricing, and sales against customer expectations.  From predatory wire services to strict recipes, florists can feel trapped in a world that prioritizes speed and predictability over sustainability and creativity.

How many times have you sat down after a long day with the intention of unwinding with a movie, only to find that you spent so much time combing through the extensive volume of choices that you decided to call it a night and head to bed without making a decision?  As a former teacher and current parent of little kids, this is exactly why the phrase “freedom within limits”  has been a longtime mantra of mine.  Providing choice is important, but expecting a person who is not a flower expert to sign off on every design choice is a recipe for decision fatigue and frustration.  Everyone benefits when their options are curated in relation to the core values, boundaries, and natural limits of the system in which they function.  

Here are a few ways we implement and maintain limits in our studio offerings while maintaining ample customer freedom:

Values-Based Spending: Every purchase we make for our business is an opportunity to signal what matters most to us.  For me, fair conditions for farm workers and eco-conscious growing practices are at the top of the list.  By using cut flowers that are grown (1) in our own local community, (2) without harmful pesticides, and (3) by farmers who are paid a living wage, I’m signaling to my customers that my ethos is a main feature of my brand.  Even if a customer asks for something out of season, I politely decline the request.  That’s because putting my core values at the center of my business attracts my ideal customers – those who share my vision of a more sustainable, ethical world.  And often, those who share these values become the most loyal, repeat buyers.

Price Bins: This is an easy way to protect and value your time and labor.  Having a limited set of price points a customer can choose – $60, $90, $120, and $150, for example -- makes it easy to work backward with the locally grown material in your cooler based on the pricing formula you use in your shop.

Flexible Designs: When you are no longer tethered by rigid recipe requests, you will be free to get creative with what is in season where you live.  There are so many ways to set limits for your designs, depending on what your personal boundaries are.  In my studio, every arrangement is “designer’s choice”. (I often say that I want my customers to feel as though we had just strolled through my gardens together, picking the items that looked freshest and smelled the sweetest.)  This automatically makes your designs more sustainable because it allows you to focus on what you already have or what is readily available nearby, thus reducing shrink from unused product.

Education to Hone Expectations: Local flowers are fresher, more fragrant, and often more interesting.  But beyond that, one of my favorite parts of being both a grower and a buyer of local flowers is that it provides a face, name, and story to the hardworking families behind the flowers in my designs.  Our customers aren’t usually flower experts, so it’s our job to teach them why our options may be more limited than they’ve experienced in the past, or why our prices may be a bit higher.  In turn, this nurtures deeper, more permanent customer relationships.  The people who come to truly care about you and your business will be the ones spreading word-of-mouth referrals.

Implementing some or all of these ideas in your floral business will take time, and depending on your customer base, it may not be easy.  Not everyone who reaches out to buy flowers will be your ideal customer, and it is okay to say no to requests that don’t fit into your business model.  Nonetheless, taking the time to realign your business practices with your core values and boundaries will reduce burnout and increase resilience.