Occasion Reminders: Make Automated Marketing Personal

Every April, a few days before the 18th, the same man rings for his mum's birthday. A £45 hand-tie, whatever's looking good that week, to the same house. Every shop has a dozen customers like him, and most of them would happily order with you again. The year he doesn't ring is usually the year an advert for letterbox flowers reached him first.

An occasion reminder is how you beat the advert to it. The good ones sound like the question a regular hears at the counter ("Isn't it your mum's birthday soon?") and arrive while there's still time to order. The bad ones are sales emails with a first name pasted on top, and they get unsubscribed from.

Which Dates Are Worth Remembering?

Start with the dates customers hand you without being asked. When someone orders for a birthday or an anniversary, the date is right there on the order, along with the recipient, the address, what they chose and roughly what they spent. You don't need a survey. You need whoever is taking the order to note that it happens every year.

Birthdays and anniversaries are the obvious ones. Less obvious, and often worth more: the office that sends a client a thank-you arrangement every December, the husband whose only order all year is Valentine's Day, the daughter who never misses Mother's Day. Those last two are peak orders. A reminder that lands before the rush gets the order in the diary while you can still plan the stems for it.

Sympathy is different. Some customers would welcome a quiet note before an anniversary so they can send flowers to the family or the grave. Plenty of others would be upset to hear from a shop about it at all. Never set these up by default. Only add one when the customer asks, and keep the wording short and gentle.

Write Down What You'll Need Next Year

A date on its own makes a vague message. A useful reminder needs the details a good florist would remember anyway:

• who it's for, by first name
• the occasion and the date
• what they had last time, and roughly what it cost
• anything they've told you, such as "no lilies" or "she loves yellow"
• whether they'd rather hear from you by email or text

Check the spelling while the customer is still on the phone. A reminder about "Mum's birthday" attached to the wrong recipient is worse than no reminder at all, and a name spelt wrong two years running looks careless.

In Digital Florists, the customer profile in Orders keeps order history and special dates together, so whoever answers the phone next year can see last year's hand-tie and the address without asking again. Digital Florists Notifications sends the occasion reminder from a template you write yourself, with details like the customer's name filled in for you.

If you're still deciding what belongs on a customer record, our guide to personalisation in floristry starts with the details florists already notice while taking an order.

Say It the Way You Would at the Counter

Read the reminder out loud. If you wouldn't say it to a regular standing at the till, rewrite it.

Useful: "Hi Sarah, Rachel's birthday is on 9 May. Last year you sent her a pink hand-tie for about £50. Would you like us to put something together again? Reply to this email and we'll sort it."

Not useful: "Birthday flowers! 20% off this week only. Order now."

The first one reminds Sarah of something she cares about and gives her an easy way to say yes. It doesn't assume she wants the same flowers (tastes change, and so do budgets). The second could have come from any shop in the country, or from a supermarket.

Keep it short. One occasion, one detail from last time and an easy next step. Any more than that and it starts to feel as though you've been keeping a file on her.

Send It Before Your Cut-Off

There's no single right number of days. Work backwards from how your own shop runs. How far ahead do you order special stems from the wholesaler? When do the delivery slots fill up in the week before Mother's Day? Does a corporate client need a few days to get an order signed off?

A birthday hand-tie for a local address and 30 office arrangements don't need the same lead time. Pick a starting point for each kind of order, then adjust it from what happens. If replies keep saying "already sorted, thanks", send earlier next time.

Ask First, and Make It Easy to Stop

Ask customers whether they'd like reminders and tell them what you'll send. Keep a note of the answer. Every marketing message needs a clear way to opt out, and when someone uses it, the shop has to honour it. In Digital Florists you can turn messages off on a customer's profile. Invoices and statements still go out, but marketing and update messages stop.

UK GDPR and the electronic marketing rules depend on who you're contacting, what you're sending and the permission you hold. Don't take your legal basis from a blog post, ours included. Check the ICO's current guidance, and take advice on your own setup if you need it.

How to Tell If It's Working

Keep score for each batch. Four numbers are enough: how many reminders went out, how many people replied or clicked, how many orders followed and how many opted out. If the opt-outs climb, the wording or the timing is off.

Read the replies as well, because they tell you more than the numbers do. "Thanks, I'd completely forgotten" means the reminder did its job. "Who's Rachel?" means a record needs fixing. Customers notice when a shop's messages are useful. Gemma Wakerley owns Booker Flowers in Liverpool, and the photo of the flowers that goes out on delivery regularly gets a mention in her customers' reviews.

Start With One Kind of Date

Don't try to remember everything at once. Pick birthdays or anniversaries, collect clean details for a month, then send one small batch and read every reply before you add more occasions.

The software only does the sending. What Sarah notices is a shop that remembered Rachel's birthday, the pink hand-tie and the £50 budget, even on a morning when the person who usually takes her call is off.

Want to see customer dates and messages in one place? Book a demo.