Ongoing research into the recently discovered evolutionary failure known as Florasaurus and the fate of its successful offshoot the Flora Futurus has lead to a fierce debate in the scientific community.
One side judges the Florasaurus quite harshly - considering it a pitiable creature that was too slow or too scared to follow the Flora Futurus on the path to success. Other scientists are much more complimentary, believing the Florasaurus was ruined by it's own good intentions.
One noted researcher explains. "The Florasaurus cared passionately about not only their craft, but their customers and the service they provided. This is something to be admired, and it could have been the foundation of their long term success."
For example, the Florasaurus knew its customers, their preferences, their buying habits, and also the expectations of recipients. It used that information to serve them well.
The problem was that the head Florasaurus was the only one that had the information - the only person the customers wanted to deal with. If the customer could not reach the Florasaurus directly the customer lacked the confidence to order. As a result the Florasaurus really could never step away from the daily operations to plan for the future. The knowledge of the customers did not scale across their business, leading to inconsistent service.
The Florasaurus also lacked the ability to reach out and communicate with customers. When customers called the Florasaurus was great. When it was time to reach out and talk to customers the Florasaurus just didn't have the means do it.
The Florasaurus had a loyal and committed customer base but those
customers were inundated with new ways of buying flowers. The Florasaurus failed at maintaining "top of mind awareness" with people who at one point had been loyal customers. By the time customers had tried the new channels and been disappointed they had forgotten all about the Florasaurus.
How did others survive? Technology was a key component. There were software programs that allowed the Flora Futurus to keep track of their customers and make this information available to all of their employees. This meant that a new employee could service a customer as if they had been dealing with them for years. Technology also allowed them to raise the level of service by offering services such as delivery confirmations by e-mail.
There were also sophisticated marketing solutions that allowed florists to quickly, easily and affordably create professional marketing campaigns that would have reinforced their relationship with the customer while increasing sales. The Florasaurus could have used these tools to remind their customers that there were better options for flowers than grocery stores, direct shippers and order-gatherers.
Sadly it seems that the Florasaurus didn't explore these opportunities. Maybe they weren't interested, maybe they were a too overwhelmed. All too often they likely put it off one day at a time because they were focussed solely on looking after the things they cared so passionately about.
Whatever the case the end result was the same - extinction.
