4 Methods for Building Sympathy Florals in Your Business
As floral designers, we pride ourselves on being able to capture life's special moments and enhance them with beautiful flowers. We’re passionate about helping people celebrate important moments in life. Although we commonly associate those moments with weddings, anniversaries, holidays, and new beginnings, one of the most important celebrations of life is the celebration that happens when a life passes. Sympathy floral designs can be a powerful way to love others through flowers in some of the most vulnerable moments.
Studies have proven that flowers both comfort and express emotion. Humans can use flowers to speak the words that are hard to find in times of tragedy and great loss. While creating floral designs for funerals can seem intimidating, the power of flowers is demonstrated every time a life is tragically or unexpectedly taken or when a community experiences a significant loss. One only needs to remember the nearly half-million bouquets equaling some 60 million stems that were placed outside the royal palaces during the days following the sudden death of Princess Diana. The world was in mourning—and the language that universally shared the message of grief was spoken with flowers.
Using flowers to celebrate the passing of life is a ritual dating back thousands of years. The tradition of sending flowers to grieving family members, as we do today, continues to evolve as new generations discover new ways to celebrate the life and memories of loved ones lost.
Traditional brick-and-mortar flower shops have a long history of servicing funeral flower needs, and many have made servicing this market an essential part of their businesses. As the floral industry changes and more unconventional floral businesses emerge, it's only natural that new ways to conduct the business of selling funeral flowers changes along with it.
It's certainly safe to say that having a traditional brick-and-mortar flower shop lends itself to sympathy work, as the requirements of filing this type of order are easily done during typical business hours and by those who have access to quantities of flowers at any given time.
For the studio or home-based floral business, meeting these challenges can make the service a bit more difficult—but not so much that it can’t be done. Here are a few tips to consider when deciding if you want to expand your offerings to include Celebration of Life flowers.
1. Be Available to Provide Floral Designs for Funerals
Death is an unexpected occurrence. Unlike weddings and planned events where you’re given advance notice and can plan, funerals quite often take place at the most inopportune time or when you’re at your busiest. If you’re going to offer this service, you need to make yourself available whenever it is required and—at the very least—during daily business hours. Turning away orders because you didn't have enough notice will come across as unprofessional, especially if you promote to offer this service. Eventually, the reputation of not being available will filter into how people view your other areas of service as well.
2. Accessibility to Flowers Is Key for Sympathy Floral Design
In many cases, families will want to customize their floral tributes, and being able to offer a variety of flowers that reflect the departed's life is essential. Only having wedding "left-over's" available will limit what you can offer and will most likely lead to losing a sale to someone who can accommodate the family's floral needs. Build relationships with your local floral wholesaler so you can secure the necessary flowers you'll need to create lovely floral tributes at any given notice.
3. Get to Know Your Local Funeral Directors
It's a very competitive business, and retail flower shops have the advantage of an established history and relationship, but that doesn't mean you don't have a shot. If your work is deserving, you provide a needed service, and you are willing to work with the funeral director, chances are the door of opportunity will open. Be persistent and professional and always exceed expectations. You may have to prove yourself, but you do that with every new customer, so don't let that stop you.
4. Promote Your Sympathy Floral Design Services
If you don't tell people you offer this service, how will they know? Funerals, just like weddings, are a gateway to building relationships with flower-buying families. Apply the same creative and expert principles and services to the families ordering funeral flowers that you do for your brides and grooms, and you will create lifelong customers who come to you for all their future celebrations.
