Blooming Beyond Bounds: Unveiling the Art of Exceptional Customer Service with Sam Bowles
With Vonda working the AIFD workroom, Lori and Ellie welcome a guest they've been chasing for a year: Sam Bowles, General Manager and Creative Director of Allen's Flowers in San Diego — five locations, with a sixth opening this summer. Sam is a former English teacher, a natural storyteller, and one of the sharpest customer service minds in the industry, and this episode is packed with tips your whole sales team should hear.
From phone room to five shops
Sam's path into flowers started like so many: seasonal holiday help. He was hired at a big Louisville, Kentucky flower shop on February 1st just to answer phones, and had "about the flower knowledge of the average human being" — he knew what a rose was, maybe a lily. But he had a knack for it, kept it as his grad school side hustle, and rose to helping manage the call center. A family friend — Tim Huckabee of FloralStrategies, whose training shaped much of what Sam teaches today — connected him to a shop management job in Queens when he moved to New York. After a couple of years traveling and training florists himself, he gave his original dream a shot and taught 11th grade composition in Manhattan. It was during spring break of that teaching year, doing sales coaching at Allen's Flowers, that owner Brad asked: what if the partner I need was you? Three months later Sam and his girlfriend drove a packed Scion xB from Manhattan to San Diego. This August marks seven years.
His management style traces back to his church upbringing: lead with empathy instead of ego. When he arrived at Allen's, longtime employees were petrified of the young hotshot manager — so he took time to be part of the team and learn the processes before changing anything. He earned respect before he had to assert it, and he still sees himself as an ambassador with one foot in the ownership camp and one foot with the employees.
Tip one: good customer service is being a good listener
Customer service isn't just fixing problems after you've messed up — it's the entire journey, including how you take the order. And inappropriate suggestions aren't just bad sales, Sam says; they're bad service. If a caller pours out a story about a best friend's big promotion and you answer with "our arrangements start at $65," you weren't listening. As he puts it with his favorite restaurant analogy: when you tell a server it's your anniversary, they don't respond by pointing out the cheapest thing on the menu.
His practical tool: give every salesperson a chart pricing arrangements from a dozen roses to 100, so they can latch onto the numbers in a customer's story — "What I heard is you're celebrating a 25th anniversary. What if our design team creates a custom arrangement featuring 25 long-stem roses?" Customers aren't insulted by a $300 suggestion; they're flattered you listened, and they love the symbolism.
Tip two: give more advice
Your customers already see you as the expert — the same way Sam looks to the baker or the solar installer for a recommendation. So make recommendations. Use power phrases like "what I recommend" and "what I might suggest," on the phone, in the store, and in wedding consultations. Don't ask the customer how many bud vases their farm table needs; tell them: "Your table seats 30 — I'd recommend we scatter at least 25 bud vases down it."
It even explains the Valentine's rut. Guys order a dozen red roses because florists ask people who know nothing about flowers what they want, and they name the only thing culture ever taught them. Instead, be the expert: "Awesome — what most customers are doing is our premium dozen, the same twelve long-stem roses made extra special by..." Nobody gets mad at the $50 upgrade; they're thrilled their bouquet wasn't like everyone else's at the office.
Tip three: offer the wow
The "wow" is the special stuff we're afraid to mention because of the price tag. Allen's sells an arrangement called Wow Roses — 100 roses in a vase "the size of a toddler" — for $500. It used to be a Valentine's-only product until Sam realized it costs $0 to leave it on the website year-round. Now, in a luxury section online, there are ordinary summer weeks when they sell five or six. When their downtown store started displaying big $300 focal arrangements purely as "marketing," the arrangements kept selling within two days.
The worst that can happen is the customer says, "that's a little more than I wanted to spend today — tell me about something else." Don't let the one-in-a-hundred grump dictate the rule; Sam's biggest critique of florists is becoming order takers who allow the exceptions to talk them out of serving the other 99 well.
Hiring, empowering, and protecting your team
On hiring, Sam is honest: after ten-plus years, there's no surefire way to spot a great hire in an interview. What matters is setting crystal-clear expectations and using trial periods — holidays are perfect for a four-to-five-week seasonal commitment that lets both sides test the fit. He empowers his store managers to interview for their own teams, and he gives his customer service staff a daily "get out of jail free card": hand Sam the worst ticket of the day, no questions asked. They rarely use it, but knowing the fallback exists built their confidence. And when a customer is terrible, he'll pull up the order and show the team the apology card message: hurt people hurt people — "you did everything right; that person is the one with the problem."
Key takeaways
- Listen for the story and the numbers in every order, and reflect them back in your suggestion — build a rose price chart so staff can do it on the fly.
- Lead with "what I recommend" — giving advice positions you as the expert and raises the sale.
- Keep high-end products visible year-round online and in-store; it costs nothing and the wow sells itself.
- Never open with "our arrangements start at..." — it's the mark of an order taker.
- Use holiday trial periods for hiring, and give your service team a safety net so tough customers don't burn them out.
Catch Sam presenting on five-star customer experiences at the SAF Profit Blast in Boston on Sunday, July 23 — a great session to attend with your whole team.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist