The Subtle Art of Substitutions with Abby Chick
"It didn't look like the picture." If that customer complaint sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Vonda and Lori welcome back one of their favorite Cliquers, Abby Chick, owner of Blakemore's Flowers in Harrisonburg, Virginia, to preview her masterclass The Subtle Art of Substitutions — and to explain why swapping flowers well is about far more than trading a rose for a rose.
Why substitutions are a profit skill, not just a design skill
On its face, substitution sounds like design training. But as Abby puts it, it sits at the heart of sustainability and profitability: using what you have on hand, buying less, and avoiding complaints. Abby noticed she hadn't had an "it didn't look like the picture" complaint in a very long time — so she and Vonda reverse-engineered why. The answer was her whole approach to substituting and how she trains her staff on it, which became the masterclass.
The world has changed, too. Ten or twenty years ago, customers came into the shop and flipped through a catalog. Today, as Abby says, the vast majority of customers have seen a picture online and have an image in their head before they ever call. That demands a different approach: learning to see flowers the way the consumer sees them — color palette, look, and feel — instead of the way designers are trained to see them.
Take your designer hat off
Lori, the resident non-designer and self-appointed voice of the consumer, offers the customer's-eye view: too much flower jargon overwhelms the buyer and derails the conversation. What the customer actually wants to hear is that you can deliver the same look, color, vibrancy, and style. And she echoes a rule Vonda has always taught: you never have to say "no, we don't have that." There's always a substitution — the skill is selling the excitement of what you do have.
That connects to the website disclaimer nearly every shop uses — "florist reserves the right to make suitable substitutions." Abby's warning: what's suitable to you may be completely different from what's suitable to your customer, and that gap is where complaints live. Her masterclass digs into the judgment calls: when to lean on the disclaimer, when to pick up the phone, and how the answer changes based on the design, the price point, how the order was placed, and whether the missing flower is the star of the show. When Lori presses her on the classic scenario — the website arrangement starring three bright pink peonies you don't have — Abby's honest answer is that there's no blanket rule, which is exactly why the training exists.
The zinnia problem: matching the look, not the recipe
Abby shares a perfect real-world example from an online florist forum: a designer priced out an inspiration photo flower-by-flower — 17 zinnias and all — and landed at $185, then asked how others would price it. Abby's take: the real skill isn't pricing the exact recipe, it's having the substitution confidence to deliver that look and feel closer to the customer's actual budget. "I can only do it for this because I can only follow the exact recipe" is a skills gap, not a pricing problem.
That same skill powers wedding and event work: recreating an inspiration photo in a completely different season with none of the same flowers, or shifting a beloved look into a new palette. If you design for customers at all — daily work, events, weddings — you need to produce something they'll love no matter what's in your cooler.
Train the whole team in the summer slump
The conversation lands during the early-July slowdown, and Abby's advice is to use it: she runs team training sessions every summer so the staff is ready "when the faucet turns on." She's having her entire team watch the substitutions training, and she's already used the deck to onboard new employees — because substitution decisions start at the sales counter, not the design bench. Empowered employees who understand the why can make good calls on their own instead of waiting to be told "use this instead."
Bonus trivia from the episode: AIFD Symposium lands over the 4th of July on purpose — it's a down holiday for flower shops and a cheap week for hotels and convention centers, making it one of the few times owners can actually get away for education.
Key takeaways
- Substitution skill directly drives profit: buy less, use what you have, and head off complaints before they happen.
- Customers buy a look and a feeling, not a recipe — sell color, style, and vibrancy, never a list of stems you might not have.
- "Suitable substitution" means something different to you than to your customer; know when to call and when your disclaimer covers you.
- Never say "we don't have that" — there is always a substitution to offer with confidence.
- Use slow summer weeks for team training so everyone can make smart substitution calls when things speed up.
Want the full training? Get 10% off registration for The Subtle Art of Substitutions using this link — and the recording is available if you're reading this after the live date.