Calling Recipients Before Flower Delivery

Last month, the Bloomery blogged about why florists call recipients in advance of delivery. I'd like to add a few more reasons to their list.

Gated Communities. Orange County, CA  is full of them. Our drivers cannot get past entry gates without someone being home, no matter how much we smile at the guards. And as much as the guards like flowers, they won’t accept them on behalf of the communities’ residences. By phoning ahead, we can arrange a time when the recipient will be there to receive his or her special gift.

Gated Homes and Condos. Many homes are surrounded by locked fences, making it nearly impossible for us to even ring doorbells or leave noticeable tags for re-deliveries requests.  Having a phone number gives us another channel to try and reach them.

Apartments. When no one is home, we generally leave the flowers at the manager's office and place a tag on the apartment door. With the phone number, we can call ahead to arrange entry or use it as a back-up reminder to let the recipient know where his/her flowers may be picked up.
 
Missing or Incorrect Address Details. We often receive wrong or incomplete addresses, which delay your gift's delivery. Large buildings with missing suite or floor numbers, missing apartment numbers and simple transposed numbers are but a few of the challenges. A direct phone call can quickly solve those problems and get the flowers delivered promptly.

Secure Businesses. Orange County has a significant number of businesses that require our drivers to wait at a gate or in a lobby until the flower recipients personally receive and sign for them. If the recipient is in a meeting or out of the office, the flowers cannot be left with a receptionist or guard.  Calling first assures we can schedule timely deliveries that fit their work schedules. 

Hotels. Flower deliveries to Anaheim Resort District hotels need to include both the name of the recipient and the name of the guest under which the room is registered. They’re not always the same. Prior to delivery, we call all hotels to verify if the guests are “in house” or scheduled to arrive that day. 

Hint: We can request flowers be placed in guest rooms prior to their arrival, but a call from you direct to hotel concierge often helps assure this happens. 

Hospitals. We always call Anaheim and Orange County hospitals to confirm whether patients have been admitted and if they can receive flowers. Typically, floral gifts cannot be taken to patients in CCU, ICU and some cancer wards but can be delivered after they have been moved to regular rooms. In this circumstance, we typically call hospitals twice a day for status checks to help get those get well wishes delivered as soon as possible.  All flowers are hand-delivered by us to the patients’ rooms or the nearest nurses’ station, depending on the hospital’s preference.

Funerals. To ensure prompt delivery of all expressions of sympathy, our team verifies visitation and service times with all local funeral homes and churches.

The Weather. With our hot summer climate (hitting 100 degree-plus highs lately), we often call residential deliveries ahead of time so the flowers are in our trucks as briefly as possible.

As you can see, there's a tremendous amount of service involved with professional florists’ hand-delivered flowers; service unavailable through box flower shippers using couriers like FedEx and UPS. 

We want your flowers delivered to the right place at the right time, which is why we sometimes call first.

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