After spending nearly a decade training to be a florist, Siân Wild swapped her events role, and the European travel that came with it, for an opportunity to follow her dreams. In 2009, she opened her own florist business, The Flower Lounge in Didsbury, Manchester.
Wild says one of the main things she loves about her job is her customers. “Being nestled within such a wonderful community is really special. We’ve been here for more than 10 years, so our customers do feel like family.”
The day the government lockdown was announced, Wild was floored. She was concerned for her business, her staff and the future but she also felt devastated about what the closure would mean to her customers.
“Flowers are so emotive and sentimental. They’re an everyday item we use to express celebration, affection and remembrance. Often when we can’t use words, we use the gift of flowers. To have that suddenly out of people’s grasp was concerning.”
Since that day, The Flower Lounge team has worked to find ways to carry on serving its community. On day two of lockdown, having already ordered a large delivery of fresh flowers, Wild and her team set about creating beautiful bunches of blooms, leaving them outside for passersby to pick up for free.
Then, like many entrepreneurs across the UK, she had to reflect on the business, asking herself how it could creatively adapt and still provide a quality service.
After closing for several weeks, Wild focused on the logistics of continuing the business in a safe way that would also support growers.
“Without the flower growers, there would be no industry to return to. During this time, we’ve tried to support as many British growers as possible.”
Happily, The Flower Lounge continued to receive inquiries from customers hoping to purchase flowers, which gave Wild confidence.
“We’ve focused on seasonal blooms, offered a DIY vase kit and wreath set to replace our workshop offering, and even created a ‘drive-through’ service in the run-up to Mother’s Day,” she says.
The Flower Lounge switched to contactless payments immediately and focused on understanding the needs of its customers. For example, it began to offer more plants because of their positive impact on people’s mental health and air purifying qualities.
But it hasn’t been easy – 70 weddings have been postponed and 200 workshop places cancelled. Staff have been furloughed to help weather the storm.
“Communication with our staff and our customers has been essential,” Wild stresses. “We recognise that not all businesses have communicated effectively, and we wanted to make this a priority.”
Using its social media channels and newsletters, the shop has kept customers up to date as much as possible.
“We’ve also used our social channels to share acts of kindness, such as asking our followers to nominate key workers to receive a gift from The Flower Lounge,” Wild says.
Change can be unnerving, but Wild still has her entrepreneurial spirit to fall back on. In fact, she spotted an opportunity for a new service she intends to keep running as things return to normal, an online pivot that’s allowed her to be more versatile as a business.
“We now offer a subscription service where customers receive a delivery of beautiful flowers that they can arrange at home. We initially offered this to help those working from home – it’s been hugely popular, so we’ve decided to keep it going.”
Once she heard that shops would be allowed to reopen on 15 June, Wild couldn’t wait to flip the sign from Closed to Open – after a lot of preparation to keep everyone safe. Staff have received training and there have been changes to their working systems behind the scenes.
“We’ve really missed interacting with our customers. It’s important to us that they continue to have a lovely experience and that they feel comfortable in our shop.
“To achieve this, we have clear signposting, we are limiting the number of people in the shop and will continue to maintain excellent hygiene standards.
“We’re also encouraging pre-orders and initially we will be cashless.”
Support from the local community, friends, customers and family has been “phenomenal” and the backing from the wider business community has meant so much to Wild and her team.
“I’m really happy to see big organisations such as Visa show support for independent businesses and help to highlight just how important the high street is to us all.”
Shop local. Support local
As the shops on your high street are adapting to new ways of trading, join Visa in supporting local independent businesses across the country
