If you haven’t gotten your mother anything for Mother’s Day yet, maybe daFlores.com can help you out. They are a flower delivery service that is willing to ship to people around the world. It doesn’t matter if you or the recipient is somewhere within North, South, or Central America. You can even wish your “mum” a good day in England. With over 10 years experience, they have become a flower company that people are willing to trust.
Sending flowers is not a cheap process. Although they can be pricey, the feeling that the recipient feels when receiving them makes the cost worthwhile. However, Francisco Bustos, the founder and CEO, believes the average person should be able to send those flowers at a reasonable price. He set out to create an affordable solution, and he succeeded.
I recently had the opportunity to ask Francisco a few questions about his business.
Tell us a little about daFlores.com.
Our online service was founded in 2000, but our family’s been involved in flower delivery for several generations. We’re based out of Miami, Florida, and the daFlores.com website is part of Flores a Colombia, a United States corporation. We work only with experienced vendors and visit all our partner florists personally; each has to pass stringent quality checks.
What inspired it?
We found that, when we needed to send flowers to our relatives and friends in South America, the cost was incredibly high. I knew the flower delivery trade well, and was confident that I could offer this service for a much fairer and more competitive price. I was right.
In how many countries can your flowers be ordered/delivered?
We offer flower delivery in 35 countries, spread across North, South and Central America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Do you have any plans to add more locations to your list in the near future?
Yes, definitely. Our plan is to expand until we can offer worldwide delivery. We’ve also translated our site into seven languages so far, including Mandarin Chinese. Our clients tell us that’s helpful; since we’re very customer-service oriented, we’ll continue with the translations.
Do you have any goals you’d like to accomplish over the next year or so?
We want to keep on growing our chain, and will also grow our followers on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve embraced social media from the start, and have gained more than 206,000 Facebook likes!
What separates you from the competition?
We mentioned the translations already, but it’s worth noting that we now rival the global players for the number of languages we offer. We also have a bilingual call center – Spanish and English – and offer bilingual service online, too. And we have the best prices for flower delivery in Latin America.
What are some lessons your business has taught you?
Customer service is the single most important factor of business. If you take care of your customers and give them the best possible service, they not only come back for more, they tell all their friends. We get a huge amount of repeat business from happy customers, and we’re very proud of that.
It’s also vitally important to keep up-to-date with technology. Not only have we had great success with our social media efforts, we reach out to customers in every medium we can. And, returning to the customer satisfaction issue, providing a highly secure site for orders is another way of building trust.
Do you have any advice that you’d like to offer fellow entrepreneurs that are just getting started?
Be very persistent and don’t ever give up. It may be tough at the beginning but, if you apply all your dedication, creativity and hard work, you can make it. Be proud of what you do! Your attitude makes all the difference.
