白领商务英语－经典案例12：She's Florists

12       Marketing¹ and Customer Satisfaction

Facing Business Challenges at She’s Florists²

Profiting from a Bunch of Data

With only $500 in their pockets, Helen and Marty Shih (pro­nounced "she") came to the United States from Taiwan in 1979 to pursue a graduate education. But the brother and sister were sidetracked--instead of using the money Dad had given them to begin their studies, they invested it in flowers. A visionary with a passion for life, Marty Shih believed they had a one-way ticket to a better life. So he and sister Helen set up a flower stand on a Los Angeles street corner.

       They worked hard--sometimes 16 and 18 hours a day--and before long they were able to move their busi­ness indoors. Neither had a formal education in market­ing, but they understood the importance of customer ser­vice. They began making notes about who their customers were, where they lived, why they were buying flowers, who they were sending them to, and what types of flowers they liked. The Shihs used this information to send postcards reminding customers that a special day was approaching.

Their customers appreciated being reminded to send flowers, and business grew. Customer by customer, the Shihs expanded beyond their little lobby stand, even­tually opening 16 She's Flowers shops in the Los Angeles area. They did more than just sell their blooms. They mass-produced their arrangements on an assembly line, just like McDonald's mass-produces hamburgers. Each shop offered between 15 and 21 designs, which were listed on a menu board. Again, customers appreciated the speed and consistency³ of these flower arrangements.

However, bouquets⁴ weren't the only things blossom­ing at She's Flowers. Over time, the company's customer in­formation files had grown and were full of valuable names­--mostly Asian American immigrants. In fact, the Asian Amer­ican market became the Shihs' primary focus. Pulling Asian names and addresses out of phone books and recording⁵ cus­tomers one-by-one, the Shihs eventually gathered so many names (all potential customers) that they decided⁶ to spend $200,000 to computerize their database. In 1985 they de­signed a database program that allowed them to track much more information than they had been able to keep by hand--credit-card numbers, payment dates, personal mes­sages, delivery and vendor⁷ services, preferred floral arrange­ments, and so on. Simple to run, the database was integrated with all the shops' cash registers. In fact, employees could not complete a sales transaction without inputting⁸ all cus­tomer data, including personal notes like "Mr. Jones never wants the orchid⁹ arrangement to be sent to Mrs. Jones:'

It wasn't long before Floralfax invited She's Flowers to join a worldwide telemarketing organization that was staffed by American Airlines reservationists during slow travel periods. After joining, the Shihs' annual revenues for the 16 shops doubled-from $2 million to $4 million. Convinced that telemarketing was a garden of opportu­nity, Marty Shih began exploring the possibility of selling other products to customers.

If you were Marty Shih, how would you profit from a customer information file that contained data on mostly Asian American immigrants? What other products might you market to your customers? How would you continue to build relationships with your customers and keep their business?

 

Meeting Business Challenges at She's Florists

Customer by customer, Helen and Marty Shih built a business empire serving the huge multi cultural Asian American market. While Helen continued to push flowers to customers, Marty be­gan telemarketing other services to this rapidly growing mar­ket. After all, having a database of Asian American immigrants, knowing their language, and understanding their cultural dif­ferences, the Shihs could make their blossoming database pay off. So Marty Shih founded the Asian Business Co-op, an Asian buying club that negotiates discounts on products and services for its members.

For instance, by entering into a joint¹⁰ venture with Sprint¹¹, the co-op sold special discount long-distance services to the Asian community. Of course, the growth of the partnership¹² was helped by the fact that Asian Americans make three times more inter­national calls than other ethnic¹³ groups in the United States. Soon Marty entered into relationships with other service providers: DHL Air Express, New York Life Insurance Company, Service Master, Lucent Technologies, United Van Lines, and Pearle Vi­sion-to name a few. It seemed that the Shihs' not-so-little data­base (currently 1.5 million names) was a gold mine of opportu­nity for companies looking for new business. And Marty was their bridge-repackaging and customizing products and services and selling them to Asian Americans at a substantial discount.

At the heart of the co-op were the 550 telemarketers who understood the diverse Asian culture and collectively spoke¹⁴ six different languages-Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog (spoken in the Philippines). Asian im­migrants (most of whom did not speak English) needing advice on dealing¹⁵ with immigration officials or perhaps help in un­derstanding a bill, could call the Asian American 411 (at 1-800-777-Club) and get whatever information they re­quested-for free. After all. Marty knew that they would even­tually buy something. Meanwhile, each caller was added to the company's database. With over 1,200 new immigrants calling daily, the Shihs decided to sell the flower shops and concentrate on the more profitable telemarketing business.

Today the Asian American Association (founded in 1995 as an offshoot of the co-op) comprises 13 companies and has branches across the United States. The 550 informed telemar­keters sit ready at computer banks and phones to address the fi­nancial, health, insurance, travel, and other personal concerns and needs of Asian Americans, while moving well over $200 mil­lion in merchandise annually¹⁶ and bringing the association over $25 million in annual revenue. The association has become a center of social, cultural, educational, and political life for Asian Americans. With over 1.5 million members, the list of offerings keeps expanding. The more the telemarketers learn about the callers, the better the association can serve them.

Headquartered in a 65,00O-square-foot building in El Monte, California, Marty and Helen Shih have come a long way fr0111 that single street corner flower stand. Still, many challenges lie ahead. With services aimed mostly at recent immigrants, the Shihs must find new ways to keep customers once they become more assimilated into the American culture. Plus, it's not easy to market to this diverse group. After all, a person who is Chi­nese is not Japanese is not Korean or Thai. And that makes it especially difficult to convey a single marketing message. But, "we always keep thinking big," says Marty. With over 500,000 people visiting the association's Web site daily, there's a bloom­ing opportunity out there.

1 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

2 florists   

n.花商，花农，花卉研究者( florist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The little dressmaker bought an envelope of nasturtium seeds at the florists. 那个个子矮小的女裁缝在花铺里买了一包金莲花种子。 来自辞典例句
• I have more important things to do than petulant florists. 我有比教训坏脾气的花匠更重要的事情要做。 来自互联网

3 consistency   

n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度

参考例句：

• Your behaviour lacks consistency.你的行为缺乏一贯性。
• We appreciate the consistency and stability in China and in Chinese politics.我们赞赏中国及其政策的连续性和稳定性。

4 bouquets   

n.花束( bouquet的名词复数 )；（酒的）芳香

参考例句：

• The welcoming crowd waved their bouquets. 欢迎的群众摇动着花束。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• As the hero stepped off the platform, he was surrounded by several children with bouquets. 当英雄走下讲台时，已被几名手持花束的儿童围住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。

8 inputting   

v.把…输入电脑( input的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Micro-motor drive, open the door by inputting the password. 微电机驱动，输入密码，箱门开启。 来自互联网
• In charge of matching and inputting invoice in SAP system. 负责在SAP系统内匹配及输入发票信息。 来自互联网

9 orchid   

n.兰花，淡紫色

参考例句：

• The orchid is a class of plant which I have never tried to grow.兰花这类植物我从来没种过。
• There are over 35 000 species of orchid distributed throughout the world.有35,000多种兰花分布在世界各地。

10 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

11 sprint   

n.短距离赛跑；vi. 奋力而跑，冲刺；vt.全速跑过

参考例句：

• He put on a sprint to catch the bus.他全速奔跑以赶上公共汽车。
• The runner seemed to be rallied for a final sprint.这名赛跑者似乎在振作精神作最后的冲刺。

12 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

13 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

16 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。