Maris Angolia of Karin’s Florist in Vienna, Virginia, takes pride in having few customer complaints. On the rare occasion a customer is disappointed, Angolia resolves the issue quickly.
So, when a handful of customers called to complain about deliveries that never showed up, Angolia was perplexed. “We didn’t have a record of the orders,” she said. “After it happened a few times, we started noticing a trend.” A savvy marketer, Angolia had an immediate hunch that online order-gatherers were to blame, and if that was the case, how many other customers mistakenly thought they were placing orders with Karin’s? How could she connect with them directly?
Angolia began searching online for a local florist, as if she were acustomer. She also reviewed her Google Analytics data. The results confirmed her hunch that order-gatherers were confusing local customers and convinced her that she needed to be more proactive about protecting and promoting her brand online. The best way to do that, she decided, was to compete in online advertising.