Walk & talk

Our customers love educational events but many IGCs are challenged to find the space for them. Displays might need to be dismantled and chairs set up, only to be taken down and reassembled again a few hours later. Yet there are easier ways to give our customers the information they want while still bringing them into the store. Consider scheduling Walk & Talk classes, which are a more casual means of sharing information while exposing customers to plants and products in your store and nursery.

The Walk & Talk experience is just what it sounds like. Attendees gather and walk with a staff member as they are led on a pre-planned route through the garden center. These classes without classrooms are shorter in length and can highlight what’s currently happening in your region and in stock in the garden center. It might also be possible to get more of your employees involved in this type of presenting. Staff members who can be shy about standing up in front of an audience of 60 people are frequently more comfortable walking with a smaller group for a shorter period of time.

Plan the path

A good Walk & Talk should be 20 to 30 minutes long and allow time afterwards for questions from the group. Employees should also be available afterwards to personally guide an attendee to a plant or product that was featured. Customers may not remember where they saw something you raved about and they might need to be reminded.

If this format proves to be popular with your staff and customers, consider having some “Staff Pick!” stickers made up. These can be stuck to shelving under a product that was featured on the walk or put on the top of a stake that gets placed in the pot of a plant that was highlighted. Such stickers can guide other customers to things that were showcased even if they didn’t attend the Walk & Talk.

When planning a series of such talks, find a consistent place to meet attendees. Decide if your series will be held rain or shine, and if so, always advise attendees to dress for the weather.

In advance of the event, map out the route and decide which plants or products are going to be featured. Doing this in advance allows for some brief research that might add to what is already known. A quick Google search on the history of what you’re planning to speak about, or a search for “fun facts about …” can turn up interesting tidbits that make the walk more entertaining.

Personal stories are also encouraged, so when your staff has had an experience with a plant or product, prompt them to speak about it. Stories about triumphing in difficult situations, learning from our mistakes and realizing that what we do in our yards and gardens matters are always popular.

One-to-one connections

The Walk & Talk should focus on the public’s joy and success. Your aim is to make them happy that day and more successful with plants in the future. Have your staff ask attendees questions like, “Have any of you grown this plant?” “Did you try this method yet?” “Do you like the flavor of bitter greens?”

If the group is small, ask people to share their names and the towns they have come from. For some staff members, remembering names can be difficult since this is a special skill. For those employees, having attendees make a quick name tag for themselves is an easy way to address people personally.

Even more important than calling attendees by name is eye contact. Have your employees practice looking customers in the eye while smiling. They’ll see that the attendees will automatically smile back, and this makes everyone feel good. Eye contact and smiling creates the person-to-person connections that a successful retail business is built on.

Heads and hearts

More important than the advance planning and forging of relationships, however, is the passion your staff bring to such an event. If your customers feel like they are being fed an infomercial, the Walk & Talk will fail.

These programs won’t work if you’re trying to sell the excess boxwood in the nursery or the over-abundance of orange ceramic pots. Staff recommendations only work when the person leading the talk is truly passionate about that plant or product that they are featuring.

A Walk & Talk should certainly raise our customers’ level of knowledge, and to that end, we give them the information that feeds their heads. For the event to be enjoyable and ultimately drive sales, the talk should be delivered honestly, enthusiastically and from the heart.