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At 1-800-Flowers.com, business slows down after Mother's Day and through the fall. In past years, the company was hard-pressed to keep its call center fully staffed between seasonal spikes [December 2006]. But now the retailer has found a way to maintain a high level of service: It shares its call center with Choice Hotels, which is busiest during the summer.
"We take their calls during the summer," says 1-800's Lou Orsi, vice president, vendor and service center relations. "They help us during our peaks. They get experienced people instead of brand-new people off the street. I'm getting an excellent, qualified person from another company. They use us as disaster recovery. We can take some of the pressure."
Orsi notes that 75% of calls in the flower business convert to sales, compared with only 35% in the hotel sector.
"The whole arrangement is to keep people employed at the site year round," he says.
"It reduces attrition and training costs. A lot of people enjoy the change. It adds a little spice. Hotel sales are a lot more difficult than flower sales. You have to be more of a salesman.
"Our people who came from hotels are even better at selling flowers."
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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