Valentine's Day is one of the most high traffic holidays for companies who deliver flower bouquets and arrangements to their customer's loved ones. While some people trust local flower shops to get the job done, others opt for the convenience and simplicity of ordering online and over the phone with large companies like 1-800-Flowers. However, a massive and widespread failure after 2015's Valentine's Day has 1-800-Flowers straggling to overcome social media backlash with an apologetic public relations strategy.

Social Media

Even on the holiday of love, 1-800-Flower's Twitter was blowing up with dissatisfied customers wondering how their orders could have gone so wrong. It seems to have been a shared experience on the standards of the flowers; The arrangements either arrived extremely late, were frozen, were wilted or molding, were the complete wrong order, and often times it was a combination of more than one of these problems. The latest deliveries did not even arrive on Valentine's Day.



Irate customers immediately took to social media to complain, warn others, and demand an explanation from the company, showing how easily a problem can escalate now with the presence of so many users on these sites. Not only were unkind and angered words thrown at the company, but the capability to post pictures online allowed for customers and social media users to use visual evidence in their claims. Many posted a side-by-side look of what the flowers were supposed to look like (the online pictures offered when ordering) and what was actually delivered. After experts looked at these pictures, it was determined that a great deal of the arrangements looked weeks old, and some boxes sent from the company even arrived empty, baffling both the customer and the recipient.





Crisis Management

PR with 1-800-Flowers had its hands full as this was not the first year of mistakes for the company. Valentine's Day of 2014 did not have as much social media backlash, but the website did botch several orders. There were enough complaints that after that Valentine's Day debacle, the company owned up to the failure and issued a formal apology. This first year of failure has unhappy customers in 2015 puzzled over why 1-800-Flowers would not have been better prepared this year after understanding the conditions and volumes they would experience.





While public relations have pointed out that sub-freezing temperatures are partly to blame for the crisis, customers are not happy with what they describe as an excuse. They are still asking why the flowers were left on doorsteps without any notifications and how dropping temperatures would explain the wrong order or no order at all.



After apologizing to numerous individuals on their Twitter and Facebook, many customers are still not satisfied. People who were affected in 2014 are also getting upset and demanding answers after they were promised coupons and/or refunds that never happened. The customer service line has been inundated with requests to resolve the issues, but at many times over the weekends, the phones were jammed and only automated emails were sent. Several customers who have been offered $20 vouchers are saying that 1-800-Flower's efforts are pointless because even with vouchers and coupons, they will no longer be using the company's services.



Ultimately what can be learned from all of this is that social media has allowed malcontent customers to more easily voice their opinions and post pictures to back up their stories. Companies need to learn from their mistakes and be ready with a great public relations team that accepts ownership of the problems if they do occur. If they give a "100% smile guarantee," they need to follow through with the refunds, coupons, or redeliveries.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR and the author of best selling PR book For Immediate Release.