Originally published on Farmgirl Flowers: A letter to customers on why we partnered with Route

Christina Stembel, Founder + CEO of Farmgirl Flowers

When I’m doing press or an AMA or replying to some of the emails or DMs I get from all of you, there are a few questions I see pretty regularly. But two of the most common ones are – 1) what’s the hardest thing about what you do? and 2) what keeps you up at night? And, as life’s little symmetries would have it, the answer to both of these questions is the reason for the changes we’re making.

The first question is pretty easy – at least to answer. The absolute hardest thing about what I do, about what we do, is not running out of money while selling a highly perishable product in an industry with very high costs and very low profit margins. If it sounds like a tongue twister, it is. And it also involves some real life mental and financial gymnastics. And one of the most difficult moves to land when we’re doing said gymnastics doesn’t have anything to do with the flowers. Or the people who make the bouquets. It has everything to do with outbound transportation, which is just a shorthand, more business-y way of talking about the cost of getting all of our orders to your and your recipients’ doorsteps.

Because, as improbable as it may sound, with how fast we need to ship our bouquets to make sure they’re fresh and beautiful when they arrive and because of how much distance there is between where we ship from and where we deliver to, the biggest expense we have here at Farmgirl is the cost of delivery. All of that to say, what it costs to ship the box that your bouquet comes in is more than the cost of the flowers in said box.

I say all this and, at the same time, I really don’t want to diminish how much goes into the delivery process. There are so many hands, so many trucks, so many planes, so many buildings, and conveyor belts, and machines that go into making the networks shipping and transportation companies use to deliver our orders from Point A to Point B.

We want all of these folks to make fair wages, of course, too, and then there’s the gasoline. And jet fuel. And the cost to maintain and fix those trucks, and planes, and belts and buildings when they start to break down or age because of the millions of packages passing through them and on them every day. All on their way to our doorsteps. All these things cost something. Even though one of the largest companies in the world (the one with a name that makes you think of a very large and endangered rainforest) has done a lot of work to make us all think shipping is somehow “free.”

So, while it may blow your mind (like it did mine, initially) that we spend more on the shipping than the flowers, the math (unfortunately) maths. The major transportation companies have built extensive networks to be able to offer the services they do. Nothing moves through that network for nothing. If you’re not paying a shipping fee, someone, somewhere, down the line, is.

Which brings me to the second question.

What keeps me up at night right now is the unknown. The Big Bad that is impossible to get your arms around, to know exactly how big said Bad is, until it has its arms around you.

If this all sounds vague and a little amorphous, that’s because it is. Even after 14 years of what ifs, I still can’t predict the unpredictable. You never know who or why or how or, the hardest part, when the other shoe will drop. It just does. And my job, as the leader of this company, is to figure out how to get us through. Because storms happen. Planes, trains and delivery trucks happen. Or, more accurately, don’t happen. Even folks who pick up packages on other folks’ porches unfortunately happen, too.

Small or big, isolated or every order in the batch, we’ve been right there with you every time things have gone pear shaped. Because when a customer reaches out to us with concerns, we always make sure to hear them out and then do everything in our power to find a solution, whether that’s offering some care tips to help revive thirsty flowers, or sending a new bouquet if the first one encountered a few too many bumps in the box. However we do it, making sure our customers, all of you, are taken care of is always my first priority. Whether that means we’ve eaten the cost of one order or tens of thousands of orders, we’ve always done what has been necessary to make sure when something goes wrong that we make it right.

I’ve always considered this the cost of doing business, but, over the past four years and the changes that our business and so many others have weathered during COVID, it has almost cost us Farmgirl, too. Because a lot of these shipping delays, regardless of size, aren’t covered by the delivery companies we use to ship our products. And that means that something completely out of my control as a business owner has the ability to bankrupt us and end the business so many hands have worked so hard to build. If we were shipping sweaters or sunglasses or anything even slightly less perishable than flowers, late deliveries would mean just that: a package didn’t deliver on time. Whatever was ordered – that sweater or those sunglasses – would still be fine and could be used and enjoyed as intended. But if it’s flowers? Extra days in transit can be disastrous for quality. Which means we often need to refund the full cost to you, or reship a new arrangement on us – and that includes paying another shipping fee to the delivery partner, even if it’s a shipping delay that caused the issue in the first place.

A small percentage of these orders is, again, the “normal” cost of doing business. This is the sort of unknown that my team and I prepare for daily because, again, it’s not if, but when. But when there is a large scale delay with thousands or, tens of thousands orders are affected? There’s no modeling or contingency planning that can prepare us for that. And worse, this is not the type of cost that can be absorbed without significant, and devastating, results to our small, bootstrapped company’s bottom line.

We’re all in a time where the sort of unpredictability that can, among other things, derail on-time deliveries is popping up more often than ever. Speaking about weather alone, dangerously high temperatures, extreme droughts, wildfires, widespread flooding, and severe hurricanes have all caused disruptions to life as we know it in bigger and more dramatic ways. And that’s just in the past few years.

We’re doing everything we can on our side to stay ahead of potential service disruptions, delay proof our bouquets with different flower varieties and more strategic designs, and all around continue offering you the best customer service we possibly can. And we know with what we’re up against it can’t and won’t be enough. Which is why we have started working with Route Package Protection. “For the Big (and little) Bads that can happen after a package leaves our dock and starts to make its way to your doorstep, we’ll be offering Route at checkout. That’ll give you some peace of mind when that “what if” turns into “what now?”

I’m anticipating these changes won’t come without some questions. I know I had a lot when we started thinking about doing this. So I wanted to try and preempt some of those with some answers below. But just in case you have more after reading this or are the type that likes to get into the fine print, my team and I have outlined all of these changes in our policies on our website. You can read more about Route and the protection their insurance offers in the Terms and Conditions here and our Refunds and Redelivery Policy here.

First, I know some of you may be asking why we’re asking you to pay for package insurance. Especially at a time when everything seems to be getting more expensive, please know that we don’t make this ask lightly. We’ve spent the past decade and a half paying the full retail and shipping costs for replacements ourselves. As a small business (and for all the reasons I outlined in too many words above) this is the biggest threat to us being here to send flowers to future you and your loved ones. We work very, very hard to keep our flowers and shipping as competitively priced as possible. After spreadsheeting and brainstorming and considering every possible road forward, Route is the best possible solution for the best possible price that also lets us keep offering the same great flowers you know and love at the most affordable retail cost we can. We never take it for granted when you come to Farmgirl for a gift and we most certainly know that it’s not nothing to ask all of you to pay $5.95 at checkout to protect your order. And we need to.

Second, I know a lot of you will ask what happens if you don’t purchase Route protection. It is 100% your choice to purchase package insurance – and we very much hope it’s one you make. We put an incredible amount of work in to ensure that your order is designed and boxed, with care so that your bouquet can make its way safely to you or your recipient. But once it leaves our distribution or fulfillment centers? Even with all the care in the world sometimes the unexpected happens. To make sure Farmgirl can be here not only tomorrow, but in the years to come, all while offering you the same great bouquets and service we’ve been delivering since day one, we are no longer offering refunds or redeliveries for delivery-related delays or issues. Our partnership with Route, however, will bridge this gap between our dock and your doorstep with affordable, easy to use insurance for every Farmgirl Flowers order you place.

Getting down to more brass tacks, I think some of you may want to know whether or not this insurance is something we will profit from. I want to assure you that this is absolutely not the case. Every penny from the $5.95 cost goes directly to Route to offer parcel protections for delivery-related delays and damages. This is a pass through cost that we pay onto Route when you opt-in at checkout.

And last, and maybe the biggest question for us as a team, we know some of you might be wondering if this means anything will change about how we offer customer service here at Farmgirl. Which I hope y’all will be able to answer, in some time, with a resounding no. We pride ourselves with the in-house customer care we offer and always stand behind our bouquets. That includes making it right if there’s an issue with your order. With Route, we’ll be able to offer the same great service but even faster if and when there’s a delivery-related issue with your order. In short, when you opt in to purchase Route, we’ll be able to do what we do even better than before.

For the Big (and little) Bads that can happen after a package leaves our dock and starts to make its way to your doorstep, we’ll be offering Route -- in case that “what if” turns into “what now?”