We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erika Llorente a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erika, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Some of the most unexpected problems I faced in my business were the pandemic and the supply shortages as well as inflation. Before starting my business, I was in the corporate workfield and I never imagined being an entrepreneur, but here I am. I had just opened my business in 2019 and the retail business had just begun taking off when the pandemic hit the next year- forcing me to close for four months. When I reopened, I decided to rebrand and focus on only weddings and events, which was the best thing that could have come out of the circumstances. I thought just opening a business was challenging, but overcoming the pandemic was harder, and then the supply shortage issue made it more difficult. We can look at obstacles as just that, or we can view them as challenges to overcome and improve ourselves and our businesses.

Erika, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I worked in HR before starting my business, but I have always been interested in arts and crafts. Moving to the U.S. from Mexico City opened up the opportunity for entrepreneurship, and when a friend asked me to take a floral design course with her, that was the beginning of my floral career. Fine Flowers of Round Rock is a weddings and events floral design studio focused on bringing customers an elevated experience in customer experience and quality in floral design and flowers. We offer a unique. innovative floral designs and unique blooms to create a wow factor at customers’ events. The most important thing that sets us apart though is our customer service, and our unique designs that are tailored to fit each customer’s needs and wants.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I am still developing a system to improve customer service and customer loyalty as part of one of our values to provide that elevated customer experience. I started by developing an onboarding and offboarding process, and part of this was acquiring a CRM system with the purpose of facilitating the process customers go through to make it easier and friendlier for them. As part of our onboarding process, we incorporate tools to have a better understanding of what clients want and need in order to deliver a better final product and make them part of the process so they know exactly what to expect. Additionally, when the event has been done, the relationship with customers is not over. We have an offboarding process in place to get feedback and give a thank you present and continue the relationship for future needs.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The way I maintain the commitment of my team is by actively making them part of the business, listening to their suggestions, and valuing their contributions through rewards and recognition. The most important asset in any business is its people, so our job is to make them feel that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fineflowersofroundrock.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fineflowersrr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fineflowersrr

Image Credits
Felicia Reed Photography Kelly Costelo Photography Two Wedding Fish Photography Toan Nguyen Photography Joslyn Photo Davis Photo Light Visuals Co Tony Bobadilla