Spotlight: Afscheid met Bloemen
This week we speak to Marie-Louise Drijver of the company Afscheid met Bloemen. Farewell with Flowers is a collaboration between 26 floral retailers focusing on funeral floral arrangements. Three words that describe the company are: Unburdening, florists and mourning flower arrangements.
What do you do exactly?
The concept is simple: one website where consumers can go for orientation and 26 physical shops where they can go for experience and tailor-made advice. This way, consumers get the best of both worlds: online and offline!
Affiliated florists are completely independent and pay a fee to Afscheid met Bloemen for supplying customers.
What makes you unique?
Before Farewell with Flowers, there was no online collaboration between different florists with a specific focus on mourning flower arrangements. We distinguish ourselves from, for example, shipping organisations through creativity, the use of seasonal products and a higher service level.
What are your plans for the future?
A year after launching the website (1 October 2015), we have good coverage in the large urban area from Alkmaar to Venlo. This gives us the opportunity to negotiate possible cooperation with major parties. In 2017, we will look for subcontractors in the north/east of the Netherlands and in Limburg.
How do you use Rinkel?
Rinkel has added a new feature to My Rinkel especially for us, allowing us to assign all affiliated florists their own 088 number. So we are taking down 26 phone numbers!
The 088 numbers are initially forwarded to the physical shops, but if they cannot answer or are closed, we take the calls.
We spoke to: Marie-Louise Drijver, Owner Afscheid met Bloemen
