Cha-ching! (10-14)

Customers visit garden centers for a variety of reasons. Obviously, to find plants is the biggest "no brainer" reason, but even the most sophisticated gardener appreciates when a retailer helps her find the right plants for her garden.

To that end, Platt Hill, owner of Platt Hill Nursery in Bloomingdale, Ill., posts his favorite plants regularly on a page on the company website called "Platt's Picks." There he shows what each plant looks like in full bloom, and he adds his "pitch" to explain why each plant is a personal treasure.

This is a customer service that offers value on many fronts. As noted, customers love when a garden center helps with product selection, so there's an immediate bonding element in a feature such as Platt's Picks. Further, by making this web page an online staple, Platt Hill Nursery brands itself not only as an authority on spotlighted plants but as an ACCESSIBLE source for those plants. Consequently, customers have a good idea about the product when they visit the store, as they are very likely to do once Hill explains the value each plant adds to a garden.

Good marketing separates the great garden centers from the ordinary ones. It also almost always leads to "Cha-ching!"

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