Cha-ching! (12-9)

The Great Outdoors Nursery in Austin, Texas, has all the trappings of a fun shopping experience. There's a beautiful selection of plants, plenty of unique decor items, Jeanie's Java Cafe with its electic menu of good food and even better coffee ... There's even a concrete elephant on the grounds that serves as equal parts conversation piece/branding element. Yet, that's not why we're writing about this great garden center today.

No, this go-round, we're giving a hardy green thumb's up to The Great Outdoors Nursery's Garden Coach program. This one-hour meeting, at the nursery, gives customers serious one-on-one time with a landscape design expert. Basically, they fill out the forms about their gardening challenges or desires and take some requisite pictures of the areas they want to improve. Then they make an appointment to come in for some pencil-to-paper details and a little personal shopper pampering.

The end result for the customer is a new garden. The end result for the garden center is a customer for life. Well, that and ... yep, you guessed it: a good measure of "Cha-ching!," both during the session and down the road.

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