There's no denying that BGS lifetime members are very talented people. Just earning invitation into the Society places members within a select group. Beyond their commonality as the "Best in Business" though, lifetime members are extremely diverse  with a wide array of talents, backgrounds and expertise.
Graduations, Mother’s Day, and weddings meet flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards. In May, celebrations of all kinds crop up everywhere, don’t they? Special congratulations to all our BGS members who graduated this spring, who are mothers, or who are getting married! This month’s profile highlights a member who embraces every occasion and knows how to make people smile through the simple gesture of sending flowers. He loves his job as president of 1-800-FLOWERS and if you keep reading his story, you might understand why…
 BGS Member Profiles
Chris McCann
President, 1-800-FLOWERS
Chris McCann never pictured himself making a career of selling flowers and chocolates. So when his eldest brother Jim approached him about helping full-time with his 7-year-old flower business, the 20-something McCann was skeptical, to say the least. “My reaction was not necessarily enthusiasm, because I didn’t go to college to be a florist,” asserted McCann. “It’s not what I was intending to do.” But his brother presented a compelling argument. “He explained why he got into the flower business,” McCann said. “It was a large, highly-fragmented business; there was no Holiday Inn or McDonald’s in the flower business, and therefore there was opportunity for someone to create that.”  Fast-forward thirty years and the McCann brothers have created that big business they were hoping for with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
Vivacity for “delivering smiles”—the company’s mantra—starts at the top. “We love what we’re doing,” said McCann, who serves as the company’s President. “We’re really focused on creating a great, very energetic company.” The two McCann brothers drive the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM business, and though they are 10 years apart in age, they share a deep, emotional connection, one that – much like the flowers they sell – required lots of cultivation. “I didn’t really know [Jim] growing up,” Chris McCann admitted. Although Jim McCann’s background was in social work, he jumped at the opportunity to purchase a local flower shop in Manhattan. As a teen, Chris McCann worked on and off for his brother at a shop near his high school. In 1983, Jim pitched working full-time for the company and Chris agreed to a six-month trial. “As he likes to tell the story, shortly after hiring me he put me in charge of his 12 flower shops,” Chris McCann explained. “Next thing he knew, we had three.” McCann wasn’t letting the company wilt. Instead, he had noted the boom of 1-800 services and the consequent shift in consumer behavior. McCann opted to diversify the company’s focus, expanding beyond brick and mortar stores. The company obtained the 1-800-FLOWERS number which “gave it the catapult to grow to a national scale,” McCann explained. As the company began to bloom, McCann decided to stick around. Today, he’s lost track of how many six-month terms he has served both with the company and alongside his brother. “It worked out extremely well; I think it’s a very strong relationship,” McCann shared about his friendship with Jim. “It kind of developed as we grew; we recognized strengths in each other and developed complementary strengths.”
“My mothers’ joy was seeing how the two of us became best friends from working with each other,” McCann added. His sister, nephew, and mother have worked for the company full-time as well. Aside from family relationships, McCann values the emotional connection he has with his employees – a tie that was reinforced during the recent financial crisis. In 2008, the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM President laid out the game plan for staying fruitful during the recession as a way to help employees gear up for inevitable company changes. On the heels of zero growth in 2009 – the first year of its kind in company history – McCann and his brother decided on another first: laying off several employees. “It was a very difficult decision to come to,” McCann confessed. McCann and his brother Jim were pleased with how their employees handled the delicate situation. The two brothers were even complimented for it. “We had many of those people thank us for how it was handled, and for the opportunity to work with us,” he shared proudly. The evident care and concern McCann demonstrates for his employees also extends to the end consumer. By far, the most important relationship 1-800-FLOWERS.COM maintains is the one with its customers. “The obsession with service was there from very beginning because we knew we were handling an emotional connection for our customers,” McCann explained. “At the end of the day, whether it’s our flowers products, our Fannie May chocolates, our Harry London chocolates, our gifts from The Popcorn Factory, or our Cheryl’s cookies and brownies, our customers turn to us to do one thing: to deliver a smile,” McCann said.  McCann enjoys maintaining that relationship in a personal way by regularly sending 1-800-FLOWERS.COM products. He recently ordered a Cheryl’s cookie flower pot for an acquaintance, which later garnered enthusiastic comments after the recipient posted a photo of the gift to Facebook. “One gesture of thanks generated about 10 orders,” McCann noted. “It’s a great way to promote our product, especially our food product.”
Whatever the product, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM works with international partners so the company can deliver its products around the globe. This allows the company to provide a diverse array of offerings to customers, wherever they may be located. While McCann admitted to being initially unenthusiastic about a career in the floral industry, there’s often a smile on his face these days. He said his job today is as enjoyable as it was in the 1990’s – a time of particular excitement for the company. What made the ‘90’s such a great time for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM? Was it the boy bands, the flannel-wearing grunge rockers, or even the cast of friends on, well, Friends? Nope. While those were all cultural highs in their own right, it was the cultural trend toward technology that would elevate the company to a new level. During the 1990’s, the 1-800-FLOWERS company transitioned to the internet. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM was the first merchant to sell products on AOL in 1994, a move that McCann built upon by launching the company’s first website, built using Netscape technology, in 1995. “I often say that the ‘90-’97 timeframe was one of the most fun time periods,” McCann mentioned. Today’s social media and mobile commerce are why “it’s like the late 90’s all over again.” 1-800-FLOWERS.COM continues to capitalize on the latest and greatest. “Any time a new technology comes along that we believe has potential to impact customer behavior, we jump on it,” McCann noted. The company remains extremely engaged with today’s consumer while simultaneously expanding their product line to offer something for whatever the emotionally-charged occasion. Holidays are obviously among those occasions; they tend to be peak times for the company, dotting the financial landscape with especially good profit. “Back when we were only a flowers company, the business was really driven by Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day,” McCann shared. Not true today, however; McCann said Christmas is their busiest and longest season. Valentine’s Day still puts significant stress on the operational flow of the company, mostly thanks to one specific segment of the population: the last minute shopper. “Valentine’s Day is all guys who wait until the last minute, are out to impress some woman in their life, and ‘it better be delivered to the office by 9:30 in the morning,’” McCann said with a chuckle. This high-demand situation is nothing to chuckle about, however; McCann and his team take it seriously. “Those are the expectations customers have, and we have to figure out how to meet or manage those expectations,” he said. “Any florist knows: you pull on every family member you have at those holiday times.” All three of McCann’s children put in their time on major holidays. Per company ruling, however, they are not allowed to work for the company full-time until they have five years’ experience working somewhere else. “[But] I think they all have some level of interest in working here,” McCann added. Regardless of what his children decide to pursue, the President of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM wants to keep pursuing the flower business. He seems to have made peace with not getting a law degree; in fact, he can’t imagine deviating from his current role any time in the near future. “When you realize that we’re creating a great company and doing a great thing in the world, I’m pretty comfortable just staying focused on this for the next 10-20 years,” McCann said. And that ‘great thing’ for the world is simple: delivering smiles conveniently and thoughtfully. “We make sure the team of people that work in this company understand this,” McCann asserted. “I don’t want them to think that we’re selling flowers. I don’t want them to think that all we’re doing is transactional.” McCann appreciates this reminder as well. He tells of a conversation several years ago with his oldest daughter as she deliberated with him about her college choice. “She said, ‘Dad, you get to wake up every day and go to work knowing you’re making thousands of people smile,’” McCann related. “It’s something that I really took to heart, and it’s helped me shape and galvanize the company around that message. That’s what we do, we deliver smiles.” |
