SnapBlooms’ CEO Murali Nethi Talks About How Small Businesses Can Use Automation

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker. We have Murali Nethi with us again to talk about how small businesses can leverage automation to get ahead in 2022. For listeners joining us for the first time, here’s a quick recap on previous episodes: we discussed selling flowers online and starting a business during the pandemic. Today, we’re going to talk about how small businesses, such as flower shops, can use automation to the same degree as big technology companies to drive growth. Let’s get started.

You touched on this earlier, and it’s something I wanted to discuss—automation for local florists. Automation can be awesome, and there are some great things that can happen, but you don’t want to take away that personal touch. When you think about your local florist, I just picture Barbara smiling behind the counter with flowers everywhere, seeming to have the perfect life. We don’t know her whole story; maybe she got up at 5 a.m. and some of her flowers weren’t great, so she had to send a few back. We don’t see all of that. Barbara’s always smiling because life is good when you’re a florist, for the most part.

Let’s talk about automation and how that happens. I want to discuss online businesses using automation. What is your opinion on automation, and what’s good and what’s bad?

Well, I can tell you there’s two feelings that I have about this. One is I wish a local florist would have reached out to me about a month ago because it was my wife and I’s 15th anniversary that I forgot about. So I’ll go ahead and let the world know that I am a bad husband, but now she forgot too. So that’s who both kind of said, “Hey, today’s 15 years, right? Wait, what’s today? Oh, yeah, what are we doing? Are we going on a trip?” So I forgot. I would have loved for any florist, anybody—even if you make candy or anything—to remind my absentee self. I got everything on my calendar, a million things, but I don’t have our anniversary marked. So to any local florist that hears this, you dropped the ball because I would have spent big bucks. Now, actually what I’m going to have to do is give her so many flowers that she doesn’t go get an attorney and divorce me, because I’m forgetting the important stuff here. I mean, if you really think about it, I don’t think she’s going to leave me, but that would have been nice for somebody to give me a call and say, “Hey, you want to go buy your wife 10,000 flowers.” And I’d say, “Yes, I do,” because I don’t want to forget. This next year I’m not going to forget, but this year, she forgot too. That wasn’t all me, right? But that would have been nice. I love that.

I once again think the attention to detail is the differentiator for me. I know plenty of software companies, and I’ve interviewed and talked to many where they’ve developed something and tried to bring it into an industry, and it just doesn’t have that personal touch. Where you guys have created something from the ground up, from real-world experience, it’s a differentiator because you’re saying, “Hey, people like to write on the cards. We think people like to see that handwritten, that you spent the time to do that.” And so we’ll still embed that, but the email to thank them—maybe that’s something that can be automated. You write an email, but nobody needs to know whether you typed it or whether it was automated. You also know what gets the best response rates because of the type of copy you write and the things you write there. So it’s like, why reinvent the wheel if you know what gets a good response from automation? On the other side of it, if you want to handwrite the cards or make the phone calls, that’s awesome, but the issue is, how are you going to know about the 10 people you need to make phone calls to today if you’re not informed? Is it the post-it note that you wrote—like all the 5,000 post-it notes you have at your office—and you go, “It’s around here somewhere. It’s post-it note 362; I don’t know where that’s at on my desk.” I mean, if I had $1, there was a point. I even have a lot of post-it notes on my desk right now. This is a podcast—you can’t see how many—so it’s not a problem. But I have to write stuff down, and while post-it notes are great for one or two things, anything past three or four, obviously, I didn’t write down my anniversary. I probably should have thought about that. That would have been an important one to write down, but I already missed that boat. So it is what it is.

I love the fact that if you want to be reminded because you’re a florist and you have 10,000 other things to worry about, let the software take care of these 15 things that are pertinent to your business—things you really don’t want to take up bandwidth in your head. I always call it “keeping it stupid easy.” It’s like, “Hey, let’s just take the headache out of this,” because you have a million other things to worry about. We talk about this as being entrepreneurs. The issue with being an entrepreneur is that you’re the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, you’re the janitor—everything. How do you take that all on? How do you become a great florist, a marketer, an accountant, a negotiator? I just want to do flowers, right? I’m a chef. I just want to make food. I don’t want to get into all the minutia and headache stuff, and that becomes cumbersome. A lot of businesses go down not because they don’t do good designs or have great food, but because they don’t handle the process—the other 90% of the stuff that you didn’t sign up for. I’m a chef; I just want to make food. But if nobody comes into your restaurant, guess what? You’re not making food. Nobody’s buying your arrangements. Even if they’re amazing, if nobody can find you, it doesn’t matter. We talk about that as marketers. You can have the worst product in the world, but if you have a great marketer, people will buy it. Or you can have the best product in the world, and if you’re not marketing it correctly, guess what? Nobody’s buying it. So that’s the thing: how do you get found? With florists, you can have great designs, but if nobody knows and you’re not selling them out the gate, you’re going to have to start working with someone else—you got to find the lead generation guy who’s bringing all the leads online, who doesn’t do flowers, and buy the leads from him, making your smaller percentage on the back end. I love that you guys have taken the headache away from that. And, like I said, if I didn’t have these florist clients, I would say, “Wow, sounds great.” I thoroughly get it. I understand the value of what you guys have created from the ground up.

So what are the—I mean, I understand, I guess—we’ve talked about the advantages for local florists, right? Obviously, to be able to do that, it really comes down to time saver. It’s probably not going to be—you don’t have to hire somebody to do this; the automation is already set up. Do you have any tips for local florists looking to boost their sales? Talk about that, because obviously you guys do the marketing, so you understand what works and what doesn’t work. Any tips, if we got any local florists listening today?

I love that. I think that’s the thing, and that’s a great point—if you’re a huge chain nationally, they have TV and other expensive marketing avenues for a local audience. But you have the advantage that anytime you’re doing local SEO, your address is the differentiator. You can say, “Hey, this is John’s board shop. He’s in the middle of this area. This is the address.” Really take advantage of that by going into Google My Business and other platforms to claim those profiles. We call it the NAP—the name, address, and phone number. Make sure those are all correct. I always tell people, “Go Google your business.” It doesn’t matter if you’re a florist or not; if you have the wrong email address, phone number, or address, you’re probably missing out on customers and clients. Google has done a big thing by saying that if you’re local, you’ll get preferential treatment in those areas. I think that’s what’s really important—to go in and see what it looks like for a consumer. Also, the more stuff you do locally, like directories and backlinks, the more you push through for your local market. For example, if I’m in Sacramento and it’s a Sacramento florist, see how many people are searching for that. There are also ways to write descriptions where you include your florist name plus your city, or a creative twist like “Sacramento Florist—Shane’s Place.” There are different ways to get creative with the local side of things.

At the end of the day, you can hire someone expensive like me, or you can have a solution that takes all the headache out of this and lets you click some buttons. You guys have been doing this for eight years, built from the ground up, and your customer service is amazing. You’ve only been doing software for 30 years, so you’re well seasoned. I love that you saw a huge need in the market and decided to take advantage of that.

Now, about Snap Blooms—is there anything exciting coming in? I know you guys have just launched not too long ago. Any new features or secrets you can share—anything fun?

Man, that is the place for me. That is it, man. I wonder if they’re looking for a permanent resident. I want to be happy. Could I bring smiles all day? I don’t know if I could make the index go any higher, but we’ll see. Maybe if I get out there, I’ll send you a picture of me smiling or I’ll send it to their council or their government and say, “Hey, listen, today’s the day, folks, we’re going to go up from 70% to 71% because I’m going to bring some smiles out there.” I love that. So got another question for you: if you could choose any superpower, what would your superpower be?

That is a man who is appreciative.

I love that you’re like, “Hey, I’ve already got the superpowers. I just want to hold on to them as long as I can.” I love that. That’s why I ask these questions, because some people are like, “I want to travel, I want to do this, I want to click my fingers and go somewhere.” And I think that’s awesome. But for you, you’re like, “I just want to continue to have feeling in my hands for 100 years.” And I was, you know, it’s like, appreciate what you have and really understand that you do have superpowers, and we can use those, right? Understand that as long as you use the powers given you by God, good things can happen. You just have to figure out how you’re going to use them and take care of yourself. I mean, that’s what it comes down to. So we already have our superpowers. I love that. That’s a great message. So happiness and you already got superpowers, folks. This has turned into a motivational speech. I love this. This is awesome. So what about—do you have any favorite books or podcasts or anything that either has shaped your career or your personality? Is there anything that you’ve listened to or read that has had an impact on you?

Now stop it. You’re just, man, I’m taking we’re going now I’m gonna go get the we’re gonna get up. I don’t have a plane, but we’re gonna go get a plane, but we’re going to go get a plane.

That’s awesome. So what about any books? If you read any books or anything—I’ll be honest, I read a book, and then I think about 10,000 other things. So I’m definitely more of an audible type. But any books come to mind?

That’s awesome. Okay, so what we’ll do, everybody, we’re going to put that book in the show notes, and we’ll put the other podcast too. I always get people saying, “Oh, I recommended a podcast; it’s a competitor.” I’m like, “No, that’s awesome. I don’t claim to be the best.” There’s always more knowledge and more people, and if we’re in the same industry, that’s awesome. Rock on—you’re doing better than me, and I’m doing better than you. It’s all about knowledge and helping each other in this crazy world. So really, it was awesome having you on the podcast. If anybody wants to get in contact with you or know more about your companies, give us some of the details.

You know what I love about that? You’re the first person ever to give out a phone number. That just shows how customers can call right now—there’s no reason to wait. If you call us right now, we’ll answer the phone. That’s when you know it’s customer service. Most people just say, “Here’s my email” or “Here’s my Instagram,” but you’re like, “Here goes a phone number. Give us a call.” And I promise you, that’s how you stay on top of what we do because we’re given a phone number. Love that—first guest to do that. Hey, man, you were awesome. This was a great interview. I appreciate everything you’re doing out there to help florists bring in leads and make good things happen—keeping the world filled with flowers, sharing happy places to go, and reminding me that I already have my superpowers. This has been awesome, man. I once again really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day. Thanks, Murali, for joining us. It’s been a pleasure to have you here and to learn so many fascinating things about the floral industry and the role of e-commerce, automation, and boosting sales. If you’re listening to this podcast and like what you hear, make sure you subscribe. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Next week, we’ll have another great marketing leader, so stay tuned to the Marketing Growth Podcast.