The Group

PlantWorks after sales support

A. Product launch

In order to ensure that rootgrow retails successfully for you we strongly recommend that you adopt the following proven best practice:

  1. Staff Training This will be delivered by a qualified rootgrow representative. This 45 minute training session should be given to all senior managers, plant area staff and key sundry staff. The staff training can be conducted on site and repeated 2-3 times to allow staff to be rotated so that general garden centre day to day duties to still be achieved.
  2. Point of Sale (POS) These innovative POS bed cards should be displayed in certain key areas throughout your plant area. They are designed to encourage customers to ask staff (who have been trained) for further information about rootgrow.
  3. Product placement Although rootgrow should have a place on the sundry shelves our weather proof packaging can be displayed elsewhere. PlantWorks have also developed innovative display solutions such as clip strips (which use dead display space indoors and can also be used outdoors) and space saving free standing Euro hook holders.

    Recommended display areas indoors are;
    • Sundry shelves by rose food
    • Sundry shelves by soil treatments (e.g. clay breakers, straights)
    • With drought products
    • Near tills
    • In information areas
    • Alongside bulbs using our unique POS

    Recommended display areas outdoors are;
    • Plant information area
    • With roses
    • With hedging
    • With Trees
    • With specimen plants

    The rootgrow product can be displayed in any of the above areas without infringing on valuable hot-spots throughout the site. The space rootgrow takes up on shelves initially can be relatively small however a strong brand presence can still be achieved if rootgrow is well displayed using some of the above suggestions.
  4. Follow up to in-house training PlantWorks will supply a CD Rom after the initial training session. It is advisable to encourage staff to read a few of the articles as a form of revision. If staff are interested in further detail then there are also scientific papers on the CD. The case studies on the CD should also be printed off and circulated and possibly displayed. Some large garden centres save the entire CD on their local intranet so all staff can access the information from any PC with network capabilities on site.

B. Product development

Once you have successfully introduced rootgrow to your business, the following are tried and tested means of ensuring continued strong sales.

  1. Featuring rootgrow in Garden centre newsletters.
  2. Offering product giveaways e.g. spend £30 this weekend and get a free sachet of rootgrow.
  3. Encouraging staff to read the technical papers supplied on CD and possibly offering incentives or a bonus scheme for staff to sell rootgrow
  4. Featuring rootgrow in product promotional leaflets on tables in your café (should you have one)

C. PlantWorks continued support

PlantWorks will continue to offer support throughout the first season and following seasons to ensure sales of rootgrow go from strength to strength.

  1. An advanced training session for key staff conducted by Mark Mackie (Sales & Marketing Director) or Dr John Dodd (Technical Director).
  2. Direct technical phone support: Any questions you staff or your customers have can be passed directly to PlantWorks for a response.
  3. A Talk for Garden 8. Once more than 50% of garden centres in a specific county stock rootgrow, PlantWorks’ media consultancy company, Coast Communications, will commence a local press and radio to raise awareness of rootgrow. In addition to this PlantWorks will hold talks for local gardening groups including subjects like “Garden Warefare – How to Control Pests and Disease in the Garden by enhancing Biodiveristy and Wildlife using Natural Biological Products and Chemicals.
  4. Personalised POS material to include corex boards, posters and current POS cards individually designed with the garden centres branding and promotional ideas in any size and any amount (within reason).
  5. Co-Branding – if your account is sufficiently large PlantWorks can co-brand its products for you. Please contact us directly for further details.
  6. An annual sales review to include staff training for new staff.
  7. PlantWorks will continue to lobby the national media to keep the story of mycorrhizal fungi at the fore-front of the publics minds
  8. Signing up to the PlantWorks’ email database which will contact you with new information regularly throughout the year. This system works best when a single member of staff with a personal email address is given responsibility for receiving this information and distributing it to relevant staff.
  9. A meeting between the garden centre’s marketing department and Mark Mackie to discuss launch promotions and continued product promotion.