If you ask any of our team members about the most exciting part about their job they will probably tell you it is the opportunity to witness a lot of beautiful love stories, some of which sound more like fairy tales. They will tell you they are lucky enough to not only witness these relationships unfold in front of their eyes but to also participate in them. We tend to take things personally here at Russian Flora, and that means getting involved. We ask customers questions and are eager to answer theirs to make sure that their gifts are not only personal but also fit the region and culture they are being delivered in.
One of our favorite Russian Flora romances begins in 2010, like any good story we start with two people very much in love and trying very hard to overcome everything to be with one another. The man, we’ll call him Mr. V, got us wrapped up in his love story with his very first order – a lovely bouquet of flowers – for his girlfriend Tatiana in Vitebsk, Belarus.
Mr. V was a loyal customer, and already trusted us with corporate gift deliveries, but this whole long distance relationship thing was new to him. He had never had a girlfriend from another country, so he needed advice on how to handle the situation.  At the beginning, he had a lot of questions for our customer service team regarding the best gift options, appropriate holidays, and local gift etiquette in general. Since some of our team members are also from Eastern Europe, they knew exactly how to help and gladly gave him useful tips on how to impress his significant other from Belarus. For instance, when you send flowers to loved ones in this part of the world it is very important that you send an odd number. Even numbers of flowers in a bouquet are often considered bad luck, and even an insult: that is not the way to start off any romance. We also helped him pick appropriate gifts for local holidays to make sure there’s no misunderstanding. Vast experience with previous customers in similar situations and the knowledge of Eastern European culture allowed our team to help Mr. V navigate this issue and similar ones with ease.
 
Mr. V’s first orders included all of the classics of romantic gifts like flowers, chocolates, and fruit baskets. But as their relationship grew, so did the gifts, with things like designer perfume, exquisite champagne, golden roses, and jewelry. With every order, Mr. V. was always meticulous and gave us detailed instructions about the time of delivery, packaging, her favorite brands, and the colors of the flowers. Luckily, our regional managers in Vitebsk never had a problem even with the most unusual requests and were always eager to help. Mr. V was thrilled with the level of dedication and attention to detail, and of course thrilled with Tatiana’s reaction to every lovely gift he sent.
With so many regular gift orders Mr. V quickly ran through our traditional romantic catalog; so he started ordering more sophisticated and even extraordinary custom gifts that impressed his girlfriend and our team! Among his custom orders were many useful items like a washing machine,
a big TV screen with LCD monitor, a camera, a new phone, and many other  surprises both useful and unusual. One  Christmas, he didn’t bother with regular gifts, but instead went above and beyond to  surprise his sweetheart with a full-size Christmas tree beautifully decorated with ornaments.
Tatiana and her young son were in a state of pleasant shock when they opened the door to our delivery guy 7 days before to Christmas. Mr. V was always careful to give her son just as much attention. A new Xbox, a skateboard, and an IPad are only a few of gifts he received from his mom’s new boyfriend on his Birthday, New Year, and Men’s Day. Our client even tried to surprise them both with a pet once!
A loyal (and romantic) customer for four happy years, Mr. V ordered over 40 gifts in total, most of which were custom. Over the years, our CS team established a great personal relationship with the client and our couriers became like a second family to Tatiana. Of course, there were times when not everything went smoothly and we had to really work with some of the most difficult orders, but the team always did their best to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Utmost sincerity and dedication made it all worthwhile.
For instance, he ordered a beautiful flower arrangement in a vase once to be delivered in the middle of January. It happened that there was a blizzard in Vitebsk that week, but our couriers made the impossible happen and delivered the gift safe and sound only a couple of hours late, even the poor road conditions couldn’t stop them. Also, remember that pet Mr. V wanted to get for Tatiana and her son? Well, even in the best circumstances buying a pet for someone you love is hard, and often you need them there to help pick it out. A puppy or aquarium with fish were his first two choices.
 
We worked with Mr. V to show him many of the adorable puppies we were able to find for Tatiana. Pictures were sent, dozens of emails, but ultimately he decided he was asking the impossible of us. There just wasn’t any way for him to get a good feel for the kind of dog he was sending to his girlfriend no matter how much information we sent him. He decided instead to go with a much safer investment of a large aquarium with 5 golden fish. It was quite exciting helping him with this extraordinary request and we are proud that we managed to meet his expectations and fulfill this complicated order.
At the end of 2014, Mr. V stopped ordering gifts to Belarus for his girlfriend, and we were both sad and happy to see his gift orders stop. You see the relationship we had watched grow and helped nurture for years had become something more. Like the end to every good fairy tale, Mr. V and Tatiana moved on to get married and start their happily ever after.
