Don’t Rely on Garden Centre Advice

For plants and garden products, do not rely on the big DIY chain stores for expertise and after sales support. This is the main conclusion of a consumer survey by Which? Gardening. The big independent garden centres are the places to go if you want horticultural expertise, a wide range of quality plants and garden accessories. They are in fact in a premier league of their own. While the big-name chains such as Focus and Homebase are at a much lower level.

The significant finding of the Which? Gardening survey revealed the worst of the independents had a customer satisfaction score of 79% as the best of the big chain stores (The Garden Centre Group Trading Limited, the garden centre formerly known as Wyvale) had a score of just 49%.

When buying plants at M&S or the local supermarket it is forgivable that the staff may not be up to ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ standard but in truth these outlets outranked the garden centers too. Morrisons stood out for their high quality range of seasonal promotions such as bedding plants. The problems are that staff is difficult to get hold of and then they don’t answer gardening related questions well enough when they are pinned down.

Blooming marvelous at the top of the independent garden centre customer service league table is Coolings of Kent. This was definitely the favourite in all categories with a huge range of quality items and plants, approachable people who knew what they were talking about when it came to customer queries. Which? Gardening made this a significant piece of customer consultation questioning 6222 garden centre visitors about their experiences within the last year. That all the independents at the top of the league were in the ‘home counties’ probably says something about the geographic focus of the study. However being such a large survey it is reasonable to suppose that the findings apply over the whole of the country. There were in fact 53 garden centres covered by the customer opinions.

Be in no doubt that the chain stores are rightly popular because of the value for money aspect of customer service. However if you are in the market for plant stock, garden equipment and some good guidance and advice following your purchase then you are advised to find a local independent supplier. There really is a step difference in the expert responsiveness.