本來約好了在花墟太子道西210號地舖的「花點時間」做回訪的店主Alex，因員工有事請假臨時要代班而轉移見面地點，很高興終於都能依時在位於北角薈的You N Me Floral與Alex初次見面。互相介紹後就一見如故，傾談得很暢順，很快就了解到Alex過去10年的發展經歷。10年前他第一次聯絡Rocky，當時他在一餐廳工作，有興趣使用iCHEF點餐POS系統，但在功能方面因與他們要求有距離而沒有選用，兩年前他決定轉行，立志在花藝界創業，首先在銅鑼灣租了一個不夠100平方英尺的迷你鋪位，這就是他花店的發跡地，當時已有線上落單的配套，很快就發覺太小的鋪位無法應付逐漸擴張的業務，搬到沙田石門製造工場，然後再搬家兩次到目前較大的單位。門市方面，第一間正常面積的花店命名You N Me落戶在北角薈商場第二期G21舖，跟著看中了灣仔海港中心添加一間分店，然後近期對源自內地的「花點時間」連鎖產生興趣，拿到了在香港的經營權，並決定衝進香港的花卉總匯 – 花墟開設首間分店，地點是在太子道西210後一所古物諮詢委員會評級為二級歷史建築物的地舖，打算撥出部份呎數發展其他服務，同時在看花墟一帶有沒有合適地點開設多一間「花點時間」。Originally, the plan was to meet Alex, the owner of “Spend Some Time,” at their ground-floor shop located at 210 Prince Edward Road West, Flower Market, for a follow-up visit. However, due to an employee taking leave unexpectedly, Alex had to step in, and the meeting location was shifted. I was delighted to finally meet Alex for the first time at You N Me Floral, located in North Point Harbour North. After introducing ourselves, we hit it off immediately, and the conversation flowed smoothly. It didn’t take long for me to learn about Alex’s development journey over the past decade. Ten years ago, Alex first contacted Rocky while working at a restaurant. He was interested in using the iCHEF POS system for ordering, but the system’s functionalities at the time didn’t meet his needs, so he didn’t adopt it. Two years ago, Alex decided to switch careers and set his sights on starting a business in the floral industry. His journey began with a small shop under 100 square feet in Causeway Bay, which became the starting point of his flower shop. While he already had an online ordering system in place, he soon realized that the tiny space couldn’t accommodate his growing business. He moved to a workshop in Shek Mun, Sha Tin, and later relocated twice more to progressively larger premises.On the front-end retail side, Alex’s first full-sized flower shop, named You N Me, was established at Shop G21, Phase 2 of North Point Harbour North Mall. He later expanded with a second branch in Wanchai’s Harbour Centre. Recently, he became interested in the Mainland Chinese flower chain “Spend Some Time” and successfully obtained the franchise rights for Hong Kong. Determined to enter the heart of Hong Kong’s flower hub, the Flower Market, Alex chose 210 Prince Edward Road West as the location for the first branch. This ground-floor shop is in a Grade II historic building recognized by the Antiquities Advisory Board. Alex plans to allocate part of the shop space for other services while scouting for another suitable location in the Flower Market area to open an additional “Spend Some Time” branch.
首間「花點時間」籌辦開業時，他記起10年前遇過的Rocky，聯絡他看看iCHEF系統的功能發展到現在是否已達到他需求的水準，結果決定使用這系統。問他過去幾星期遇到的問題，他就提到上了年紀的員工對系統運作適應得很慢，我們就建議由King用耐心指導的方法從新培育他們，我們約了Alex三天後到花墟店再回訪他及那些需要幫助的員工。臨離開時邀約了Alex參加我們與恒生銀行3月11日合辦的工作坊。While preparing to launch the first “Spend Some Time” store, Alex recalled meeting Rocky 10 years ago and contacted him again to see if the functionalities of the iCHEF system had since evolved to meet his requirements. He decided to adopt the system. When asked about challenges he’d encountered in the past few weeks, Alex mentioned that older employees were adapting to the system very slowly. We suggested that King patiently guide and retrain those employees. We scheduled a follow-up visit to the Flower Market store three days later to assist Alex and his staff. Before leaving, we invited Alex to attend a workshop co-hosted by us and Hang Seng Bank on March 11.
三天後，按照約定時間King與Uncle David兩人一起去拜訪「花點時間」，抵達時店面非常繁忙，進來買花的顧客絡繹不絕，但Alex百忙中不斷抽出時間與我們溝通，並提出有關希望會員系統能處理以個別產品為基礎換取積分，我們答應幫他研究可行性。由於他們仍未安裝Global Payments過數機，他決定押後員工訓練這部份，只是當場要求King在iPad上再次解釋POS功能的流程就夠了，過數機安裝後再約我們提供訓練。Three days later, as agreed, King and I visited the “Spend Some Time” store. Upon arrival, the shop was bustling with activity, with a continuous stream of customers coming in to purchase flowers. Despite being extremely busy, Alex took the time to communicate with us and raised a request about implementing a membership system that could allocate points based on individual products. We agreed to explore the feasibility of this feature. As Global Payments’ card machines had not yet been installed, Alex decided to postpone training his staff on this aspect. Instead, he requested King to re-explain the POS workflow on the iPad right then and there. Once the card machines were installed, Alex planned to schedule another training session with us.
