Tiffany Falconer, a sales and design consultant at Ambius, discusses the benefits of interior landscaping and how to use scent to build up a business’ brand. A preview of the holiday decor available at Ambius is discussed as well.
To contact Tiffany Falconer, call or text 402-510-9747
To contact Brad Boyum, call 402-991-5410 or click here
[1:06] What is interior landscaping?
[3:51] When should you contact Ambius?
[6:15] From a live panel to color rotations, discover plant options
[13:12] The timeline for interior landscaping
[14:06] What is scenting?
[19:01] Use scent to build a business’ brand
[23:37] A preview of holiday decor available at Ambius
Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this interview. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us:
To contact Tiffany Falconer, call or text 402-510-9747
To contact Brad Boyum, call 402-991-5410 or click here
| Brad Boyum: | Hello, my name is Brad Boyum with Boyum Law and I’m here with Tiffany Falconer and Kim Kavan of Ambius of Omaha. We are here to talk about their business. Would you guys go ahead and introduce yourselves, and we’ll get into what you guys actually do.
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| Tiffany F.: | I’m Tiffany Falconer and I’m the sales and design consultant here at Ambius.
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| Kim Kavan: | And I’m Kim Kavan. I’m the branch support manager at Ambius.
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| Brad Boyum: | And so, from my limited knowledge, and these guys will get into more detail, Ambius provides a unique service with plant design for primarily commercial or office space, scenting of those offices, and also some outdoor design plant work and interior artwork. They do some seasonal decorating, too, but I’ll let them get into some more detail. So, would you guys provide a little more specific details on what I just gave.
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| Tiffany F.: | Well, we do as you said Brad. We do interior landscaping is what we typically say. We do indoor plant displays with decorative containers. We also do exterior plant displays. So, when you come up to a business, you see the plants out there in those nice containers and beautiful blooming flowers and tropical plants.
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| Brad Boyum: | These are live plants?
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| Tiffany F.: | They are live, yes. We do some replica which is the fake or silk plants as some people call it. We do those displays, however, it’s not what we really enjoy.
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| Brad Boyum: | Sure, so, lets narrow it down I guess on the plants or the plant architecture or design. What is the process? So, someone comes in, they’re getting a new office or building, whatever they’re doing. When do you guys normally show up or when would be ideal for you to be involved in the picture so to speak?
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| Tiffany F.: | We have been involved on all levels. I mean I’ve been contacted before they’ve even broke ground on a new business. And then, I’ve been called a month after they’ve moved in or guess what? Our open house is in a week, what can you do for us you know, so all stages. It is nice to be introduced into that new company during the planning phases or when they’re getting ready to move in just so you’ve got that addition of those plants that are going to warm your space up and just make your space look that much better when you first open your doors. But yeah, just any stage basically.
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| Brad Boyum: | What sort of reasons do people bring you guys in to have plants?
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| Tiffany F.: | Well, plants do help deflect noise. So, sometimes if we have an office like this with the very high ceilings, the plants will add basically noise barriers that will help with the sound. But, most people, they just want the look of the plant to soften their business. There are plants, obviously cleaning the air. A sansevieria, like in this corner, is one of the most air purifying plants you can have. I’ve got three in my home.
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| Brad Boyum: | What’s that? What is that plant?
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| Tiffany F.: | That is a sansevieria zeylanica. The layman’s term is mother-in-law’s tongue.
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| Brad Boyum: | I’ve seen a bunch of your work whether it was the pictures you showed me or the stuff online. Talk some about it, cause there’s some pictures of plants hanging on walls and actual plant walls. So, talk a little bit about that.
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| Tiffany F.: | Some smaller offices that don’t have a lot of floor space, sometimes they will want something hanging on their wall with the live plants. So, here in our office we have a live panel, which is attached to the wall. It’s all built in and it sticks out just maybe three inches from the wall. But, with a live panel, we have many options. So, live panel you can make as long as you like, within reason. You can kind of adjust it to whatever wall you’re putting it on to make it larger or longer or taller.
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| And then, we have live picture which are one or two frames, whatever you want. Like it says, it’s a live picture. You can put it on the wall where you would put a picture. No plumbing is required or electricity. It’s all built in. And, customers have added a frame to the outside. We’ve had people in Kansas City, I think it was, doing an American flag order. So, you can kind of customize the live picture. And then, upfront here in our office we have smart wall. It’s a freestanding wall that does require electricity.
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| Kim Kavan: | Electricity, yes.
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| Tiffany F.: | And that’s just a cabinet basically and some people put it up against the wall. You can put the single like we have or you can bump up to the next one and go as far as you want.
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| Kim Kavan: | Or you can put them back to back.
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| Tiffany F.: | We’ve had back to backs. Those are good if you’re wanting a little wall divider.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, do people change plants, say rotate different plants in based on seasons or based on what they want or how do people do that or do they just tend to leave the same types of plants in their office?
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| Tiffany F.: | Say I said, okay, we’re going to do a sansevieria in this corner, and then eventually if the plant starts to fail, our services cover that we will replace that plant. It’s no additional charge per contract, but we will replace it. And, sometimes a customer may say, “Well, we’ve had that plant there for a year. Let’s change it up. Can we do something different?” There are options because plants have different levels. We have our premium plants, we have our standard plants. So, that would be a standard plant. So, we’d be able to replace it with multiple other options and not affect price at all.
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| Kim Kavan: | Depending on the light level, that’s how we decide on what plant goes into that.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, they don’t necessarily change based on if there’s snow on the ground outside?
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| Tiffany F.: | No.
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| Kim Kavan: | We have color rotations.
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| Tiffany F.: | So, color rotations. In November we put out the mums. Something that goes with the fall season. And then, December we’ll put our poinsettia’s up front. So then, it would switch out. It’s mainly in the high focus areas that the customers like to do that rotational.
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| Brad Boyum: | Keep it fresh.
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| Tiffany F.: | Yeah, so a lot of times at receptionist desks or lobbies, just high traffic areas are where our customers tend to like the color change out and rotation.
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| Brad Boyum: | Sure, you mentioned pricing and things. So, do you guys maintain and water the plants and things like that? You come in and handle all that?
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| Kim Kavan: | Yes, we have a plant care specialist that comes in and takes care of the plants.
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| Brad Boyum: | And then, kind of jumping over to the art work. Does that work similarly? So, do you guys get a theme or find out what sort of feeling they want in their office and then just go from there?
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| Tiffany F.: | I don’t specialize in the art work. I have to go into an empty space or it’s just depending on what the design is of the building. And, sometimes we’ll incorporate plants with the art work but as far as art work, we can do any type as well.
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| Brad Boyum: | So you get brought in, even if it’s an existing office. What’s the initial interview or what are the steps that you go through for someone that already has a space and they just need help and have no knowledge of what they’re asking for other than they want some plants in their office?
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| Tiffany F.: | Well, I always like to go visit the space just so I can see what it looks like, what your design is, and what the color scheme is and everything just to get a good feel for it. And then, I just know by looking at a space. Okay, what do we need design wise to soften or whatever look you’re going for? What are you looking for and then how can we help you achieve that goal? So, I go in and I just give my professional opinion and then work up a proposal and send it over to you. Typically I’ll include photos as well. We have software that helps us give you an idea of the look. That really helps customers put it into perspective because a lot of people are visual and they like to see what their space will look like.
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| Brad Boyum: | How long does that take? From first meeting to when everything is installed if it’s a normal sized 3000, 4000 square foot office.
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| Tiffany F.: | Typically, once the paperwork is signed and everything, I always say three weeks. It could be sooner, but I like to say three weeks just because we want to make sure everything gets in.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, let’s jump to scenting which was interesting to me. So, talk a little bit about scenting and what people are trying to develop. You mentioned scent branding earlier, but what are people trying to do when they scent their office? I’m sure a lot of people have the picture of the bathroom thing that squirts.
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| Tiffany F.: | Aerosol.
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| Kim Kavan: | Yeah.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, that’s not what that is. So, I guess explain the difference and then what people are trying to do.
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| Tiffany F.: | Well, our technology is much more sophisticated than your aerosol cans. You know, I don’t know if you ever hold a can up into the air, you can see the droplets in the air and then you just see them dropping. You can watch that.
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| Brad Boyum: | Or worse yet, you can feel them.
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| Tiffany F.: | Yes, and sometimes you feel it in your eyes. But, our technology when it comes out of the dispenser, the micro droplets are so small that it’s a vapor. You can see it going into the air and that allows it to linger in the air and stay and give it a more even distribution throughout your space.
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| Brad Boyum: | And, I mean I’ve seen the units and they’re smaller, not obviously the plastic things in a lot of bathrooms, but they also have levels. I guess you want to call it that, so you can control how powerful the scent is. So, I think that’s good and the plastic ones it’s obviously a very powerful smell when it first comes out and this is much more of a constant background smell if you want to call it that.
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| Kim Kavan: | Yes.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, where the scent is low enough you may or may not notice it until it’s brought to your attention. And, it can be used in homes. You mentioned that the units themselves are relatively small so there’s no reason it can’t be put into a home.
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| Tiffany F.: | Yes, and we do have some residential customers with the scenting units. And, we have different units for different size spaces. It just depends on how much you want to scent. We have units that attach to the HVAC and they’re pumping it through.
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| Then, we have our cubes, which is our smallest unit. Residential customers like that too.. I know I’ve tested it out in my house as well where I have it in the basement and I have it on level two and I smell it when I walk in to my house on the second level. So, I think they are more powerful than we sometimes say they are. They go from a level one to 50.
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| So, you can have it to where you barely smell it. You don’t want to gag people out. I’ll do scenting trials for people as well, and I always start it on a lower.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, as far as the reasons people use scenting, you mentioned scent branding you for chains or places with multiple locations to have continuity in their business. Obviously, older businesses or older buildings have issues with smell just based on their age. What are some of the other reasons? Is there any sales related or marketing related types things?
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| Tiffany F.: | There’s multiple studies on the effects of scent and customers. There’s a particular study that customers will stay in a business 30% more or X amount of time more if it’s scented right. I mean I’ve experienced it to where there’s a boutique in town that I had gone into and it just had a horrible scent and I just wanted to get out of there pretty quick.
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| Brad Boyum: | So it made it so you didn’t buy anything.
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| Tiffany F.: | So, I didn’t buy anything. I’ve been there since, but every time I go in there I remember that.
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| Brad Boyum: | Yeah.
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| Tiffany F.: | And you know, I just remember, “Oh, is it going to smell like that today?” So I mean, if you walk into a place and it has a pleasant scent, it makes you think it’s a clean place. Studies have shown you will stay in a place longer and you will buy more if you’re in a nicely scented environment.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, how many scents are there, ignoring custom scents?
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| Tiffany F.: | I think there’s probably close to a 100 at least. We’ve got piña colada scent, we have fruit scents, we have holiday scents. So, we have some customers that they want to scent it a specific scent throughout the year except maybe they change it up in September hits and then we keep that in there until mid-January or late January.
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| Kim Kavan: | Right, we have a Christmas tree scent that smells like a live Christmas tree. You know, for those people that are allergic to a live tree.
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| Brad Boyum: | You mentioned custom scents. So, a business will come to you and say, “We want something designed.” So, how do you guys handle that work or do they just tell you generally what they want and you try to come up with a formula?
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| Tiffany F.: | Well, there is a process involved with that. Obviously it is pricier to customize and have your own scent. There’s a series of questions that would be asked just to find out exactly what type of scent you’re looking for and then it just goes from there.
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| Brad Boyum: | Interesting. And, what’s the maintenance on a scenting machine? Are they cartridges you reload every two months, six months?
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| Tiffany F.: | We have cartridges, but we take care of that.
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| Kim Kavan: | Depending on the level of scent, how much room you’re trying to scent, some cartridges have to be changed out every month, some every quarter, and some twice a year.
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| Brad Boyum: | And, as far as the machine itself, do they buy that or rent it or either/or?
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| Tiffany F.: | We do a rental and then the cube is now available for purchase.
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| Brad Boyum: | Interesting. Well, let’s touch on the holiday décor. I realize that we’re not really in the holiday season other than the fourth.
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| Tiffany F.: | We are.
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| Brad Boyum: | Well yeah, you guys are, early planning.
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| Tiffany F.: | We’ve been planning for months.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, let’s touch on that. Christmas obviously will be a big holiday. Do you guys do a lot of Thanksgiving decorations?
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| Tiffany F.: | No, we don’t have any Thanksgiving customers or Halloween customers. It’s basically just the holiday Christmas season that we do.
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| Brad Boyum: | So, those go up right before or right after Thanksgiving then?
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| Tiffany F.: | Yes, I think our first customers install is typically right the first week in November.
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| Tiffany F.: | Yes, I think our first customer’s install is typically the first week of November. So, we install holiday trees from like tabletop size all the way up to 30 feet.
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| Brad Boyum: | That would not fit in my house.
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| Tiffany F.: | That wouldn’t fit in too many people’s homes. That is a big project. Basically, it’s a team putting together layer by layer this tree.
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| Brad Boyum: | At the location?
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| Tiffany F.: | At the location, yes. We bring in a little lift for it.
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| Brad Boyum: | Interesting. Why don’t you guys give your information on how someone actually contacts you so we can send some people your way.
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| Tiffany F.: | They can contact me directly. My e-mail is tiffany.falconer@ambius.com or they can call me or text me. I mean any way that’s convenient for the customer. My number is 402-510-9747.
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| Brad Boyum: | Perfect.
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| Brad Boyum: | Thank you guys.
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| Tiffany F.: | Thank you.
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| Brad Boyum: | I guess I better hurry up and get in line for the Christmas décor.
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| Tiffany F.: | Yes, give us a call.
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| Brad Boyum: | Perfect, well …
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