Are you an SFO?

Status
Not open for further replies.
bloomz

bloomz

New Member
Nov 12, 2002
7,769
3,245
0
24
Corvalis
State / Prov
OR
I thought I posted this earlier but can't find it (I got busy and maybe forgot to hit submit) so...

Renee got me thinking.

If you turn off your incoming machine on holidays and still send outgoing - how is this different from an SFO?

Holidays being a huge part of wire business - crunch time is when it is needed the most.

Want orders on an everyday basis? Then you shouldn't suspend (except for weather or emergency) at holidays when you are needed the most. Again - if you can't staff up and handle holidays you need to get another job - holidays are when we should shine (most customer exposure).

I think is you suspend incoming you should by default have to suspend outgoing as well.

what say you?

I know

opinions vary.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
I try my hardest not to suspend ever....

I do suspend on the day before the holiday if I start getting rediculous orders with unreal expectations the day before a holiday. If florists would get a clue and realize that there may be slim pickins on dec 24th I would never suspend...Unless of course there was a major delivery issue or I cut off a finger and couldn't produce..
 
bloomz said:
I think is you suspend incoming you should be default have to suspend outgoing as well.

what say you?

I know

opinions vary.....
Click to expand...
Did that! Once we reached our saturation point and shut down the Merc, we began giving out direct florist numbers to our customers!
 
I usually quit sending orders far before I quit filling orders. For the simple reason that it gets hard to find accepting florists...
 
We turn off when the order can be filled,,,meaning we cannot fill for reqeust.
We generally have no local complaint, but the order that are sent out are the complaints.
IF you have not go it or can do it, shut off your machine.
We are having florist closed today until after christmas. So it is not just turning off your machines, if just plain finding a florist to fill a designer choicem which now is our second choice!
Like bloomz says opinion vary, and YOU must do what is right for YOU business wise, I like running my OWN BUSINESS!
Happy Holidays to you all!
 
I have turned off our Dove once since I've been in business - TF.com and Just Flowers and the like, all day the Friday before Mother's day. All undervalued, all for specifics. We turned it off for about four hours, till we could get caught up enough so I could sit and deal with the BS. After the holiday, I sent in my DNS requests, and hope to not have to deal with that issue again at a holiday.

Close to a holiday, I'm much more likely to call out our wire orders, so I can be sure they don't get bounced around, and have what the sender is looking for etc etc. This holiday, we've called out almost all of our orders - it's not been overwhelming, and I like talking to the shops, for a variety of reasons. They're shocked as all get out that we had our customers agree to a scattered delivery date - 20-21-22-23 "what, you mean we can deliver any of those days?".

That said, I agree though - if you turn off your machine, or curttail your incomings, you should do the same for your outgoings.

tracy
 
Our industry does more last minute work than any other. The mechanic doesn't hire more help, they just don't take anymore appointments. The pizzeria doesn't put on more staff because they still only have a limited amount of tables, when they're full up, you have to wait or go to another restaurant.
In what other industry can you get a perishable item, hand-made, and delivered in some cases in an hour...there aren't any. Of course the news reporters never give any credit for that...sorry I started pulling out my soap box...back to the point.

If you got into this industry and didn't realize there would be a heck of a lot of last minute holiday work then you didn't do your homework. But after one Christmas, VDay or Mom's Week you will soon learn. That said if you don't want to work harder, faster, longer and hire in additional help to do the same, then you haven't prepared for this or any other holiday.
There's never a reason to shut down your machine if you have properly prepared youself, your store and your staff. The only person your hurting IS ALL OF US. One dropped order is one more black mark on our industry and that hurts every one of us.
Keep the machines on, buckle up and enjoy the ride cause we still have the 2 biggest days to go!
 
Is there an OG on/off button on Dove and Merc?

I can see where a lot of shops might want to turn off the OG orders at Holiday.

However, when you turn off your Merc/Doves you also hurt Florist to florst business and the industry as a whole.

I wish TF would adopt the old AFS slogan.

And bloomzie you are correct. In effect, those that turn off the machines and refuse orders while still sending are SFO. or even a micro OG? ;)

joe
 
That's the one!!!!!!!

jamese said:
Like bloomz says opinion vary, and YOU must do what is right for YOU business wise, I like running my OWN BUSINESS!
Click to expand...


That's the one sentence that will never let this industry come together. Not picking on you jamese, but that's it in a chestnut shell.

1 order from a real florist with enough money, and 10 orders from OG-WS for undervalued no delivery, time consuming, reject-curtail-ask-ans-cancel crap. I'd turn my machine off also if I had one.

Opinions vary on both sides of the coin.
 
Not running your own business???? Thats not right???? I must be in la la land I do not understand why that will never work. Thanks for the comment Jerry.
Have a great holidiay.
 
Thats Why

jamese said:
Not running your own business???? Thats not right???? I must be in la la land I do not understand why that will never work. Thanks for the comment Jerry.
Have a great holidiay.
Click to expand...

thats the reason there is drop ship today. florist not willing to do what needs to be done to satisfy the customer. what other retail business closes sat-sunday-monday before Christmas? Everyone in our area hates us because we have most of the business, but guess how many days a year we close?
2, thanksgiving and Christmas days only. get with the plan or get in to another line of work.......
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
Have spoken to both UPS and FedEx this week, between the two, only one box of flowers and those from ftd.com
Both stated, stupid if they do drop ship here (New England) none of our trucks are heated.
As to shutting off merc/dove, we used to (don't have either now) mainly due to the above statements also OG, .com etc. BUT remember, small town shops DON'T have the access to holiday help as larger towns/cities may have. I don't have neither money or time to train flower stupid people (many of those who have applied in the past were plain illiterate) for three weeks. Most of them don't even want to apply for temp help in Small Town America.
Just my opinion and yes they do vary (hugs Jon)
 
bloomz said:
If you turn off your incoming machine on holidays and still send outgoing - how is this different from an SFO?

Holidays being a huge part of wire business - crunch time is when it is needed the most.

Want orders on an everyday basis? Then you shouldn't suspend (except for weather or emergency) at holidays when you are needed the most. Again - if you can't staff up and handle holidays you need to get another job - holidays are when we should shine (most customer exposure).

I think is you suspend incoming you should be default have to suspend outgoing as well.
Click to expand...

Don't agree at all. Frankly, I didn't know that you could suspend incoming and not outgoing. Even so, when you hit the point where you can't take anymore, you have to suspend. It would be irresponsible not to. If you could still take outgoings, more power to ya.
 
CHR said:
Rhonda -

Both FedEx & UPS drivers in yesterday told me they were seeing very, very few flower boxes from any company.

Stormy - great point.
Click to expand...

I heard that too, and stacks of noisy boxes with broken glass...

maybe it's starting to wane?
 
Re: TRIAGE! The MAGIC WORD.

Back in the Day (Pre-Skimmer) we never turned off our merc and filled every incoming REAL FLORIST order, as long as they were realistic.

Then, and beginning in 1984 with the advent of the 800 MIDDLEMAN PHENOMENA, that all began to change.

We reached the HEIGHT of the problem in 1996 when the new FORE PROFIT DOT.CON company and Rock Davis decided to inventory C1 through C9.

Only problem with their 800 and DOT.CON POS was in the fact that, THEY WERE NOT FOCUSED on SELLING the very HOLIDAY BRANDED PRODUCT we had bought from them.

Instead of FEATURING and SELLING the C1 through C9, they allowed their customers to pick out all other Christmas items which they HAD TOO MANY OF on their website.

And so, we were getting orders in for the CANDY CANE LANE BASKET (not a holiday branded).

When I called Rock and asked him WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON, his reply was that, the Candy Cane Lane Basket was very popular with their customers and their customers liked that price point. ($29.99)

OK Rock, then why didn't you folks make the Candy Cane Lane basket the C1 then? (DUH DUH DUH)

Well kids, I already knew the answer to that question.

Facts were that, how much money could they really make on selling WEE FLORISTS a white handled wicker basket?

That was the LAST HOLIDAY we would buy, stock, design, and then, take apart and put in our basement, hoping to sell some 12 months later.

Since they were not SELLING the very HOLIDAY BRANDED at their POS they expected us to buy, that did it fore mee.

After that fiasco, things only got worse with their DOT.CON orders as they lowered the SRPs while increasing their demands for $ERVICE, but without PAYING US FOR IT.

Then, I had this vision as many others had shared too!

What if we just focused on our own customers with their 100% sales plus our delivery $ervice charges and laid to rest the DOT.CON orders at a discount of (30%) with NOTHING for our delivery $ervice. WOW, what an amazing thought, EY?

And so, we shut our merc off three days before CRUNCH TIME and answered every telephone call which came into our shops.

That's called TRIAGE and when a REAL FLORIST called us, we were happy to help them out to, IF THEY WERE REALISTIC.

Sadly, while many of the bigger outgoing REAL FLORIST shops were/are effected, that's the price they have to pay because the MIDDLEMEN invaded our floral industry.

Of course, that required them to go even bigger into the DROP SHIP FLORIST EXCLUDED business.

Someone has to pay the price! However, it's just not going to BEE MEE since, there's no point in working for CHUMP CHANGE anyway, especially at CRUNCH TIME.

* HO * HO * HO
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back