Call from FTD

whether right or wrong, Doug was NOT being rude, just candid!
Ultimately, an order was "lost" because someone thought they knew more than someone else!!
My response would have been "fax" me the order, with the details, and your delivery date, and I'll deliver, with a credit card....NEVER MIND that FTD had NO idea what they were talking about!....IF an OG says "leave on front porch", LEAVE IT on the front porch with a note attached saying these were your explicit instructions, and you're done!
When the recipient calls, just advise them you MUST do as you're told, and THEY MUST get back to the sender letting them know that the instructions were followed to the letter, PERIOD!!
Do you KNOW how many new direct customers we've gained that way???..and we DO stand pat!!
 
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I don't think the order was lost I'm sure some other flower shop took it.
As for leavening on the door step I don't go anywhere anymore without calling first. I've had too many people not home for days
if they gone to a funeral out of town. So they'd come home to dead flowers if I left them on the door step.
Like I've said before I'm pulling up my big girl panties and moving on. I'm sorry I ever started this thread I guess we can't vent on here either.
 
I think it's a FABULOUS thread that you started, I'm sorry you needed to pull your panties 'down" in the first place, it's NOT a prerequisite to "vent"....
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
whether right or wrong, Doug was NOT being rude, just candid!
Ultimately, an order was "lost" because someone thought they knew more than someone else!!
My response would have been "fax" me the order, with the details, and your delivery date, and I'll deliver, with a credit card....NEVER MIND that FTD had NO idea what they were talking about!....IF an OG says "leave on front porch", LEAVE IT on the front porch with a note attached saying these were your explicit instructions, and you're done!
When the recipient calls, just advise them you MUST do as you're told, and THEY MUST get back to the sender letting them know that the instructions were followed to the letter, PERIOD!!
Do you KNOW how many new direct customers we've gained that way???..and we DO stand pat!!
Click to expand...

While that probably is a great way to go in order to cover your butt, in our small town if we left a flower arrangement on a doorstep with instructions that we were to do so in frigid weather by the sender and the flowers died, people wouldn't spread the news "OG told Sarah's Flowers & Gifts to leave the flowers, dont' buy from an OG"...it would be "Sarah's Flowers & Gifts left my fresh cut flowers out to DIE. I'm never shopping THERE!"

And I agree with what you stated above that if you replace the "FTD" with a regular customer, you probably wouldn't argue as much...but sometimes those OG's can be a pain in the rear.

But we all got to put in our two cents - so hopefully everyone's "panties and boxers" are not wedged anymore :D

Now let's hold hands and sing kumbya! :)
 
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I agree with Sarah you can't do stuff like that in small town Iowa it will hit the other end of town before you even get back ot the shop.
I wish we could have lessons on here for big shops to understand the rural shops and for us rural shops to understand what the shops in the BIG cities go thru.
Those last two letters made my day. Lots of funeral work to do today and the horrible tax man tonight.
So my panites are not in a wad but feeling very comfortable today. Till the phone rings and its starts all over again.
Here in Iowa the sun is shining but only 2 degrees this morning. But at least its not snowing. So its a good day so far.
Everyone have a great day!
 
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Sorry folks, the purchaser is not 'the customer' in this case - FTD is.

Here's the real problem: zero communication with the purchaser. It's easier for FTD to just find a shop who will deliver a day early (and risk the flowers being a day older during the service) than to contact the customer and tell them the viewing isn't until the following day. With an arrangement, the quality wouldn't be much different, but with an easel, the lack of water could definitely affect the freshness of the flowers.

Do you believe FTD would hold the delivering shop responsible if a problem arose from delivering a day too early? (Flowers going to the wrong service, quality issues, etc...) I do. And then more time is expended just trying to appease the purchaser and getting paid for what you were told to do in the first place.

We had an online order for a service with the delivery request of yesterday. Calling the mortuary, we found the visitation wasn't being held until 2 pm today. I picked up the phone and called the customer, and she said she just put in yesterday's date to make sure the flowers weren't delivered late. She'd had bad experiences with online ordering in the past and didn't want the flowers delivered after the visitation had starter. She thanked me for the call and said today's delivery was fine. Direct communication = better customer service, better relationship with the FH and better quality during the service.

The 'day early' request may have been from another purchaser 'trained' by past experience to ask for an earlier date so the flowers were on time for the visitation. You'll never know, because there's no way to talk direct with the purchaser and FTD is inefficient when it comes to handling communications between florists and purchasers.
 
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Spookyflowers said:
I agree with Sarah you can't do stuff like that in small town Iowa it will hit the other end of town before you even get back ot the shop.
I wish we could have lessons on here for big shops to understand the rural shops and for us rural shops to understand what the shops in the BIG cities go thru.
Those last two letters made my day. Lots of funeral work to do today and the horrible tax man tonight.
So my panites are not in a wad but feeling very comfortable today. Till the phone rings and its starts all over again.
Here in Iowa the sun is shining but only 2 degrees this morning. But at least its not snowing. So its a good day so far.
Everyone have a great day!
Click to expand...

see I TOLD you your thread was "relevant".....and speaking of "big shop awareness" as you've alluded to, we're a small shop, in a small town, in Ontario Canada, and we KNOW what is "acceptable" and what is not, AGAIN, it has been a GREAT way to gain customers, that have had "bad" experiences as Cathy (CHR) alluded to.....as long as your "tact" can explain WHY you should order from a shop DIRECT, and NOT a .CON
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
see I TOLD you your thread was "irrelevant".....and speaking of "big shop awareness" as you've alluded to, we're a small shop, in a small town, in Ontario Canada, and we KNOW what is "acceptable" and what is not, AGAIN, it has been a GREAT way to gain customers, that have had "bad" experiences as Cathy (CHR) alluded to.....as long as your "tact" can explain WHY you should order from a shop DIRECT, and NOT a .CON
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So, Mikey, with all due respect I see that on your signature you have a phrase that says "FlowerChat Headquarters The perfect place for florists that AREN'T"

I get the fact that, according to you, what was done was WRONG but no one is PERFECT and according to YOU this is the PLACE for those PEOPLE.

Why all the CAPS all the TIME? We get it. But I would NOT say that this thread was IRRELEVANT.
 
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Taylors_Flowers said:
So, Mikey, with all due respect I see that on your signature you have a phrase that says "FlowerChat Headquarters The perfect place for florists that AREN'T"

I get the fact that, according to you, what was done was WRONG but no one is PERFECT and according to YOU this is the PLACE for those PEOPLE.

Why all the CAPS all the TIME? We get it. But I would NOT say that this thread was IRRELEVANT.
Click to expand...

didja want me to add "Mikey's" FlowerChat Headquarters since it's a pic of MY perfect place for Mikey who isn't??
YOU did actually make me correct an above post...the thread was "NOT IRRELEVANT", and for that, I have humbly changed it...I was typing and correcting and it's interesting how the thought process doesn't ALWAYS work, when changing a post to reflect what you've re-thought through.
Spooky's post was "NOT IRRELEVANT", not "irrelevent"......<sigh>
 
anyway, if a direct customer was to "insist" on delivery the day prior, HOW would you deal with that??....you gonna "challenge" them?? because you "know"??
Somewhat hypocritical don't you think??
Screw Kumbaya......all you can do is "advise" and THAT'S where our "knowledge" must stop...I wonder if any of you feel "responsible" for customers turning AWAY from sending flowers because we "know" more better than them??
 
I must apologize Spooky.

Didn't truly appreciate how small Missouri Valley really is.

Population of 2792 in 2009, DOWN from 2992 in 2000.

As such, I must admit I cannot relate to what you deal with on a daily basis.

Only happy that I don't have to worry about it...
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
anyway, if a direct customer was to "insist" on delivery the day prior, HOW would you deal with that??....you gonna "challenge" them?? because you "know"??
Somewhat hypocritical don't you think??
Screw Kumbaya......all you can do is "advise" and THAT'S where our "knowledge" must stop...I wonder if any of you feel "responsible" for customers turning AWAY from sending flowers because we "know" more better than them??
Click to expand...

Speaking for myself, as I can only do - I do not think that I know more than the customer and don't usually challenge a customer.

We usually have customers come to us with questions wanting our knowledge and direction because ordering funeral flowers isn't something they often do and we are the professionals and this is our trade.

So it's not a matter of challenging the customer it's usually us informing them that someone may not be at the mortuary, or that the flowers could be comprised, etc. And you are probably correct, if they absoloutely demanded that the flowers be delivered a day early, we'd do it.

But I can also almost guarentee that if something were to happen to those flowers in between when they were delivered early, as requested, and the visitation the following day we'd hear complaints about it from the sender even though they were the ones who demanded they be there early.

I completely agree with you on the fact that all we can do is advise, but when we "advise" a customer they don't see it as advice or a suggestion, they usually see it as direct knowledge because we are professionals .

And they kumbya bit was a joke..trying to lighten the mood.

We all see things differently and we are most certainly never going to agree with each other always..how boring FC would be if all we did was agree.

So, I thank you for the thought provoking points you made, Mikey. I will surely remember this post next time a customer insists on an early delivery, and that's a good thing.
 
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as Prestonway alluded to, the "Spookys" of our business will ALWAYS have to work a lot harder, and be that more efficient, to get things done!! We've travelled through many small towns, Canada/US and "dropped" in on shops along the way, and though we talk the same talk, the "walk" is just a little "different", and many times we've come away with a new appreciation for how truly tough it is!!
We've also taken orders for delivery to parts of our "northland", some into serious boonies,that aren't serviced, and we may be within an hour from our lake house and have often shaken my head, that's it's NO wonder, that shops won't deliver "there!!"
Spooky shuda slapped me <dux>
 
Yes small town here I'm mostly a one horse show I do the designing,delivering,bookwork and clean up. I've not been out of the shop for a full day in over 3 weeks. The last 3 Sundays have been spent at work at least part of the day and this Sunday will be no different as we have memorial service at noon.
I've learned alot on this website some good and some bad this may have been the most entertaining if nothing else.
I agree the .coms are a pain in the neck I really hate when its someone I can't understand that makes life even more fun in a day.
 
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Spookyflowers said:
Yes small town here I'm mostly a one horse show I do the designing,delivering,bookwork and clean up. I've not been out of the shop for a full day in over 3 weeks. The last 3 Sundays have been spent at work at least part of the day and this Sunday will be no different as we have memorial service at noon.
I've learned alot on this website some good and some bad this may have been the most entertaining if nothing else.
I agree the .coms are a pain in the neck I really hate when its someone I can't understand that makes life even more fun in a day.
Click to expand...

so, waddya do with your spare time?? ;0)
 
What is spare time? Or do you mean at night when I go home sit in my chair to watch TV and wake up at 10 and go to bed LOL.
I've had my shop for almost 14 years and only one vacation in that whole time. I've tried to train people but they all want full time and I can't give it to them.
 
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