Can you "resolve concerns with lack of order volume"?

CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
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Anaheim
www.avantegardens.com
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Heh. Job Opening for a 'Member Solutions Representative" at FTD:

Description
Member Solutions Representative (CSR)


​
Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

  1. Call new member florists to provide detailed training on FTD Quality Programs
  2. Call new member florists to review in detail their initial service statement
  3. Work with sales team and members to resolve concerns with lack of order volume
  4. Make 50 outbound calls per day
  5. Properly track performance to track daily activity

Requirements

  1. Superb customer service skills
  2. Strong excel skills
  3. Strong organization skills
  4. Excellent communication skills
  5. Prior training experience a plus
  6. Ability to make 50 or more outbound phone calls
Click to expand...
Emphasis mine. Pretty obvious one of the biggest concerns of new FTD members is the amount of orders they'll receive. Not really surprising, just interesting the point was highlighted in a job description.

Making 50 outbound calls per day to flower shops should earn these folks 'hazardous duty pay', too. ;) :>
 
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Wow, the sounds like coal minig, "dark, dreay and depressing". Even best of seller can't do 50 a day, maybe 24 and still not rip peoples heads off.......................
 
Requirements

  1. Superb customer service skills
  2. Strong excel skills
  3. Strong organization skills
  4. Excellent communication skills
  5. Prior training experience a plus
  6. Ability to make 50 or more outbound phone calls
  7. Keep your opinion of FTD out of the conversation.
Hmmm... I was going to apply until I got to #7....


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BOSS said:
Requirements


  1. Superb customer service skills
  2. Strong excel skills
  3. Strong organization skills
  4. Excellent communication skills
  5. Prior training experience a plus
  6. Ability to make 50 or more outbound phone calls
  7. Keep your opinion of FTD out of the conversation.

Hmmm... I was going to apply until I got to #7....


​
Click to expand...

this is a Tom Moeller "initiative"......I've been on the phone with him several times!
It is now PAST the time whereby leaving the name FTD out of the conversation will fly......more florists have flown the FTD coop this past year, than anytime in history!
 
I know someone that recently turned down a pretty good paying position qith FTD because, the person knew they would have to lie day in and day out to florists in order to make sales...
 
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BOSS said:
I can... they're probably burning through CSR's as fast as florists... LOL
Click to expand...

Your right. I had dinner month or so ago with my rep. and you good see the "stress" in his face and the "hurriedness' (is that a word) of his job. When the conversation with "south".................he's been there for a year and I think he's already "cooked".
 
bootcampguy said:
Your right. I had dinner month or so ago with my rep. and you good see the "stress" in his face and the "hurriedness' (is that a word) of his job. When the conversation with "south".................he's been there for a year and I think he's already "cooked".
Click to expand...
Yep Rick... I've known many of them over the years, and when you get to talk with them "off the record" it's amazing what you find out, and even more so when you chat with them after they have left and their non-competes expire and the kool-aid wears off... then you get to the really scary stuff...
 
Ryan is right on the mark. I agree that FTD's intent is to show members how to get the most incoming orders and convince us that it's good for us (more KoolAid?). It's true that most new florists join a wire service to get incomings. While the internet has changed things, the only reason I had for belonging to a wire service was to send outgoing orders and, for that, you only need one wire service. The vast majority of our incoming FTD orders are now from FTD.com or Just Flowers. The percentage of orders we get from real florists is under 10%. The 50 outbound calls is interesting. Members better not have many questions for their CSR if he/she has to make that many calls. They must cut you off after two minutes. Of course, they can't really provide any answers anymore, so it doesn't matter. My rep used to come in about three times a year and call once or twice. We now have a new rep I haven't seen (though he called at Valentine's Day to see if there was any way FTD could help me!). I never met his predecessor. An FTD rep hasn't set foot in the store since late 2007 or early 2008, so we've had three reps in four years.
 
The only way I can see any person being capable of meeting the criteria of "Resolve concerns about lack of order volume" is to tell the truth. All of it. In three simple steps AND this can count toward those 50 phone calls per day.

1.) Tell members that 90% of the orders FTD handles are from "Internet Florists". i.e og.
2.) Go through the numbers carefully with the member so that they can clearly understand that they are losing money on each of those orders.
3.) Problem "resolved". The members will cease to demand more orders.

This would certainly "resolve" many of those out there yammering for more orders. Unfortunately, it may have some negative impact on member numbers. Then the ogs would be even more unhappy, because they need fillers.

More than likely, the unpublished part of that job description involves convincing every member florist to become an og. Jump in! The water's fine!
 
Note the full line:
Work with sales team and members to resolve concerns with lack of order volume
Click to expand...

1) CSR calls florist
2) Florist complains about lack of incoming orders (cuz that's what most will emphasize)
3) CSR says "If you had POS / ASB / containers / 'go to' status then you would get more orders! Let me connect you with a sales rep to take care of that"

I think this line of the job description is mostly about converting complaints into sales. It just shows that most florists are still valuing WS based on incoming - which means we haven't spread the message far enough and wide enough.
 
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RKF said:
.............I think this line of the job description is mostly about converting complaints into sales. It just shows that most florists are still valuing WS based on incoming - which means we haven't spread the message far enough and wide enough.
Click to expand...

The nail has been struck on the head. Call to florists will convert the un-educated or people who's fear out outweigh their determination, for the "short term"................the postion should be called temp. position "Bandade Opening".................
 
Ryan, I think you hitthe nail on the head with today's newsletter. Florists chase incoming orders to the detriment of their shops in most cases. It takes a very smart operator, with a high volume to make even pennies on incoming orders.

I still don't understand why folks think this is good for their business. Yes it used to be, but now 38% or so of the sale is leaving the industry. Not good business to assist those removing the potential profit margin from the industry. But yet, florists continue to shoot... at themselves.
 
I'm sure FTD's primary motivation is their lack of revenue thanks to their drastically reduced membership. I know from my experience we did not have enough coverage through FTD to handle our outgoing wire business. This coupled with Teleflora's decision to allow a MAS interface made switching to them a no brainer. The Order Gathers would have to be of the same mindset. As for a large part of the industry still believing they can make money on in-coming orders, I'm sure you're exactly right. Why should the florist industry be any smarter than the public at large? Mindless cattle blissfully being milked of their last dollar by corporate greed. The new part of this equation is "the dairy is running dry". My hope is for all those happy cows to wake up before being sent out to slaughter.
 
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Becasue they don't know anybetter. I've spoken to very few who people who really know why they take orders and what they should do with the information (unlike me), I know why I take some of their orders............for me it's all about converstion rates. But to "blindly" fill orders and then wait for that check of crumms is ......................well enough said
 
Any chance the lack of volume is due to the number of florists leaving FTD?? That's all the talk out our way. I will be done after 34 years on May 1st!!
 
Ryan's message in Friday's email blast was very well said. FTD has been tying incoming order volume to purchases of technology and market place products and these CSRs will be able to direct sales reps to the florists most likely to buy more in order to chase more incomings.

But really, how much florist-delivered volume does FTD have these days? Take a look at the current home page as seen 'above the fold' (what a visitor sees on the screen when he/she lands on FTD.com):

FTD-Home-Page1.jpg

Out of 9 categories, only 1 features florist delivered flowers (The Luxury Collection) - and approx. 50% of those products are sent drop-ship, too. And in order for a florist to receive one of the Luxury Collection orders, IIRC they must first purchase the vase/box kit for about $20 each.

FTD's regular emails blasts to consumers primarily feature low-priced drop-ship items, so again, FTD florist-delivered products are rarely promoted to the public.

My guess is that few (if any) flower shops approached with these deals will ask:
- how many florist-delivered orders did FTD.com send to our market last year?
- what is the average order dollar amount (including delivery but excluding FTDs service charges)?
- what is the volume excluding major holidays (V Day, M Day, Christmas)?
- will FTD guarantee us a specific level of incomings (for x # of years) if we commit to these purchases?

Bottom line: Is FTD dangling a mythical carrot when florists are *assuming* there's something 'real' being offered to them?

Selling more POS systems and containers will definitely improve FTDs bottom line, but IMO the added expenses coupled with increases in incomings will put many local flower shops further in the hole.
 
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