Direct WS Free Orders and 80/20

[Taylors_Flowers]

Valleygirl1's post on sales tax got me wondering about how the rest of you that do direct-ordering handle things.

We've been WS free for four years and do only direct with a cc, like valleygirl1.

I was wondering about a few things...

-Do you all give the 80/20 discount on the flowers only, or the entire order including delivery?

-Ever ran into any problems when doing taxes and having a lot of "tax-exempt" transactions?

-Any shops that refuse to do direct ordering with you (not looking for names people!! just curious..)?

When we first went WS free, we found a lot of shops weren't doing the 80/20 courtesy, but fortunately it's becoming more and more practiced. Although, I will admit, it's sometimes frustrating to see, especially at funerals , a lot of out-of-town names on sympathy cards from our competitor - knowing that she gets a lot of orders via WS (we're in a small town, so we always peek at the cards when setting up flowers....shame on us!)

Thanks for any input!

 

[Taylors_Flowers]

I just thought of another question - for those of you who are WS free, anyone have a creative way you get your name out to other florists to get incoming orders?

TIA!!

 

[anytimeflowers]

Do you belong to Flowershop Network? You can mark favorite florists as well as get them to do the same for you.

If you have your own e-commerce website, you can also make sure you are listed on every list you can find. You can find them by doing different searches for your own area, and when you get those lists, check out how the search engine found them, and see if you can list for free. I do google searches for florists now, so whoever comes up that can answer questions logically will probably get the order. I do have a few customers who order frequently for out-of-town for the same recipient, and so I have those florists in my own book for easy look-up, but also marked as favorites in FSN if they belong.

Although I would like to be a favorite sending florist for anybody who sends flowers to SAINT PAUL, MN, I concentrate on local business. As wire services continue to mess up, and consumers continue to wise-up, the emphasis is going to turn back to local, and that is really where your bread and butter should come from.

 

[BOSS]

BOSS's Quote of the Day~!

Although I would like to be a favorite sending florist for anybody who sends flowers to SAINT PAUL, MN, I concentrate on local business. As wire services continue to mess up, and consumers continue to wise-up, the emphasis is going to turn back to local, and that is really where your bread and butter should come from.

Amen.........

 

[nanvireega]

-Do you all give the 80/20 discount on the flowers only, or the entire order including delivery?

-Ever ran into any problems when doing taxes and having a lot of "tax-exempt" transactions?

-Any shops that refuse to do direct ordering with you (not looking for names people!! just curious..)?

We give the 80/20 split on the whole order. We have RTI and set each florist up with a customer #, as tax exempt and with a 20% discount.

There really shouldn't be a problem with the amount of tax exempt transactions, especially when it is done consistently, as it is really our business and how it has traditionally operated.

We have only had a couple of instances where a shop has declined doing an 80/20 split. Sometimes their objection has been the fee they pay to the CC companies and, if they are willing to speak reasonably, I always offer the additional 3-5%... In the long run, I'd rather give up 25% direct than pay all the other fees, etc from WS - and as an incoming shop, have the whole 80% in 3 days NOT 70% in 60 days!

Have to admit that as an RTI shop we still send 90% of our orders through WS - just because it IS easier... we don't have a tremendous amount of outgoing anyway anymore but our goal is to be completely WS free by the end of 2010. We left 800-FLOWERS at the end of December, are expecting to be out of FTD at the end of April and we will be sending only with TEL as of the end of April (I refuse to go through another Mother's Day as a slave to the WS - last year was my "straw").

However, because we are in South Florida, we do get a good amount of incoming orders. We have been cultivating 80/20 CC direct orders from other shops for about 4 years now and one member of my staff will be reaching out to all the shops that we typically get WS orders from as we look down the barrell of "no more incoming WS orders" to encourage those shops by offering to cover the CC fees if necessary. We have long & wonderful relationships with so many shops across the US and Cananda that I would hate to loose them.

Encouraging customers to trust you and have you be their "go to" florist means educating them in your ability to fulfill all their needs and be their "floral advocate". WE have spent years - and in some cases decades - building our relationships with each other as florists, WE are the experts and WE must educate our customers on the advantages of doing business with a Real, Local, Family Owned Flower Shop.

It's alot of work, but it's amazing how many customers forget that we PROVIDE that service... and once they know, they are SO happy! It is easier to click on their "favorite" button and call us directly than to go to Google and search and search and search. I really believe that our ability to provide that personal service is what will help us retain our customers - and bring back the ones who were lead away in so many directions by all the Pied Pipers... At least I hope so! ;-)

 

[valleygirl1]

Most florists do the 80/20 that I call. If they don't I just place the order anyway. I've had shops refuse to take an order because I'm not in a wire service, even though I would give them the full amount. I wish we could get a unified system going for non wire service florists.