Dropping Teleflora

[conchandler]

NicoleAtTF:

Why is Teleflora in bed with ProFlowers? It is to make more money for Teleflora...that's why. Teleflora is cutting the REAL Florist out of the loop by competeing directly with us throuh ProFlowers.

As for all of the services that are provided to the florist by Teleflora ... every one of them can be purchased ala carte through other service providers at a lower cost for the florist.

 

[nanvireega]

See there, that's the problem, you can't get what YOU WANT unless you take what THEY WANT you to take. Can't have one without the other...

They would rather lose florists that think like you do, rather than work out equitable solutions that would benifit BOTH parties...

Teleflora and FTD....dumb and dumber

I know... BIG problem!

FTD is loosing us too for the same reason. We were using a serivce through them to do our PPC advertising - LOVE the service BUT FTD was not demanding anything from the service provider to make the changes necessary for it to work properly for the Floral Industry. I stuck it out for 9 months!

Jan & Feb was the straw that broke my back and now we are leaving.

If FTD had chosen to invest some real time and attention to this product not only would I have stayed, but I would be dancing through the streets telling others to use it.

I will say that Telelfora does an excellent job of making sure that the services they provide shops are really working for us. That's why leaving RTI & CC processing will be such difficult choices for us. Teleflora does invest in these services to make them what they are and their SUPPORT is really hard to beat.

I am going to miss Teleflora WebServices, they have been awesome to us! But we have to make changes and this particular one is a NO-BRAINER!

 

[BOSS]

I am going to miss Teleflora WebServices, they have been awesome to us! But we have to make changes and this particular one is a NO-BRAINER!

Strider.com does it better....and cheaper I would bet....

 

[nanvireega]

Strider.com does it better....and cheaper I would bet....

That's where I'm a-going ;-)

 

[mikec]

A Strider site and Floristware makes for a great combination...

 

[domineaux]

See there, that's the problem, you can't get what YOU WANT unless you take what THEY WANT you to take. Can't have one without the other...

They would rather lose florists that think like you do, rather than work out equitable solutions that would benifit BOTH parties...

Teleflora and FTD....dumb and dumber

The wire services know what is going on. They have their ears to the ground... or they hang on flowerchat type forum sites.

They are in a bad place...

1) They make the lions share of revenue from their montly fees, not the commissions.

2) They need send orders to keep filling florists paying those fees.

3) The need is great, especially now in a downturn economy.

4) IMO, the wire services basically survive now because WS has been so much a part of this industry for so long.

I good strategy for WS would be to lower those monthly fees now during these tough times. Be more sensitive to help local florists become better senders. This could be done with their cookie cutter websites and SEO that was pointed to help local florists, in lieu of the WS and OG sites.

As it is now the WS have taken the easy route, but they are basically biting the hand that feeds them. Being lazy and not doing what helps the local florists (beyond sending them a few orders) will not suffice within a few years. The sophistication of SEO has got to be better addressed by the WS to help local florists to generate their own send and receive business.

I doubt this will be done, just like GM and Chrysler. The bottomline and improvement of Stockholder's equity cannot be satisfied by discussions of new strategies that will seriously affect stockholders.

So, I suggest local florists will have to drop WS, examine and apply new marketing strategies of theikr own within the industry to survive.

The internet is now a very pervasive medium for marketing and the florists that want to be here tomorrow need to educate themselves or find another line of work.

 

[conchandler]

The wire services know what is going on. They have their ears to the ground... or they hang on flowerchat type forum sites.

They are in a bad place...

1) They make the lions share of revenue from their montly fees, not the commissions.

2) They need send orders to keep filling florists paying those fees.

3) The need is great, especially now in a downturn economy.

4) IMO, the wire services basically survive now because WS has been so much a part of this industry for so long.

I good strategy for WS would be to lower those monthly fees now during these tough times. Be more sensitive to help local florists become better senders. This could be done with their cookie cutter websites and SEO that was pointed to help local florists, in lieu of the WS and OG sites.

As it is now the WS have taken the easy route, but they are basically biting the hand that feeds them. Being lazy and not doing what helps the local florists (beyond sending them a few orders) will not suffice within a few years. The sophistication of SEO has got to be better addressed by the WS to help local florists to generate their own send and receive business.

I doubt this will be done, just like GM and Chrysler. The bottomline and improvement of Stockholder's equity cannot be satisfied by discussions of new strategies that will seriously affect stockholders.

So, I suggest local florists will have to drop WS, examine and apply new marketing strategies of theikr own within the industry to survive.

The internet is now a very pervasive medium for marketing and the florists that want to be here tomorrow need to educate themselves or find another line of work.

Raising fees this year to those left in their networks will only cause more to jump ship FASTER! Only ones left will be OGs taking orders that no one will fill. Then, all of them GONE! It's got to be near the end......

 

[BOSS]

Raising fees this year to those left in their networks will only cause more to jump ship FASTER! Only ones left will be OGs taking orders that no one will fill. Then, all of them GONE! It's got to be near the end......

Yea, but if everyone would STOP FILLING for even one week/month, they'd all be gone and we could get back to business, and back to having the order too~!

Stooopid florists.... gathered orders are for sissy's~!

 

[pdxdoug]

When I left TF, it was costing about $325/mo total in varying membership and other additional charges.

Now I've always held the belief that you make ZERO on an incoming order by the time all is said and done. You may argue with me but the profit on incoming is so slim that it might as well be zero. If it was profitable, you'd see 'Fill Only' shops instead of 'Send Only' shops.

Anyway, take that $325, multiply times 5 and that's how much outgoing you need to break even. $1625 or so. Hmm, you're FTD too. Then you'll need over $3000/mo in outgoing. That's 60 - $50 outgoing orders per month. Don't do 60? Better drop a WS. Don't do 30? It's time to consider dropping dropping all the WS.

I know you've got your own Wire Service Fee that you charge your customer, but for the sake of argument just say that covers your labor to take and send that order with faster funding (money in my account).

Now your actual WS costs will vary. Don't forget Dove/Mercury, Selection Guide, Directory, Education, Quality Assurance and whatever other charges they may levy. Add those all up - those are your fixed costs and multiply by 5 to see just what it takes for you to break even every month and start to make a buck.

Back in the day, the WS would tell you that incoming orders where a 'marketing' opportunity. We'll, call me stupid but I'd much rather spend the money and effort marketing myself rather than a WS.

Regarding the comment about credit card processing, I easily found rates that were much better than what TF/FTD could offer.

 

[duanermb]

See there, that's the problem, you can't get what YOU WANT unless you take what THEY WANT you to take. Can't have one without the other...

They would rather lose florists that think like you do, rather than work out equitable solutions that would benifit BOTH parties...

Teleflora and FTD....dumb and dumber

Hey BOSSman. I think the turning point you have been waiting for is coming for all of these services. They need to either continue to listen to the top members or listen to the grass roots. As it is a business decision, it will be decided based on profits. That's the bottom line. Once that decision is made, we will all be at the point to make a decision to be part of it or not... again. But, that IS PROGRESS!

Added: Overall progress may not benefit the B&M florists. Deal with it! What we have to do is be ready to move and react on a dime! That's how business works n 2010.

 

[Eric S]

Eric, I assume you're saying a total of 45 orders a month to cover these two costs.

I doubt most shops have even half that many.

What about the selection guide? Marketing Advance (if they have one like FTD does)? Dove Charges?

Shall we go on?

Sorry I was saying that 15 would just cover membership and 30 would just cover membership and dove fees.

 

[Eric S]

NicoleAtTF:

Why is Teleflora in bed with ProFlowers? It is to make more money for Teleflora...that's why. Teleflora is cutting the REAL Florist out of the loop by competeing directly with us throuh ProFlowers.

As for all of the services that are provided to the florist by Teleflora ... every one of them can be purchased ala carte through other service providers at a lower cost for the florist.

I think Nicole has answered this before in another thread. Teleflora wants to put more orders into florist hands versus drop shipment. Whether we like it or not it would Teleflora FTD or Bloomnet doing this. I'm not saying I like it just stating the facts.

 

[Eric S]

I good strategy for WS would be to lower those monthly fees now during these tough times. Be more sensitive to help local florists become better senders. This could be done with their cookie cutter websites and SEO that was pointed to help local florists, in lieu of the WS and OG sites.

Lowering fees won't make a difference for member florist or WS. We are all giving a choice when it comes to which services you need when it comes to a wire service. I know if I wanted to I could keep Teleflora just for credit card and POS. The offer has been made many times.

Sending orders is still consdered part of the picture of being florist. Providing a way to send orders outside of our delivery area will have to be part of our business.

Teleflora websites are in my opinion awesome. Now don't get all excited but I can really say that much of the things a learned from having one a long time ago is that it gives a florist a time saving way of having an up to date website. You can post your own products, they give some great ways to improve your SEO and its simple to use for the florist and the consumer. When I had one I just wasn't happy because I wanted more. More orders, more custom and more Everyday Flowers. I maybe saving some money doing it on my own but the amount of time that I put in is just incredible.

There is value in the services that Teleflora offers. But things have reached a point where it just may not be cost effective. Kinda like looking at the cost of having an actual store front versus working out of your home. You spend thousands of dollars on rent just so a single customer can come to your store and buy a single rose.

 

[CHR]

TF could do wonders with SEO to help local florists.

An example, create referral links to and from other TF members cookie cutter sites all over the World. The links alone would push up local florist ratings enormously. TF has the database now of members and URLS, all they'd need to do is extract the data and put it onto their cookie cutter sites. There are many other ways they could do things that are practically impossible for a local florist to do without an exorbitant amount of work.

That would be a poor choice on a couple counts:

1) Members would be really irritated to have their sites linking to other florists without their permissions. The shops own those URLs and only they should choose to whom they link.

2) Since all the TF sites are hosted by the same company, Google and other search engines would smell that linking scheme a mile away and likely ban a bunch of local florists, leaving them far worse off.

From the structural side, TFs site architecture is more SEO friendly now than ever. Not perfect, but better than the other WS hosts.

 

[BOSS]

Hey BOSSman. I think the turning point you have been waiting for is coming for all of these services.

Yep, it's getting closer every day. Many discount my belief that traditional wire services have out lived their usefulness, and obviously I disagree. Out of the perhaps 1000 customers we have explained the WS game since Thanksgiving, I can only think of ONE that did not get "it" and still wanted me to handle their order.

Conversely, last weekend, we had a MOB come in and look into wedding flowers for 2011, she mentioned to my staff that she came to check us out, because of the explanation we gave her when she called to place an outbound order. It's a different way to market I'll admit, but it's the new thing that sets me apart from my competition, just like sending wire orders for FREE did back in 1991. Something about telling folks the truth, even when they do not want to hear it can instill trust, and go a long way to embolden your local image.

And no, no one will ever convince me again, that by me remaining as a MIDDLEMAN my customers are better served.

Sorry I was saying that 15 would just cover membership and 30 would just cover membership and dove fees.

Got it, BUTT...I still doubt that 50% of the membership has even 30 a month. Add in all other WS TAXES, and the number of orders to break even is likely near 50 with NO INcoming, add incoming and it's likely an additional need for 3 more OUTgoing PER incoming to stabilize the balance of expenses vs. costs.

 

[domineaux]

I got up this morning and thought... why educate the enemy "TF and other WS". They'll just find a way to put something else over on us.

So I deleted the post.

In response to your posting CHR..

1) I didn't think for a minute that a WS wouldn't get approval to do such a thing from participating florists.

2) There are a myriad of ways to get around the IP issues you call linking schemes.

Why do you defend TF?

 

[CHR]

More like 'explaining' than 'defending'.

I used to have a TF hosted site and it converted nicely. We moved to an independent site to have more control over content, to be able to add custom pages and features easily and to lower our per-order costs.

It takes more than TF optimizing those sites to drive traffic and make conversions. We promoted online ordering to our own customer base, which drove (and still drives) many of the orders. Even now, our best conversion numbers come from people either using a bookmark they've save or from using a search engine query for our shop name.

Being found in organic keyword search (city, flowers, florist) is definitely important, but then a florist's online presence is controlled by the whims of search engines - and that's a risky business.

 

[pdxdoug]

My question to all of those florists that have a WS website is why do you have your competitors photos on your site? Yep, you've got the same arrangements as the guy down the street or across town. So other than location and maybe reputation, what reason is there for a customer to select you ... or worse yet just order of the WS dot.com site.

IMHO, unless you feature your own original designs, the WS make you the "McDonald's" of the flower business.

 

[domineaux]

That is true, but building a site with 400+ flower arrangements in a shopping cart is beyond the scope of most florists.

The e-commerce sites can be expensive to build unless you are a pretty savvy website builder.

So, yeah... most florists just buy the cookie cutter sites. It is extremely important to have web site, if for only local business listings on Google.

In major metropolitan areas where broadband is common people toss other advertising, i.e., Yellow pages into file 13.

It takes time to make a library of pictures and information about arrangements you plan to put on the web.

 

[pdxdoug]

And I agree 100%.

I'm surprised at the time it takes to administer and maintain a website. It is a considerable investment in both time, money and learning new skills while at the same time running a business. But the fact of the matter is that the internet is the new yellow pages. For better or worse, instead of an ad or column listing in the yellow pages, you have this wonderful opportunity to have a constantly changing, vibrant ad via the internet. Your front page is your virtual store and hopefully you'll entice a customer to come in an browse around.

I'd urge all florists to start building that library of original creations.