FTD reaches new low

keith

keith

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Jan 22, 2003
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Beaverton
www.beavertonflorists.com
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Oregon
The geniuses at FTD have outdone themselves again! They have gone to the new low of customer service with their remaining members and outsourced their FAH to the Philippines! Now instead of getting a moron, they get one who does not speak English!

Unbelievable, they are doing their level best to get met to quit. How many more times can I smile and wave for a 4 day trip? Not many.

I am fed up,

Keith
 
how about the questionnaire that Robert Apatof wants us to fill out, so they can be MORE helpful to us.....low blows USED to mean between the belly button, and the repro's, and this is about ankle level...what a complete joke!
 
Keith,
I gave up on Flowers After Hours a few years ago. I don't think you need it. Nor do I think it's cost effective. I think the changes could harm your image. Why don't you test out a message on your phone. Suggest they go to your web site to order after hours or leave a message. Works fine for me. You can check your called id and see the times of missed calls. If you see a lot just after closing or just before opening perhaps extend your hours. I open at 8 and close at seven so I don't miss many calls.
 
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I think David is right. Back when I was FTD I tried out FAH . I found it to be overpriced and soon stopped it and went with voice mail. After I quit FTD I looked into TF answering sevice which is even worse. If you aren't ready to quit being FTD completely you can at least cut the expense by stopping FAH, and any other extras, including ads, listings, publications,etc.
 
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I agree, if you feel comfortable get rid of FAH, we tried it for a few months years ago when it first came out. It just made people angry. The customer still thinks they are talking to your shop and they must have a new staff member who clearly does not know what they are doing or selling. Even a $20.00 answering machine with a nice message is better than that. We found it hindered more than helped.
 
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To be honest I don't know why anyone would entrust their business to the voices of strangers in far away places. We never tried it for that reason.

V
 
Victoria said:
To be honest I don't know why anyone would entrust their business to the voices of strangers in far away places. We never tried it for that reason.

V
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Or to their biggest competitor.

The FAH folks don't answer for FTD.coN, far as I know...wonder why....hmmmmm
 
We have used them for years and for most part they have done a good job. Of course like everything else FTD has been nickle and diming us and cost have risen to a level were I be debating its worth. With this news I will need to see what we can get to work with our older phone system but we will be unloading flowers after hours for sure.
 
I used them for about 4 months and got read of them.Just not worth the money and they never got the messages correct. I don't think they spoke english back then either.
 
I tried FAH when it first came out & dropped it after 6 months. I had too many complaints. Last year, my perky area rep stopped in & told me how they had made all these changes for the better & basically sold ME, the eternal optimist into joining again for more torture. I dropped them again after 3 months.
 
keith said:
The geniuses at FTD have outdone themselves again! They have gone to the new low of customer service with their remaining members and outsourced their FAH to the Philippines! Now instead of getting a moron, they get one who does not speak English!

Unbelievable, they are doing their level best to get met to quit. How many more times can I smile and wave for a 4 day trip? Not many.

I am fed up,

Keith
Click to expand...

Keith,

I am curious, have you actually experienced issues with poor communication or bad English under the new system? Or is it simply an assumption or racial bias?

I ask because I have personally spent time in the Philippines and frankly most of the folks there (particularly in a city like Manilla) speak very good language as it is taught in the schools. Keep in mind that since WW2 there was for a long time a strong American presence and influence.

This is certainly not to defend FTD's move, but I will say it is more than likes a much better alternative than say a place such as India where English does not have as strong a penetration amongst the locals.
 
This valentines I had many,( over 30) customers call after the holiday and complain about our message center language skills. I spoke with FTD and they then informed me of the switch to a call center in the Philippines. I spoke to the VP in charge of this and it apparently went very poorly compared to what they were promised by the call center vendor. They located in the rural area and were all new hires. FTD is in the process of making a change. I only object because I was not informed that my calls were routed out of the country. Actually the calls answered out of the country other than poor English skills were handled better than the minimum wagers they hire at holiday times. FAH is issuing me a large credit for all the errors.
 
TF had a call center in the Philippines (not sure if they do now) but the operators there used to try and call us 'do not report' orders. Very, very difficult to understand them - and since my Father-in-Law was a Tagalog speaking native Filipino, I was very used to hearing English spoken with a heavy accent.

Saving bucks by outsourcing sales calls to overseas call centers - and losing customers due to the poor service - is just soooooo short-sighted.
 
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I usually have no problems understanding accents but some of the call centers for FY, JF etc lately have been absolutely ridiculous. I know that over the years, most of the time when there was any accentuated caller, all my employees would hand the phone to me. It is getting worse and I usually refuse to take the calls when even I can't understand them.
 
Wow, I am so thankful to hear all of your concerns with FAH. I had difficulties with FAH making mistakes and crazy unintelligible messages coming through the mercury. WE have a scheduled meeting to discuss what to do about the problems. We are toying with the idea of changing to TEL but from what I gather here, it is no better solution. I do have the ability to have callas routed to Voice Mail. It just makes me uncomfortable that people just leave a message and then are stuck in limbo.... But after the grief I received after the holiday from my clients about the hard time they had with FAH that might be the best course of action.
 
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