Heads Up for Teleflora hosted websites

[CHR]

If you have a TF site, be sure to check your home page. Looks like TF put the SuperBowl ad on all the hosted sites.

You may be OK with that, but I would not appreciate a visitor to my shop site seeing a promotional ad from a company competing with us for consumer flower dollars.

 

[lori042499]

I hate when they do crap like this....one more reason to put on the con side of my list...Thanks for the heads up, I hate those nasty talking flowers...

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Argh! I know you guys are trying to be nice and tell one another these things, but can I just vent for a second? We try SO HARD to make sure that this information in disseminated and then everyone acts like we didn't tell them. But we did. We send e-mails out the wahoo, letters, post it to MyTeleflora.com, post it to the blog, etc etc etc. When people don't read these things we send, we get flamed for being sneaky!

So, I guess, my question is: How do I make sure that people read what I send out? How do I make these communications easy enough to access and read so that I don't hear that we didn't tell anyone?

I need your help!

Thank you.

 

[duanermb]

Argh! I know you guys are trying to be nice and tell one another these things, but can I just vent for a second? We try SO HARD to make sure that this information in disseminated and then everyone acts like we didn't tell them. But we did. We send e-mails out the wahoo, letters, post it to MyTeleflora.com, post it to the blog, etc etc etc. When people don't read these things we send, we get flamed for being sneaky!

So, I guess, my question is: How do I make sure that people read what I send out? How do I make these communications easy enough to access and read so that I don't hear that we didn't tell anyone?

I need your help!

Thank you.

Somehow disguise your information emails as orders!

 

[lori042499]

Well, maybe Nicole, they should be sent over the dove....I know that many times I get news letters from TF and skim through it...There is just so much useless info that I don't care about or have time for in those things...I have never recieved an email from TF that was case specific, it was always a mish mosh of seemingly unimportant stuff. The combined reports are so full of stuff that by the ed I am dizzy and never want to read all the important crap that gets snuck in there way at the very end...There are just too many words for everything to get lost in...

 

[BOSS]

Nicole, the "reading" issue is not inherent to you and TF alone...

But, the BIGGER ISSUE I see would be that Teleflora took the opportunity to mess with member sites that they pay for withOUT their permission. A member pays (rents) the site from TF, at that point TF no longer has the right to put advertisements on those sites, that promote any thing other than that specific florist or their products.

Putting this ad on member sites is MUCH different than uploading a new selection guide, it's promoting Teleflora and not the florist. I can only imagine the link juice generated by having that ad on a few thousand sites all linking back to TF... and while I know you did not do that yourself, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they had that in their "plan" all along.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Nicole, the "reading" issue is not inherent to you and TF alone...

But, the BIGGER ISSUE I see would be that Teleflora took the opportunity to mess with member sites that they pay for withOUT their permission. A member pays (rents) the site from TF, at that point TF no longer has the right to put advertisements on those sites, that promote any thing other than that specific florist or their products.

Putting this ad on member sites is MUCH different than uploading a new selection guide, it's promoting Teleflora and not the florist. I can only imagine the link juice generated by having that ad on a few thousand sites all linking back to TF... and while I know you did not do that yourself, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they had that in their "plan" all along.

Actually, our intent was to generate 'link juice' TO the eFlorist sites. We thought having content tagged with Super Bowl would be good for the local sites. We used a YouTube version of the video so it didn't link back to TF.com and we cut off the Teleflora.com tag from the end of the spot so that it didn't drive attention away from local sites, either.

I'm not saying the video was a perfect strategy, but there was nothing inherently sneaky or underhanded in the way we did it, either. As surprising as it may seem to some people, we actually LIKE driving traffic to eFlorist sites. We profit from that, too, and just want to drive sales however we can, whether it's to TF.com or via eFlorist sites. Breaking the 'flow' of purchase by trying to turn a customer from an eFlorist site to TF.com would probably decrease sales activity, so we don't attempt to do that.

 

[BOSS]

The other issue is... many people (myself not included) found the ad to be offensive, so imagine Aunt Mary in Podunk Iowa's shagrin when she saw that ad on her site without her permission.

Even if you did notify folks, like all wire service "help" it should be opt in and not opt out...

 

[theRKF]

The other issue is... many people (myself not included) found the ad to be offensive, so imagine Aunt Mary in Podunk Iowa's shagrin when she saw that ad on her site without her permission.

Even if you did notify folks, like all wire service "help" it should be opt in and not opt out...

Boss, I think the problem Nicole is referring to is more indicative of your typical wire service website florist. They have a WS website because for them it's a set-and-forget option.



Boss & I, and a few others on FC, have worked with the WS at different points as installers and trainers. We've all seen the stacks of unread communications, letters and WS statements that go unopened for months, griping over the cost of paper and toner when "company" messages are delivered by Merc/Dove - and that doesn't even cover the florists that don't check their email.

<RANT> Every time FlowerChat sends out a newsletter or email, I am flooded with autoresponders that say "Thanks for emailing us. We don't check our email, so please call us." WTH????? You're savvy enough to create an autoresponder, but you can't make the effort to check your email during business hours? :boggles: </RANT>

All this to say: TF did what the florists wanted them to do - they updated the florist's website for them, and they notified florists about the change. So, let's address Nicole's question: How can TF better communicate these alerts? Should they take extra steps to mark communications as time sensitive, and prominently feature effective dates? What else?

 

[theRKF]

The other issue is... many people (myself not included) found the ad to be offensive, so imagine Aunt Mary in Podunk Iowa's shagrin when she saw that ad on her site without her permission.

Even if you did notify folks, like all wire service "help" it should be opt in and not opt out...

Boss, I think the problem Nicole is referring to is more indicative of your typical wire service website florist. They have a WS website because for them it's a set-and-forget option.



Boss & I, and a few others on FC, have worked with the WS at different points as installers and trainers. We've all seen the stacks of unread communications, letters and WS statements that go unopened for months, griping over the cost of paper and toner when "company" messages are delivered by Merc/Dove - and that doesn't even cover the florists that don't check their email.

<RANT> Every time FlowerChat sends out a newsletter or email, I am flooded with autoresponders that say "Thanks for emailing us. We don't check our email, so please call us." WTH????? You're savvy enough to create an autoresponder, but you can't make the effort to check your email during business hours? :boggles: </RANT>

All this to say: TF did what the florists wanted them to do - they updated the florist's website for them, and they notified florists about the change. So, let's address Nicole's question: How can TF better communicate these alerts? Should they take extra steps to mark communications as time sensitive, and prominently feature effective dates? What else?

 

[RWK]

It might be a little 'old fashioned' - but in preparation for something like this Nicole - Tell your service reps and require them to at least make a phone call to their member shops and inform them of this change or that change......or if you have member shops in an area that does NOT have a service rep, then get on the phone and call them yourselves. Yes, the phone is 'old-fashioned' - it's not new technology, it's not hit a couple keystrokes and go on about your day - but it would work.

If they can't make a phone call or are scheduled to be out......have the tell the shops in person.