I was thinking... and, it seems to me every TF site is an OG site, am I right?

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Dazeal

Dazeal

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Mar 27, 2005
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Ashland
www.chicfloral.com
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Oregon
Disclaimer: Please don't flame TF or their florists, this isn't about that. In fact to me OGs aren't bad, they just evolved. Now some OGs are my competition, but I don't hate them, I just hate myself for not beating them to the punch. Now if they are dishonest (dOG) then I have problems with you.

So this is how I came to my conclusion, PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.

Bloomz, JB, is an OG. He has a florist site that offers a local and send out service. The name of the city he is in and state is on his front page. He offers a great service.

TF florist sites and I think FTD sites and actually most florist eCommerce sites offer the same as above, does that make those florists OGs?

If the logic above is correct, I say good for the above as long as you are honest and not a dOG, you are evolving and good work. OG your heart out real florists, because if you don't 1800flowers/proflowers will.

If I missed something, please let me know. Again, no bashing the WS, we already know. lol
 
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lol Mark, but seriously, is my reasoning right? Are all those florists OGs? I can't believe it took me so long to think about this.
 
Brandon,

I have been saying this for the entire 3 years I have belonged here....I would give my left one for more wire out biz and I am growing every month....I do not yet advertise in areas outside my own because I cannot yet afford it, but I do accept all orders going to my areas or outside my areas, I don't care if it is a local customer or a customer from another state, sending flowers here or out of state, if they call my shop I can help them get their flowers were they need them, that's why I pay to have such a service....the day will come when I will be able to market to areas outside my own and I will provided I still have a network to send through and business still works that way...I too feel that it is we who let this happen because of our collective knack to give up our customers when the going gets tough rather than to stand up and fight for them..we did it when we couldn't compete with grocery stores, we did it when we couldn't compete with online og's...It wasn't that we couldn't compete just that we wouldn't compete or didn't have the know how to compete...that isn't their fault it is ours....

I do not believe that the og's are doing anything different than we do to a point...I just wish they would explain to their customers what they are really paying for and I do not like the ones that skim, different situations than your original post....other than that my big problem is with the wire services, they are the ones that allowed for sending only, that is were the true problem lies, unequal rules for members makes for unequal results for profits...The OG's that follow the rules are following the rules that are allowed by the group they belong to are OK to me, it is up to us to decide to accept their orders or not, NO ONE forces us to fill orders we do not want or that we cannot profit from, NO ONE it is our decision to make....
 
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Thanks, Dazeal, now I hate myself! I'm trying to be like Mark, but it's going to take me a little while to get there. As I mentioned in another WS posting, looking at weaning myself, first with the website, then the WS membership. For us, it seemed a "necessary evil" to get the visibility to jumpstart the biz. But one cannot live on discounted orders, so I need to light a fire under my butt and get myself off Teet.
Thanks for providing that flame!
 
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you are right...we are all order gatherers! Some of us are trying to capture local work and some trying to capture it all. The evolution of the fictitious order gatherer from a yellow page scam to an internet scam has not been much of a reach for some. It is all in how you position yourself and what you disclose to your customer. If someone places an order on my site for an out of town delivery and they are not a local customer, I assume they liked my site or my prices. I don't call them and see why they used us...I am just happy that they did and I will make sure to take great care of my new customer...So I guess I am a customer gatherer....and isn't that what we are all trying to be?
 
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Yes, Brandon - technically, we all are order gatherers in the sense that we advertise, promote, and market ourselves to get people into our shops, place their floral needs and wants ( orders ) with us. It can even be said that at the home decor store where I am at now is an OG - the customers come in and ask us to create permanent floral designs for them......and our floral service is advertised.

The difference is how we approach the order gathering - do we want to capture just our local orders.......do we want to capture just wedding/event orders.........do we want to capture out-going orders........do we want to capture incoming orders ?

Do we approach the order gathering process with honesty, truth, fairness, informing customers accurately, not skimming or padding the orders with excessive fees, presenting good product and giving our customers and fellow florists good value, proper dollars, and allowing our customers and recipients to enjoy beautiful flowers?

I have always said that when we refer to the OG's - we need to refer to them as either D'OGs ( Deceptive Order Gatherers ) or H'OG's ( Honest Order Gatherers )

As I see it.......800TFTD ( Big Three WS ) are all classified as D'OGs. They advertise unrealistic prices, withhold delivery fees and other fees that should be passed on to the filling florist, they use photographic enhancements - both CGI as well as real practices - to portray flowers arranged in an unrealistic manner, and perhaps the worst - they use our fees paid to them to advertise and gather our local customers with the express desire to capture those customers FOR THEMSELVES, thereby passing us by.
 
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B I N G O !!

Let me give you an example of how we became an OG of sorts.

Our FD recommended us for a service. Our name was sent out by email to several US and International companies that we were to be used for this particular funeral. In the eyes of one particular customer, they felt our work and service was spectacular.

This is an international company that now calls us for ALL their funeral flower gifts. They know we don't do it, but they trust that we will explain what they want and see that it is delivered as they requested it including the card spelled out in the language of the country it is going to. It's all about customer service.

This customers orders are always by phone, however we do receive orders on our website that require us to send them on.
 
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Have you ever noticed how some drivers will look at anyone who goes slower and yell "get off the road granny - you're dangerous". If someone passes them they scream "stay off the road you maniac!". Anyone going slower or faster is wrong.

It's a little like that with order gathering. Some shop owners consider anyone who is less aggressive to be lazy or less evolved. At the same time they consider anyone who is more aggressive to be a dirty OG. Once you leave out the really obvious dOG operators and tricks it gets very hard to judge tactics objectively.

I think the line starts to get a little more clearly defined when you look at the value you are adding to the transaction. If you have customers in your town who use you for their local needs you can offer them a lot of value when they need delivery out of your coverage area - you know them, you have their information on file, etc. There is real value there.

It also makes sense to appeal to out-of-town customers who want delivery within your area. Once again, as a local florist, you can bring real value to the relationship.

It starts to get a little fuzzier when you start trying to get out-of-town customers to place orders with you for delivery outside your local area - orders you know you will have to wire out. At this point it becomes harder to add value. Not impossible, but harder. A great website, excellent service, good relationships with good shops in other cities can help a local florist add value here.

Another big differentiation is the willingness/ability to fill orders. Filling incoming orders seems to keep florists honest about their pricing on outgoing orders - a form of professional courtesy. In my experience it seems that send-only OGs are more likely to discount aggressively (to the detriment of the filling florist), skim, etc.
 
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Wonderful and great responses, thank you all!
 
Mark Anderson said:
It also makes sense to appeal to out-of-town customers who want delivery within your area. Once again, as a local florist, you can bring real value to the relationship.

It starts to get a little fuzzier when you start trying to get out-of-town customers to place orders with you for delivery outside your local area - orders you know you will have to wire out. At this point it becomes harder to add value. Not impossible, but harder. A great website, excellent service, good relationships with good shops in other cities can help a local florist add value here.

Another big differentiation is the willingness/ability to fill orders. Filling incoming orders seems to keep florists honest about their pricing on outgoing orders - a form of professional courtesy. In my experience it seems that send-only OGs are more likely to discount aggressively (to the detriment of the filling florist), skim, etc.
Click to expand...

Great points. We have always had a large amount of customers that order from us b/c of excellent customer service. Many of them do not live in our area, the order is being delivered in another state. Why??? Many reasons... all customer service related. Perhaps they used to live in our area and moved. Sometimes they happen to order from us initially b/c the recipient was in our delivery area and our website appealed to them. Sometimes they had recieved reminders, a recipient follow up postcard or an email blast. People move, recipients move... but with repeated marketing, branding and great customer service they will choose you to get outstanding service.

Two weeks ago one of the girls in the shop's sister had a psychic party and many of my staff was there. The one salesgirl was not at work that day and asked her co-worker about an order she was working on the day before. "were there any problems with the atlantic city order?". Her coworker replied "well it wasn't delivered by 10am.... but shortly after."

In short the couple was staying at the Borgata in AC (two hours from us). Rather than calling the concierge and asking for a florist, he called us and ordered flowers that needed to be delivered by 10am the next day. Our salesgirl called the florist and they said it was not a problem. For whatever reason, the customer called us back at 10:15... no flowers for his wife yet. We called the florist and they apologized and said it was in route... and was delivered by 10:30am.

It is customer's like this that led us to redesign out logo a few years ago and add "any occasion, anywhere". If you provide exceptional service, they have no reason to shop around.
 
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The internet has provided many things to us as florists....some good and some bad...

Among some of the good points, there is the fact that it made us all equal...in size, we all have the same ability to get our info into the hands of every customer with an internet connection...in that aspect we should all be trying to look the most professional, and provide the best customer service that words can convey...we should all be working on our internet presence just as hard if not harder than our storefronts, this is business in the 2000's....each and everyone of us should be trying to appeal to all people in every corner of the world for every order they can send, who better than us can take their order, and handle it properly and ensure it get delivered, I know I can with minimal problems...yeah dealing with call outs isn't as easy as it once was, but I am sure I can do it just as good if not better than most OG's, I know I have way more knowledge or our industry than most of their CSA's so why shouldn't I be going after all of the wire out business that I can, there is no reason...I can service each and every person that needs to send flowers with better customer service than most and there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't serve them whether from my town or far away, I pay for a service that enables me to take and send those orders, just like anyone else, and I would be a foold not to use the service I pay for....now I just need a cool 100,000 dollars to market myself to the whole world and the floral empire will be mine, all mine(joking here), but on a serious note, I am still growing and my wire outs are one area that I do intend on expanding....and expanding it is, my percentages raise every month by 100-200% over the year previous...and I like it like that...
 
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