I'm curious...

[nanvireega]

I've read a few comments recently regarding shop to shop orders.

We have always honored the traditional 80/20 split on direct incoming orders from other florists. Even while we are paying a % to the CC processing for these orders, we still retain more money than on a WS order with no dues or fees and the money is in our bank account within 3 business days.

We work with a number of shops through the WS who have told me that they will NOT honor an 80/20 split on direct CC orders from other shops and I've always wondered why... One shop gets thousands of dollars from us over the course of the year and would make way more on these orders as CC direct. I'm baffled.

The point of having customers is to establish a long & trusting relationship with them so that you are always front of mind for everything they need. Why would you spend good money marketing to these current customers and advertising for more customers if every time they were planning to send orders out of town you were going to encourage them to call someone else???

I'm not posting this to argue the point, I really am curious as to WHY this has become a stickler issue for alot of shops. It seems like there are very extreme views here: either you only take orders through a wire service, you want me to send my customer to you directly or want me to give you 100% of the order.

As I saw it, the problem was never the traditional 80/20 split... the problem was the fees, dues and subversiveness of the WS.

What am I not understanding???

 

[conchandler]

IMHO, it's not YOU who doesn't get it, it's THEM. Can't see the forest for the trees idea. So used to doing things only ONE way, that they think there's got to be something wrong with giving you 20%, even though they will give the WS 27%. I don't even try to figure it out. Just chalk it up to stupidity. You're probably better off in those cases to move on to another florist - GOK what the arrangement might look like.

 

[Rhonda]

I charge a service charge to my customer when I send out....and I send out at 100%........ I will usually ask on an incoming if they charged a service charge, if they did then please give me 100%...... If they don't charge their customer a service charge, I'll give the 20%. I prefer to offer 100% - you never know sometimes who you're talking to

 

[ezbloomers]

Consider this; florists willingness to give or take 20% percent is why order gatherers exist and why wire services have become order gatherers, all taking business away from you.
What if florists received 100% of every order and there were no wire services. Now would that be great. Check out ezbloomers.

 

[nanvireega]

I have no interest in yet another company dictating pricing to not only me but my potential customers as to what my product and services are worth... and THAT is the point!

As a florist, when I take an order going out of town I take the time to check the shops minimums, call to check availability of product & make sure their minimums are still valid, ask them if they can fill to my customer's needs wants or desires and then charge my customers appropriately for the product and service that BOTH shops are providing.

I do not want yet another service, no matter how well intentioned, showing up in search engines jockeying for placement with MY potential customers all couched in the innocence of "helping" me. No one should tell me what I should charge for any given arrangement and it is absolutely ridiculous to assume that every florist across the country is going to need the same amount of money to fill and deliver the same order 365 days of every year.

All we are serving to do is confuse the customers even further. I would be curious to know what you may one day do with all the information you are gleaning from this service as you will know every single sender, recipient and florist involved... I would be more interested in what you have to offer if you never had access to any information except filtered customers through to me directly. I'm sorry, I just don't trust the concept.

All shops should have a website. The more of us that are on the internet showing up as true LOCAL florists the less chance there is of the customers going elsewhere. They are TIRED of seeing the same arrangements on the same "looking" setup page site after site after site. It is not that much more expensive to set up a custom website and we should all think of it as opening another retail location.

But that has nothing to do with the point of this thread.

When I was a kid, I got to talk to Connie Francis about 4 or 5 times a year. She thought it was so cute that a child (and I was anywhere between 14-18) knew who she was. She always wanted to talk to "the owner’s daughter" everytime she called if I was there. She called from CA, NY and FL and she sent all over the world - obviously not because we were the only florist she knew the phone number for - BECAUSE she had a relationship with us... she had used us for many, many years before I started answering the phones.

I just think we all have to remember how much money it COSTS us to get a customer and how much we spend to RETAIN a customer... I consider giving a sending shop the 20% a courtesy because I believe they have done provided a service to their customer and deserve to be compensated for the work they have done in capturing that order.

And yes, I would much rather give up the 20% to the sending florist than participate in a internet based service owned by someone else that is giving the impression once again that the consumer should expect everything to be the same. That to me is the value of Shop to Shop orders, becuase as a true florist we all understand the reality of the business and what is reasonable expected of another florist. That is true value and I think 20% is reasonable.

 

[Tom Carlson]

Florists, by and large, are not marketing savvy. If they were, the 80/20 would not be an issue. Here's my take on it.

It costs a sending shop to market the concept of same day delivery of flowers anywhere in the USA. This marketing program is called "Flowers By Wire" between we florists. A MARVELOUS MARKETING PROGRAM. Those sending shops should be compensated for that and when they get in an order, they should "pay it forward" to use the new term for "reciprocate".

The Wire Services promote this marketing concept. Obviously they see an opportunity to make money. Unfortunately, the Flowers By Wire program has been and is being raped. The consumer now loses and blames the florist industry, including you and me.

I really do not know the solution. 100% to the filling florist would be ideal, but for certain, the florists who would get in a lot of 100% orders would not feel a need to promote outgoing orders. They would just sit by and clip the coupons. It was perfect when the WS served the florist and the consumer. But now they are self-serving.

First the 800 numbers [used to be called WATS LINE] and then the Internet have change EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, absolutely EVERYTHING.

And today's consumer puts CONVENIENCE way ahead of STORE LOYALTY. I try to educate customers about what the Big Box Stores are doing to small business. And guess what I hear?, I NEVER SHOP AT THOSE STORES. Florists @@@@@ about how they are hurt by the Big Box Stores and Megamarkets, but where do they shop for themselves? The Big Box Stores, etc. Oops, I just heard it again, "I never shop there."

Today we have to change to do business in an environment with a whole new set of rules. We are not going back to the good old days. (Too bad we didn't know it when we were in the good old days.) What used to be a worker benefit may be a liability today. For instance, the job loss benefits auto workers had. Now those benefits are taking the autoworker right out of town. He's not unemployed, he's gone, not here anymore.

Won't work trying to figure out the other florists, spend our time on how can we do business in a totally different environment than we had just 20 years ago.

 

[anytimeflowers]

Hi Nancy,

I think a lot of florists are trying to get away from being a "sending" shop simply because so many times they end up dealing with head-aches with substitutions, etc. It has made sense for a lot of florists to just give out numbers and send the customer on their way.

I agree with you. I will take the time to find minimums for different states, I will call about availability, because this is MY customer, and I want them to feel that I am taking care of their floral needs. I have been very lucky in that I have had one complaint from a wire-out, and it turns out the sender has bi-polar, the recipient was used to dealing with her sister. But have very few, possibly 5-15 going out per month.

As Connie pointed out too, there seem to be many who just don't get it, but more than likely it is a part-time employee who SERIOUSLY does not understand. There are a lot of florists in FC, but there are A LOT MORE who are not, and they probably still don't understand what is being done to them. Hopefully, the latest article in Florist Review woke up a bunch more! Only time will tell.

 

[polkadot]

It seems odd to me that we speak of dumping the wire services because we deserve 100% orders and yet we then expect a shop receiving our order to do it for 80% . If I want to get my "cut" of an outgoing order, I suppose I need to stay with the wires. I in no way intend to start a wire debate, simply putting forth a possible explanation for the unwillingness to perpetuate the 80/20 split.

 

[ezbloomers]

I think florists should continue to provide florist to florist service between themselves, for their loyal customers, and clear the transactions via their credit cards. But orders that are out of their reach should come to them at 100%. Just a thought.

 

[lori042499]

I am one of those people that don't like to give a shop the 20%, I don't offer it but will give it if asked. I am now on the fence about the fact that they deserve it or not...I do not have the ability to reciprocate to them with my orders as the dove pos is not that savvy...I still pay my dues to a company for this purpose and need my orders to come through that service to make it worth while...I am finding more orders come direct than through a service and I am also finding I need to send more orders direct because of the lack of providers in the areas I need to send to...This has me rethinking the situation on the whole..I may end up dropping all services and give the 20% to florists, it may be in my best interest..

I do feel that most florists that are sending direct should charge a healthy fee and give the sending florists 100%, develop relationships with florists just as they do with customers and everyone will be happy...we get our fees up front, the sending florist gets their money up front, the customers get their flowers and recipients get a nice professional aragement to enjoy that hasn't been hacked because the florist needed to because of any discount...I am a firm believer that discounts now a days are always paid for somewhere and if we want the public to like what we are selling we need full dollars, the public is very aware of convenience charges and are willing to pay for them to get a service, but they are not willing to pay for the service charge and get ripped off on the final product, so in my mind we can get paid for one or the other...I think that a 12.99 service fee is plenty to make off an direct order out, especially if you are not having to pay a service for handling the order for you...