It's working......

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mikey the Flower Guy

Mikey the Flower Guy

It's a GREAT DAY to live, and love!
Nov 10, 2002
9,206
3,792
113
72
Dundas, Ontario, Canada
www.hamiltonflorists.com
State / Prov
Ontario
I don't know how many of you ACTUALLY pay attention to customers when they contact your shop, perhaps for the FIRST time!!
How often have you heard " are YOU the flower shop in DUNDAS on York Road"......" yes ma'am"......tell me where you are!!
"York Road, at the intersection of Park & York, right behind the Mac's Milk Store, beside the Tim Horton's Plaza"......
"GOOD...I wanted to MAKE SURE you are a REAL FLORIST shop....I'm sick and tired of getting ripped off by Teleflora/FTD/1800", and I WANT to deal with a REAL FLORIST!!"
"Ma'am...you sound upset...have YOU had a bad experience with one of the services YOU mentioned??"......."YES, and I'll NEVER use an online service again...I saw YOUR website and called TO CONFIRM that you are a REAL flower shop!!!"...." yes ma'am".....
"GOOD....I see you offer a small discount for online orders, so I'm gonna order online...nice talking to you...and YOUR NAME IS??"......"it's Mikey ma'am".
<groan>....then I started to think, I've gotten a lot of these "types" of calls over the last few months, and though I resented the fact that THE REASON for an online discount IS NOT to use up one of my 1800 lines, and staff time to take phone orders, it's VERY apparent to me, that MANY PEOPLE, are very wary of OG's, and their misconceptional and false advertising, and it dawned on me, that my database is growing at a very rapid pace, for this very reason!!
Pay attention, and I'm interested if any of YOU, have noticed this??...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
We actually do not have to many calls like that. Actually, most who call know where our westside location is but have questions about our downtown location (even though, that is a lot easier to find!). Then a rare few of those calls make sure that we aren't an OG. I have more people asking if I am an OG when we talk to other florists on the phone to send out an order (mainly to Kentucky).

It always frustrates me when they call and talk to you and then say they are going to go order online. We don't even offer a discount online, but for me it is more rewarding from my end to make a sale, rather then talk to the customer, have them order online, and someone else process and "make" the sale.

Now, while it is great to see that consumers are coming back to real florists, it makes you also wonder how many people aren't going to buy flowers again.
 
I find that people are calling the shop asking questions about my website. They say they wanted to actually speak to a real person to get a feel for who we are before ordering. By the end of the phone call(most order on phone for first time if they bother calling), most will say, "I am going to save this to favorites, its very hard to tell if the florist is real by just going to website's. I thought you were real because you have actual pictures of the shop and custom designs."

I attribute the fact that I do customize my website a little to why I get a fair share of orders and the fact that the funeral homes have a bunch of us irect linked to their websites. Customization is key....otherwise how do they know...

People are learning...they are learning to be aware of how and who they buy from on the web. Whether it be ebay, craigslist or flowers, people are learning that they can and will be scammed if not careful. They are learning that sometimes it is better to buy locally than pay the extra fees associated with dealing with online vendors. They are also learning that online is very impersonal for very personal and emotional purchases. They are learning that when something goes wrong with their emotional purchase, that the online phonies do not care, but your neighborhood merchant does care about you and your purchase.
 
I get these calls everyday!

I love it, some people are waking up, maybe not everyone, but the really good flower buyers want value, service & quality, not a quick conveninece piece of junk....just had a big order today from a customer who was disappointed with ftd.com, "his flowers came 2 weeks late....anniversary flowers!!!He was happy to find me and said he will never order from an OG again!

Also--I got a tf dove order from 1-800 a week ago, that I refused(forwarded back to them) and then recieved it 2 more times and refused again......to make a long story short, just got an internet order over the dove today at 100% for that same order! Ha, I love it, that customer will never use 1-800 again, and now she has found a real florist!:musical:We will make her happy:)

We are fortunate that these people don't give up on flowers all together after their bad experiences with 1-800-WServices-etc.....I am happy to give them a positive experience and they appreciate it, I can hear it in their voices on the phone, "it's a pleasure to deal with a real florist!"

It really makes my day when I get these calls!:musical:
 
Mikey,
Being seeing this trend for the last few years now. Seems people are getting wise to the way how the internet works for some.
We are gaining grounds with educating our customers.
Luc
 
Luc said:
Mikey,
Being seeing this trend for the last few years now. Seems people are getting wise to the way how the internet works for some.
We are gaining grounds with educating our customers.
Luc
Click to expand...


We, too, are experiencing this trend.

At least once a day we also get a call from someone who is verifying that we are the florist across the street from Ingles (supermarket), saying, "I want to be sure that I have the right florist." Woo Hoo!!
 
All the time!

Top questions.

Where are you at?
What is your cross streets?
Are you delivering it or are you going to FTD it?
Is the picture on the site really what I am going to get?
Can I come down and buy this from your store?

Customers are asking more.

Think about it. If a customer only orders on Vday how mayny time will they make the mistake of calling 800flowers before they start wising up? 1 2 3 times? Thats three years of waiting. Sounds about the right amount of time for the customers to start coming back.

Its not happening overnight and it will take a long time to get them back.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back