No WS-No Selection Guide

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christi_dellarobbia

christi_dellarobbia

Member
Jan 25, 2007
143
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Springfield
www.bergeronsflowers.com
State / Prov
VA
Okay, so I'm slowly in the process of getting rid of all of the things TF has their fingers in within my own shop.

But, it occurred to me the other day that if I were to get rid of them altogether, one thing would be that I would no longer have a selection guide to have my walk-in customers look at. So, question is: Those of you that don't have wire services, what do you do for a selection guide? Or, do you just have a binder full of pics of your own work and hope to describe something similar to the shop you send to?

I looked at the IFA website the other night, noticed that they have a selection guide, looked from the ad that it might be outdated, but can't tell from the ad itself.

Would love to know anyone's thoughts on this!!
 
Go on ebay, or just ask around I'll bet you will find any of the most current guides avail. Look for a florist going out of biz, there's quite a few that would sell at a high discount.
 
you can still use your old TF selection guide for reference. I do.
I just tell them. "I'm not a member of TF or FTD anymore, but I do still have these books for you to look at if you need some ideas."
That's usually all they want them for is an IDEA.
 
Having an album of your own work is great. It is usually easy enough to explain over the phone/on paper what the customer wants. Most of our customers wanted to know what 'we' could do for them. Keep your old ones for reference. It's all about subtle education!
 
May sound funny but a computer with broadband service (cable or DSL) with a good size screen will pop up either Teleflora.com or FTD.com or even 800flowers.com..............type in a description and show to your customer. OR bookmark your favorites (or easiest to send due to seasonal flowers, vase, basket, centerpiece etc) and click away!
FTD has "requested" I send my selection guide back to them at the end of this month.......I probably will comply - find a box etc and mail it to them!!
Then I shall request no more charges on it......but I can easily point and click to show a customer some of my favorites on their own website......
 
Break out the camera and start taking those pictures.

All it takes is one picture a day! I think I have 340 products on our site now and again one picture a day is all it takes. In 30 days you could have 30 of your most popular arrangements ready to go for your website. Using your own website to show your walkin customers replaces the need for any kind of slection guide.

The camera's now a days have super high quality resolution. For less then a thousand dollars you could have camera lights and the most expensive part Photoshop. Heck for less then 500 bucks you can get a decent camera and lighting and just edit with Paint to resize and edited your images.

Once you have started to take your own images it gets easier. Even around holidays I start by taking some of my past images that customers loved and start adding the new products. I'd say by the second week of December I already have my core christmas products ready to go. Its not that hard especially when you can take 100 pictures of one arrangement and pick the best one.

I started with our rose arrangements then tropical arrangements and it just went from there. Create your own categories and watch as your customers become amazed at the pictures and the arrangements.

I swear one picture a day thats it!!!
 
While I agree with Eric...I am surprised nobody mentioned their cooler!?!??!?!?

We keep a good variety (7-12 pre-made designs to give them **ideas** as to what they could get...and like was mentioned, they really only want an *idea*.

Rarely do we have a problem, and we do send a good number outbound.
 
John Henry company has some selection guides .. I won't be using either one of the WS, but did need something while i'm busy working on my own pictures..especially sympathy designs, seems like the customer make a B-line to the guides when making those choices. Another good thing is Web images are also available to go with the guides. and they are supposed to be comming out with a new everyday book sometime in early '08
 
mark smith said:
While I agree with Eric...I am surprised nobody mentioned their cooler!?!??!?!?

We keep a good variety (7-12 pre-made designs to give them **ideas** as to what they could get...and like was mentioned, they really only want an *idea*.

Rarely do we have a problem, and we do send a good number outbound.
Click to expand...

I second Mark's comment. We keep a full cooler and have all our monthly specials showing also.. So most times (over 80%) we can go to the cooler and just pick out the arrangement we just sold by phone, tag it and it is set to go.
Also a great way to show exactly how big something is and what to expect for what prices.. People seem to expect bigger arrang. when looking at pictures and get a more realistic idea when seeing them in real life
 
oops, I was thinking about sending out of town. Of course your best recourse is pre made in the cooler and to send out of town, I usually recommend a designers choice mixed seasonal colors - unless or add what flower the customer is asking for (within reason). And of course, it depends on what area of the world it's going to. Some people have daily access to wholesalers some (like us) are up to 3 hours one way away from a wholesaler.

I have some pictures of our "events" and have just started building a notebook of our favorites. I have pictures on the camera card, just need to get them printed. :hammer:
 
Rhonda at work said:
!
FTD has "requested" I send my selection guide back to them at the end of this month.......I probably will comply - find a box etc and mail it to them!!
Then I shall request no more charges on it......but I can easily point and click to show a customer some of my favorites on their own website......
Click to expand...

Don't get this? Is it because it's not totally paid for?
 
With the current agreements - when you 'buy' the selection guide, you are basically leasing the rights to use it while you're a member. Same with online images. Same with the member directory. They're proprietary, copyrighted materials.

Once membership is terminated, as with the logo, you are no longer legally permitted to use any of these.
 
Thanks Steve

It really isn't that hard to do this. I don't understand why others can't do it. I mean if you deliver 10 arrangements a day why not take pictures of those. It really dosen't take much time and again it gets easier the more you do it.

As far as sending goes. Why bother trying to keep it going by offering the slection guide. Or heck even using John henery's images. Think of stream lining your sending just like international orders.

There isn't a huge slection guide for international order just a handful of options and price points.

Spend more time developing your own products its really the only way to go!
 
We quit FTD almost a year ago and I asked about oweing on the selection guide. They said we would not owe anything as the way they do it now is that we get the selection guide up front and then pay month by month for using it - like a lease, but when we quit we just stop paying on it and can keep it. That's what happened to me anyway.

One time I quit FTD for one year and switched back due to great low pricing incentives. I had just received the new selection guide and then got another whole kit, etc. after I rejoined so I sold it on EBAY - in the box unopened I now know for absolute sure I could have got more $. I let it go for $100.00 out the door. I had to pay $18.00 shipping. I got an email from a girl who would have paid twice that PLUS shipping.

We still use all the selection guides. I have the most recent and the one before of both FTD and TF and one from John Henry that I put in page protectors and a notebook since their's fall apart so easily.
 
My first experience with the guide was using 1-800 . I had it on the counter but the arrangments were out dated plus the pricing was out of lala land. I no longer use them, however I am very pleased that I am not locked into cookie cutter designs. When I am taking a phone order the customer will tell me the occasion and the dollar amount and the rest is left up to my design experience. I also am starting a portfolio just for myself to share with customers. Customers are now trusting me by saying this is what I want I trust you will fill the order as I would like .
It is so much more exciting .........
 
websites

you can also use the internet to go to the town you will be sending and show your customers the websites of a few florists there and they can get a feel for that florists designs or know if that florist uses FTD/TF/whatever else designs the customer can select from those.

Donna
 
Thanks for all the great replies on this subject. Just ordered a ezcube on ebay and can't wait to start taking photos with it. My photos in the past have been within my shop and it's very time consuming to get rid of all the background "noise" to get it web-ready!

I am so grateful for this site and all the feedback. It really gives you a sense of not being out there as a lone florist in the world of OG's & WS moguls.

Cheers, everybody!!:beer
 
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