Rob, It's great to see a large shop like yours so passionate about the OG problem in our industry. I like your web site and the out of town ordering section. How do you send your orders out of town? I'm assuming from your stance on SAF that you are not a wire service member either?
Helen,
We are in FTD.
My opinion is complicated, and by no means a double standard and here's why;
There's no question that we need a wire service because we have SOME customers that still ask us to handle sending flowers for them out of our delivery area. There is absolutely no reason for us to be associated with more than ONE wire service company in order to provide them with that service.
At one time the wire services considered themselves a service provider to FLORISTS, in fact they required members to be ACTUAL FLOWER SHOPS, they inspected facilities and set minimum standards. They had rules and regulations that were strictly enforced. Those rules and operating procedures helped establish standards and more importantly guided members ETHICS.
Looking back those were the good old days, consumers trusted FLORISTS and our industry thrived because we all had confidence that our customers were being taken care of even when they could not see what they bought.
We recognize that times have advanced and technology now allows for people to easily find local florists in the cities they need to send flowers. So what has happened?
TRICKERY!
I believe that TRICKING consumers is wrong. The wire services have morphed into a PROTECTION SHELTER rewarding anyone, anywhere that can produce orders that FLORISTS once had.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous! We encourage our customers to deal directly because we KNOW that we can not guarantee what may be delivered on the other end, because there are MINIMUM protections for the consumers. This is because our INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS have accepted to play by outdated standards and little ethics.
Contrary to other opinions I do NOT believe that we risk loosing our LOCAL customers to the big order gatherers once they get onto their email marketing list. Not at least when they are sending flowers into our local delivery area.
WHY?
Because no order gatherer gives the customer what we do as far as quality and value.
An order gatherer gives NOTHING, they deliver nothing and they offer NOTHING but a picture and a HOPE that something makes it to the other end.
Pretty sad state of affairs if you ask me!
SAF thinks this is OK? SAF thinks this is good for our industry? SAF thinks we should accept more of this, we should simply allow it to continue?
Anyone that went to the SAF meeting and says things were nicey nice needs their head examined! It's not a social outing, this is supposed to be an ACTION organization!
Oberer's realized a long time ago that we can't be everything to everyone. We needed to focus on what we could do best, and try to make it better. That's how we're able to EXPAND and that's why we keep growing CUSTOMERS.
My advice to anyone who may look at us and ask how do they do it, is simply stay focused on your local markets. Don't adopt the nationalized pricing structure, don't adapt to the nationwide selection guide and stay the heck out of the WORLDWIDE game.
People are being tricked into believing that order gatherers are actually local florists. People are being tricked into believing that the picture they click on is going to be delivered as seen. By looking at the numbers we see that nothing could be further from the truth and are LOOSING CONFIDENCE! All this while organizations like SAF are telling their members to play by any rules so long as they are LEGAL.
We don't see it that way, and maybe that's why we are growing and they are not.
If the wire services and SAF hope to be around for another 100 years, hopefully they will at some point realize that we need to bring OPERATING STANDARDS and ETHICS back into the mix.
Hopefully they will STOP rewarding companies designed to suck every single cent out of the system with ABSOLUTELY no reinvestment. Stop romancing the companies that are set up by design to deceive consumers on where they may be located and what they promise they can deliver when in fact they deliver NOTHING, they only TAKE.
Hopefully they will see the importance of brand protection, not only their organizational name, but more importantly the word FLORIST.
I believe that's our INDUSTRY BRAND.
As for us joining the ranks of SAF- We don't think we'd fit in all that well in the Royal Country Club steam room. Not because we don't enjoy some R and R. You see our finger tips are green, our finger nails have dirt from potting plants, wrapping packages and taking out the trash because we're working class florists, not the polished YES guys and Gals they are looking for.
When they decide to get back to work maybe we'll contribute the couple of thousand dollars a year for membership we'd have to pay. We believe in spending our money WISELY, sometimes we invest in those that can do better, but as of right now, our money is better with us than in the Country Club coffers of everything is "Nicey Nice".
It's not time to be saying "Hail to the Queen!"
It's time to be chanting
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
