Seems silly but...

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

We've been lucky and not had this situation arise yet. But if one of our 3 local funeral homes called I wouldn't think twice about helping them out. I'd just think of it as extending a professional courtesy.

That is TRULY ONE of the dumbest things I've EVER heard!!
"Helping" out your funeral director is a GREAT choice...helping an OG complete their theft, is just plain stoopid!!
IF you "feel" like helping, pick up the box, and RETURN TO SENDER!!
Jeez.....

 

[lori042499]

We've been lucky and not had this situation arise yet. But if one of our 3 local funeral homes called I wouldn't think twice about helping them out. I'd just think of it as extending a professional courtesy.

I give my funeral directors every professional courtesy in the book, however I would draw the line here....

I do believe that funeral directors should either not sign for the deliveries or give them as they were sent, to the family in the box and let them deal with it....that was how the intended give was purchased that is how it should be recieved....not professionally arrangemed for free by the florist that lost the order due to their unarranged low price....there is a fine line between professional courtesy and suicude!!!!!

 

[CHR]

Ron is weighing his relationships with the local FHs against the loss of business to drop shippers who can compete aggressively on price because they do not have the labor costs of a B&M store.

Quite a conundrum and not unlike weighing whether to fill under priced OG order to utilize excess capacity.

Ron - A FH asking you to design a drop-ship bouquet is akin to you asking them to provide your flower delivery to a funeral service being handled by one of their competitors. They may have the ability and available staff (excess capacity), but would likely be less-than-honored by such a request.

there is a fine line between professional courtesy and suicide!!!!!

Succinctly said.

 

[lori042499]

Ron is weighing his relationships with the local FHs against the loss of business to drop shippers who can compete aggressively on price because they do not have the labor costs of a B&M store.

Quite a conundrum and not unlike weighing whether to fill under priced OG order to utilize excess capacity.

Ron - A FH asking you to design a drop-ship bouquet is akin to you asking them to provide your flower delivery to a funeral service being handled by one of their competitors. They may have the ability and available staff (excess capacity), but would likely be less-than-honored by such a request.
Succinctly said.

One I question everyday of my existance...and coming closer and closer to the inevitable decision....

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Ron is weighing his relationships with the local FHs against the loss of business to drop shippers who can compete aggressively on price because they do not have the labor costs of a B&M store.

Quite a conundrum and not unlike weighing whether to fill under priced OG order to utilize excess capacity.

Ron - A FH asking you to design a drop-ship bouquet is akin to you asking them to provide your flower delivery to a funeral service being handled by one of their competitors. They may have the ability and available staff (excess capacity), but would likely be less-than-honored by such a request.
Succinctly said.

and with that being said....how long before Ron has NO local business, because he "accepts" the responsibilty of "arranging" boxed flowers, with HIS years of experience AND professionalisms, and overheads, and credentials, and wonderful personality??
Michigan is a very tough place to do business...tough enough to feed yourself, let alone the bears.
You GOTTA be good to survive, why the he11 would you bypass all that for some lousy OG OR wire service, for that matter??

 

[clay]

I give my funeral directors every professional courtesy in the book, however I would draw the line here....

I do believe that funeral directors should either not sign for the deliveries or give them as they were sent, to the family in the box and let them deal with it....that was how the intended give was purchased that is how it should be recieved....not professionally arrangemed for free by the florist that lost the order due to their unarranged low price....there is a fine line between professional courtesy and suicude!!!!!

I agree. I do A LOT of extra favors/special requests for our funeral directors...but I personally draw the line on arranging flowers from a drop ship company.

I would not call my favorite funeral home to pick up a direct ship casket sent to me.....and have them take it to another funeral home (not quite the same thing...but still...).

 

[ourfathershou25]

I know that if we work together we could do without the wire services. Lets work on this instead of proflowers, teleflora, ftd, 1800flowers etc, etc, etc. I know some of your have great ides and suggestions lets try something different, we are all very smart and we know what we need to do. Lets work together, without wire serivce.

 

[RonBeyer]

I agree. I do A LOT of extra favors/special requests for our funeral directors...but I personally draw the line on arranging flowers from a drop ship company.

I would not call my favorite funeral home to pick up a direct ship casket sent to me.....and have them take it to another funeral home (not quite the same thing...but still...).

As I stated this has not happened yet, and I honestly don't see it happening. If it did occur once that would be the time to discuss the negatives about drop shippers with them and I think they'd establish a policy regarding drop ships that would be favorable to local florists.

And it is strictly about our relationship with the funeral homes. Compared to some of the funeral home policies I've read about on this board we have it really nice. They fax us daily updates on service times and locations. If there is a funeral at a fairly distant church, etc. and an order comes in late or we just have one item they'll take it out for us as long as they haven't left yet. They don't have the restrictions on glass vases, etc. that I've read about here. If an order comes in late on a Saturday afternoon for a Sunday morning funeral and anyone is still around they'll wait for us to deliver it.

 

[David]

and let it be known that I shall tell every TF florist I know that they will be receiving headquarters orders that originating from PF........do they want to fill for an order gatherer? Really???

Sorry to tell you the answer is yes more often then no. I know Metro Boston, Metro Worcester and other large areas in Mass have florist that will take all they can from whoever.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Bill - I've definitely looked at those reviews. I wanted a florist perspective, which is why I reached out here, but I do a lot with consumers as well, so I'm definitely aware of where companies are grouped. I also would encourage you to look places that solicit reviews, however, because those tend to see reviews from a wider swath of customers, not just those who are angry (which we all know are the most vocal customers).

You've made some interesting points that I'm going to share and review in sales data. Thanks.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

RWK - The reason we've taken orders from ProFlowers is because it's another avenue to get orders into LOCAL shops. As far as I hear from management up through Lynda and Stewart Resnick, there are no plans to change our focus from bouquets that are 100% sourced to our member shops. There's never any guarantee that I know the future of our company, but I feel pretty secure that this is a strategy they're still very committed to.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Thanks, Cheryl for your feedback. I kind of expected this thread to turn into discussion of TF filling for PF, though I'm really hoping to get your feedback on drop-shipping in the wider industry, as well. How much of the market share would you estimate that drop-shipped flowers have? That kind of thing.

Thanks for the open discussion!

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Nicole:

Sorry that you have mis-interpreted my comments.

My comments were directed to all companies who drop-ship flowers.

Drop-shipped, boxed flowers have no business being sent to a funeral home, for instance. People are deceived because they show on various websites as arranged in vases. (FTD has recently taken to showing them in a box, however).

We have no realy way of knowing -- in order volume, or $$ volume, what the impact of drop ship flowers in --- just that it is a LOT and it is IMPACTING OUR BUSINESS A LOT.

TF has a much bigger maekt research dept. than any of us do. We can only give you our gut-check reaction, which is "a lot lot". Beyond that, we do not have any firm #s.

Cheryl

 

[inferno63]

RWK - The reason we've taken orders from ProFlowers is because it's another avenue to get orders into LOCAL shops. As far as I hear from management up through Lynda and Stewart Resnick, there are no plans to change our focus from bouquets that are 100% sourced to our member shops. There's never any guarantee that I know the future of our company, but I feel pretty secure that this is a strategy they're still very committed to.

Instead of trying to increase the quantity of orders to local florists by affiliating yourself with Proflowers, why not get PROFITABLE orders into the shops with pricing to the consumer that is reasonable yet realistic with respect to the costs a florist has to do business with you? As you know, I am not a member and will probably never be, but I doubt that many local florist want more of your $29.99 orders including delivery with recipes that don't represent the pictures. On those orders, it is impossible for a florist to make money, especially after all the fees charged for the priviledge.

It is simple, make it PROFITABLE for local florists to belong and they will flock to your door. Compete against us, rape our cash flow, and fee us to death, and we will run in the opposite direction.

 

[kt4ye]

Hi Nicole...

First, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I provided the "STAR" ratings for Yahoo Shopping because as near as I can tell, they came ONLY from customers that have purchased from a merchant and received an Email from Yahoo! asking them to grade the merchant. That's the way it works for me with my Yahoo! store. If you have different information on how they arrived at those ratings, I'd like to know.

Certainly, trying to judge a company on the basis of the number of complaints at a "complaint site" is an exercise in both futility and stupidity.

One other issue I'd like to expand upon. I said that direct marketers have as cavalier an attitude as the folks in Detroit, and that the outcome was likely to be the same -- without the bailout.

I was wrong about that. There is a significant difference between the automobile industry and the floral industry.

People MUST have transportation. If they are unhappy with a particular supplier, they cannot simply choose not to have transportation. Their only choice is to find alternate means of transportation, including another automobile supplier.

People do NOT have to buy flowers. If they trade with "all the best national brands" and do not get their money's worth, many WILL NOT keep trying. They will simply abandon buying flowers altogether.

And I believe that is what is happening right now!

 

[Luc]

Nicole,
Way before the computers etc those order where going to the local florist where they belong.

Why do they have to go through another middleman to reach us.

Luc

 

[BOSS]

Nicole, I'll try to be civil since I'm not a TF member...

The reason we've taken orders from ProFlowers is because it's another avenue to get orders into LOCAL shops.

It *looks* like Teleflora pimping themselves, and worse yet, their florist member network out to ProFlowers. "Orders at any cost" so to speak. With this move, Teleflora is helping ProFlowers to undercut, circumvent and derail the local florist.

The lie, of "we're doing it for our members" or "were doing it to get (more discounted) orders to our members is old and bogus. It has nothing to do with their members, and everything to do with dollars and Pomegranates.

though I'm really hoping to get your feedback on drop-shipping in the wider industry,

Drop ship flowers are perhaps the second biggest killer after the wire services this industry has or will ever see. It's not in *our* best interest.

 

[BOSS]

People do NOT have to buy flowers. If they trade with "all the best national brands" and do not get their money's worth, many WILL NOT keep trying. They will simply abandon buying flowers altogether.

I just want to put my spin on this argument once again... I say BUNK!

Just because I got a lemon of a car, does not mean I did not buy another one. Just because I fell off a bicycle does not mean I quit riding one. Just because the grass seed I planted did not preform, does not mean I did not reseed again.

Flower buyers will buy flowers! We hear the stories every week when long distance customer find us directly.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Nicole:

Sorry that you have mis-interpreted my comments.

My comments were directed to all companies who drop-ship flowers.

Drop-shipped, boxed flowers have no business being sent to a funeral home, for instance. People are deceived because they show on various websites as arranged in vases. (FTD has recently taken to showing them in a box, however).

We have no realy way of knowing -- in order volume, or $$ volume, what the impact of drop ship flowers in --- just that it is a LOT and it is IMPACTING OUR BUSINESS A LOT.

TF has a much bigger maekt research dept. than any of us do. We can only give you our gut-check reaction, which is "a lot lot". Beyond that, we do not have any firm #s.

Cheryl

Oh, we've definitely done research; what I'm trying to do is research to see what florists think is going on - we want to make sure we understand what perception exists among florist shops.

Thanks!!

 

[Chezbloom]

Anybody else hear the theme song from Jaws playing quietly in the background?