Stop! Smell the online flower fraud

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RC in Dayton and Cincinnati said:
Mike Soenen like the idea of imposing picture taking for FTD.COM orders. I think the new owner likes the idea as well. So, keep your camera ready goldfish, FTD.COM might just be calling.
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Fine with me, actually.

Picture "proof" is not a perfect solution, but it sure is a better way of controlling the quality than a mere mutual trust, which doesn't exist. With a picture-proof policy, fillers are pressured to fill to the full value, while senders are pressured not to send under-value orders.

The policy is also self-fulfilling, meaning no coercion is needed for florists to participate. Because senders (including OGs) would prefer a filler with picture proof, and because most florists want more incoming orders (except yours), there's a built-in incentive for florists to adapt the picture-proof policy without being forced to do so.
 
RWK said:

In other words - so they have the USA covered.....but they lost little corvallis oregon, they lost huntington new york, they lost Toto's area, they lost Boss's area, they lost Chr's area, they losing little swansea south carolina, they losing in florida, ontario, other places in canada, losing in powdersville south carolina.....see my point.
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You got it - and yes I've been doing my corner of the world since 1994.

JERRYEIZ said:
FYI Bloomz...we all would like all press coverage of the industry to be positive, however I don't see any organization addressing OG business practices...it sure isn't SAF. It has to be up to the individual florists to educate their communities of the dangers of OG's if this is ever going to stop.

In January, I sent out a press release to the local papers highlighting the damage OG's were doing to the consumers and florists. It was turned into an article by the largest county paper and published before Valentine's Day. Since then I have received calls from new customers asking first if I was local to the recipient, then assured that we were, placing an order.

I'm not sure any of these calls were from the article, but the message to buy local seems to be getting out . If we all take this tack, more will get the message. I thank the press for recognizing the OG practices and responding with articles like this.

The next step is to get the State legislatures to strengthen and inforce their deceptive practices laws.

If anyone would like a copy of the Press Release I sent out, I will make it available.
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Jerry - I wish you well, but like I said - I did all that stuff well over 10 years ago and gave it my best shot.

Nothing happened except the problem got worse.

Deceptive advertisers have been being fought for longer than I've been in business, Tom Meola finally destructed and another one stepped right into his shoes. All American Flowers & Gifts has been doing cityname florist advertising for long as I can remember and hasn't slowed, and they were the one I was "alerting all the florists" to.

Florists fight to get state laws passed then nobody enforces them. Wire services don't care. An army of florists fill their orders. On and on and on.

So some think the way to fight is with negative publicity, which I firmly believe hurts the entire industry. I also don't have any more time to waste on playing a futile, losing game of whack-a-mole.

Believe me when I tell you I was one of THE ORIGINAL, and totally the most vocal of the "we gotta stop them" crusaders.

And yes I catch the irony of also wasting my time even talking about this up in here, but for some dumb reason I just can't let this "rah rah they got another complaint lets shout it from the rooftops" carp go unchallenged.

I feel this strongly about this, and I love this industry too much to let the bad apples taint us all. Perpetuating the bad PR does nothing but that. Fight them if you must inside the industry but please stop with the scaring the public away from us all.

Thanks for listening

opinions vary...

blessings
 
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I really like the picture to the sender idea. It does bring a number of issues, like camera skills and the fact that the pic never looks like the advertisement--but it's positive reinforcement.

Frankly, I don't see how that helps in the local versus og situation. The wire services would want you to send them the pic so they could forward to the sender. They still get the credit.
 
I believe the picture to sender is something unique that the local florist can offer the consumer. I've been working on this for awhile now, when I perfect it, I will make it a selling point.

One of the problems with this is efficiency. It can be challenging taking a quality photo of an arrangement in a timely manner. Quick photos just don't do the flowers justice, the camera exposes a lot of holes. A poor photo could actually work against us and open a can of worms. However, I'm determined to make it work.
 
Bigted said:
I really like the picture to the sender idea.
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I do too... BUT

It's reserved for MY customers, and I would NEVER give it up to FTD!!!

But then again, I'm labeled a wacko "up in here". :icon15
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Added: Of course, I could watermark the images with Smithsflowers.com and have FTD help me market ;)
 
Well I am small potatoes but I also do the photo thing and people love it.
I also don't take orders from OG's and don't fund them by belonging to ws that support them.

Another angle someone mentioned, and this is real; is the "buy local" movement which can be a way to fight this. I joined a networking group in my city that encourages people to use local businesses whenever possible.

As in any situation, it is better to think of what you can do, (even something small) and then try doing it, than throwing your hands in the air and giving up. IMO of course.
 
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Bigted said:
Frankly, I don't see how that helps in the local versus og situation. The wire services would want you to send them the pic so they could forward to the sender. They still get the credit.
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I think that if we are looking for a solution that benefits only us (independent florists) and doesn't help OG at all, it won't go anywhere. Look at Middle East.

A solution by definition is a compromise in my book. As long as the solution benefits us overall, it's better than doing nothing.

Also note that picture-proof would also create an incentive for OGs to not skim their orders. Because if they do, all they would get is a picture of tiny arrangement that they can't forward to their customers.
 
SpringCity said:
Well I am small potatoes but I also do the photo thing and people love it.
I also don't take orders from OG's and don't fund them by belonging to ws that support them.

Another angle someone mentioned, and this is real; is the "buy local" movement which can be a way to fight this. I joined a networking group in my city that encourages people to use local businesses whenever possible.

As in any situation, it is better to think of what you can do, (even something small) and then try doing it, than throwing your hands in the air and giving up. IMO of course.
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Absolutely Agree!:headbang:

These negative articles only make MY business stronger, I am gaining customers from this, not losing them ;)
 
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It really is too bad that our own local papers cannot and do not promote to buy local...this is really our best bet...

I cannot for the life of me imagine buying anything online that I can get down the street...I may research on line, but I buy local, usually the money saved is in delivery...I find that if the items are being shipped free, the item is overpriced and if the item is a great price shipping is usually outrageous....this is on everything else besides flowers...

We really do need to accentuate the positive...buying a fresh product is better from someone local that you trust...like brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh....We do an awful job at advertising and marketing as an industry, we never have the excess cash for it...we do an awful job of having flowers at pricepoints the customer wants to pay, (do we really need to make 3 times the amount paid on tulip bunches that sit get bought and head out the door...)What we do really good is supply the freshest longest lasting flowers with friendly service in the most timely manner to those who want it...now if we can show them we are wlling to be available all day and have quick items for under 10 bucks available and get the word out that they can order just as easily from us online, we might be able to get them to shop more often...with us.
 
goldfish,

would you post a recent photo that you emailed for us to see?

I personally don't like the idea of photgraphing every arrangement. It's very difficult to take a photo of a flower arrangement that does it justice.

I recently, upon request, photographed a two dozen calla arrangement because the customer lived in Atlanta and would not be there to see the arrangement. She paid $89 because she wanted it upgraded with curly willow and greens from the usual $79.95.

Because of the angle of the photo she claimed the vase and callas were too short. She wanted more curly willow and she thought we shorted her on the number of callas because she couldn't see them all in the picture. I had anticipated the calla count so I tried to shoot the photo from above, causing her to think the callas and vase were short.

It took more time to photograph and email than it took to make the arrangement and the results caused a misconception and a complaint.
 
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Excellent point RC - thanks for sharing that. An example from the best image dude up in here.

I told FTD I thought that was a total can of worms that was ludicrous to expect or include and that I would never be participating in that program.

I've also toyed with that idea of sending pix to purchasers and decided totally against it. All you're gonna do is spawn "that's all I got for $35?" complaints. And we know the cheapest ones complain the loudest even tho your example shows the high end ones do too.

Thanks
 
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bloomz said:
Excellent point RC - thanks for sharing that. An example from the best image dude up in here.

I told FTD I thought that was a total can of worms that was ludicrous to expect or include and that I would never be participating in that program.

I've also toyed with that idea of sending pix to purchasers and decided totally against it. All you're gonna do is spawn "that's all I got for $35?" complaints. And we know the cheapest ones complain the loudest even tho your example shows the high end ones do too.

Thanks
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Sorry, I disagree again, BWTFDIK, so it's Ok to show your doctored up photoshop images or Perfect looking WS cookie cutter images online, but you cannot shoot a photo for a customer who wants to see the finished product of what they are sending...all you are doing is gaining their trust and showing them you are a real flower shop that makes arrangements!

Its all about communication, tell the customer they can have a photo sent to them, but, its just an amatuer shot and they need to take that into consideration-when looking at it, of course it looks better in person...

You also can take a shot from over top and a side angle shot, and send them two angles in the email. It only takes a few minutes to do this, and customers do appreciate it.

As a matter of fact heres a better idea, buy a flip video camera and video a 15 second clip going around the arrangement so they can see it from all sides, now how about that for customer service! Kind of like Eufloria Flowers sending me a flip video of them packing my rose order! its awesome!

We do NOT do this for all orders,and agree that could become time consuming, however we absolutely do it upon request, if the customer wants one. After all in todays world, the recipient probalbly takes a photo from their phone anyway and will send it to the sender anyway.
 
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Can of worms IMO - if Randy can't shoot a good one easily - I ain't even trying

but thanks anyway...
 
bloomz said:
Can of worms IMO - if Randy can't shoot a good one easily - I ain't even trying

but thanks anyway...
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My guess on Randy's customer who complained is, even if he shot the best picture in the world, she would have complained anyway ;)

Don't make your decision based on one customer -

I will start offering flip video emails for customers who want to see the flowers -
 
I made my decision based on the best photo taker I know...it proved the can of worms theory to my satisfaction.

but WTFDIK?

Do let us know how you do willya???
 
I follow the leaders, so just...

Bite me.....
 
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