Stop! Smell the online flower fraud

[Chezbloom]

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.

$89 for 24 Calla lilies???????? and she's complaining? Madness, I tell you, its all crazy madness up in here!:jester

 

[CHR]

As someone whose shop frequently emails photos to customers, we've found it to be an asset. Lots of positive feedback plus we build our image gallery in the process.

Randy mentioned a single complaint over a photo, so if that feeds into your predisposition to decline taking your own photos, it's easy to hang your hat on it. We've sent hundreds, but then we also deliver about 90% of the orders sold though our shop.

I agree with Chezbloom - complaining 24 callas in a vase with curly willow for $89 was 'undervalued' is an anomaly and unlikely to be repeated. We don't let one complaint deter us from using a valuable tool.

As I've said previously, when & if WSs require shops to email photos of proof, every member should add their website address watermark to every photo. It's your work so you should get the credit.

BTW, our new Spring and Easter arrangements were all photos of designs made for orders and emailed to customers in the past. Not Randy's photo quality, but they work for us.

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

The woman claimed she would have paid more, but when I asked my sales lady she said she had a tough time getting the additional $10.

The woman also said we were the worst florist she has ever delt with and she would never do business with us again.

I never responded to her email which probably qualifies me for a loathing blog entry by her.

Now, a question for those who like this idea and fill incoming wire orders.
When filling a wire order do you feel more of an obligation to follow the wire service recipe or duplicate the look in the photo? The customer will undoubtedly expect you to reproduce the picture which will require approximately twice the prescribed flowers.

 

[LJVF]

Cathy, everyone one of our photos in our unique designs section were from arrangements filled for a customer. Most of these items are extremely popular and my unique catalog is slowly growing. Not exactly Randy quality, but people seem to like them, it's moving up the ranks as one of our more popular sections.

With that said, I am having trouble with the efficiency of the whole process of sending a photo; snapping the shot, uploading, resizing then sending. I'm looking into purchasing a designated shop camera cellphone with a decent number of mega pixels. By sending the images directly from cellphone to email or even cellphone to cellphone, I think this could streamline the whole process by eliminating the middle steps.

I am also intrigued with the whole flip video thing, but believe something simple could be done with a 5 second cellphone clip. Perhaps capturing a 360 view of the arr. with video and confirming it's the customers order with audio. Similar to what Eufloria has done with the flip video, only much shorter.

 

[master J]

Cathy, everyone one of our photos in our unique designs section were from arrangements filled for a customer. Most of these items are extremely popular and my unique catalog is slowly growing. Not exactly Randy quality, but people seem to like them, it's moving up the ranks as one of our more popular sections.

With that said, I am having trouble with the efficiency of the whole process of sending a photo; snapping the shot, uploading, resizing then sending. I'm looking into purchasing a designated shop camera cellphone with a decent number of mega pixels. By sending the images directly from cellphone to email or even cellphone to cellphone, I think this could streamline the whole process by eliminating the middle steps.

I am also intrigued with the whole flip video thing, but believe something simple could be done with a 5 second cellphone clip. Perhaps capturing a 360 view of the arr. with video and confirming it's the customers order with audio. Similar to what Eufloria has done with the flip video, only much shorter.

I think the flip video is a great way to show more than an image! it is so easy D, just shoot a 15 second all around view of an arrangement, I will try to post a sample to this thread shortly

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

Cathy,

I'm not trying to deter anyone from doing this. I'm just stating my experience, which is it takes too much time and can lead to misconceptions and problems. We do email pictures to anyone that requests them but don't encourage it.

Your pictures have been obviously photoshopped. How much time do you spend on each picture? Where do you photograph them? Some arrangements we make are very large and would need an appropriate area to photograph. Are you the only one that takes and edits the pictures or is this something you would feel comfortable with all your designers doing? Can you do this during peak holidays? Has your delivery man ever had to wait do to the photo process? Do you charge for this service or do you build it into the price of your product?

These are just some of the questions that I can't come up with good answers for my shop.

RC

 

[LJVF]

Randy, I have emailed many, many un-photoshopped images of arrangements to customers and yet to have one complaint, mostly compliments. The customers really do appreciate them. But I do agree, that they will sometimes expose some "holes" in the arrangement, and I do forsee a potential problem with this. The efficiency is my biggest beef with the process.

I'm thinking the 360 video capture with audio may be the wave of the future.

 

[lori042499]

Cathy,

I'm not trying to deter anyone from doing this. I'm just stating my experience, which is it takes too much time and can lead to misconceptions and problems. We do email pictures to anyone that requests them but don't encourage it.

Your pictures have been obviously photoshopped. How much time do you spend on each picture? Where do you photograph them? Some arrangements we make are very large and would need an appropriate area to photograph. Are you the only one that takes and edits the pictures or is this something you would feel comfortable with all your designers doing? Can you do this during peak holidays? Has your delivery man ever had to wait do to the photo process? Do you charge for this service or do you build it into the price of your product?

These are just some of the questions that I can't come up with good answers for my shop.

RC

I also send out pictures if requested but rarely ever solicit these...I have the time right now to shoot the pictures, but in the future or at holidays it could get hairy, due to space, time restraints etc...I hate to start a program and have to abandon it at holiday time because I just can't do it all...I find that getting just the right shot for my webpage is challenging enough, nevermind sending it to a customer...and then if they don't particularily like it and its already gone by the time they see it...oy vey, more issues than I care to deal with...

 

[bloomz]

Randy mentioned a single complaint over a photo, so if that feeds into your predisposition to decline taking your own photos, it's easy to hang your hat on it. We've sent hundreds, but then we also deliver about 90% of the orders sold though our shop.

The woman also said we were the worst florist she has ever delt with and she would never do business with us again.

I never responded to her email which probably qualifies me for a loathing blog entry by her.

Now, a question for those who like this idea and fill incoming wire orders.
When filling a wire order do you feel more of an obligation to follow the wire service recipe or duplicate the look in the photo? The customer will undoubtedly expect you to reproduce the picture which will require approximately twice the prescribed flowers.

I guess I'm overly concerned with reputation management - a single complaint in an online review overshadows a bunch of positive ones.

and on that last one - we make them look like the picture RC and don't have to use double the amount of flowers at all - 2yla is very calculator strict if you remember...

This online reputation management concern is what has stopped me also from requesting a review in our delivery confirmations - we've lately found a way better way of garnering them. PM me if you'd like to know what it is.

And, my hat was hung on not sending pictures idea years ago when I toyed with this, RC's example just verified to me that my decision was right. I'm a tech freak/geek as you know, and if I thought we could or would benefit more than lose - I would have been all over this.

Glad it's working for someone :spin

 

[kt4ye]

Now, a question for those who like this idea and fill incoming wire orders.
When filling a wire order do you feel more of an obligation to follow the wire service recipe or duplicate the look in the photo? The customer will undoubtedly expect you to reproduce the picture which will require approximately twice the prescribed flowers.

Most/all WS pictures are of SINGLE SIDED arrangements, but the recipe SAYS that they are ALL SIDED. I have a standing rule in our Design Area that we make the product Single Sided to reflect the photo.

Before we started this (about a year ago) we had a constant stream of complaints. After: nada.

Bill