Teleflora After Hours Phone

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clay

clay

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Aug 12, 2004
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www.mcadamsfloral.com
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Got a sales call this morning from Teleflora asking if I would like the Teleflora After Hour phone answering service. So I did not get the whole pitch, I politely said no....and she asked "even if we waive the monthly fee?". Of course for this service they keep 80% of the order....we did not go into the cost for "message" calls.
 
EIGHTY PERCENT? you sure they don't mean 20%?
YOW
 
And they have a customer information.
Same as FTD...
Is it worth checking into, if they market those people.
Luc
 
Teleflora has a three tiered fee system for their flower after hours program.

Tier One, is a 20 pct commission plus $49.95 per month, however, if you forward the phone number 15 times per month the monthly fee is waived.

Tier Two is 15 pct commision plus $25.00 per month fee.

Tier Three is 10 pct commission plus a $75.00 per month fee.

Joe
 
Re: You can't afford to PAY THOSE COMMISSIONS!

clay said:
Got a sales call this morning from Teleflora asking if I would like the Teleflora After Hour phone answering service. So I did not get the whole pitch, I politely said no....and she asked "even if we waive the monthly fee?". Of course for this service they keep 20% of the order....we did not go into the cost for "message" calls.
Click to expand...

Having been THE FATHER of FAH back in December of 1985, I can speak from my own personal experiences.

Pushing for that $ERVICE when we were member owned and operated, I had no problem with having another stream of revenues going into our MEMBER COMMUNITY POT.

We subscribed to THE $ERVICE from October 1990 until December 2001 and when we finally PULLED THEIR PLUG.

I had a folder four inches thick with all of the PROBLEM ORDERS which they had taken (and outsourced during peak hours) plus the customers they lost doo to ineptness.

Now, our lines are forwarded to my cell phone where I can choose to ANSWER ANYTIME to simply let it go to voice mail to enable them to leave a message for a call back.

And, I have different voice mail messages for different times of the day.

All I can tell you is that, ONLY A REAL FLORIST should be answering their shop's telephone since, ONLY A REAL FLORIST can control their customer's sale requests.

I really hated it when I walked into the shop in the morning and read the printed out FAH order from my customer in which, they were told that they could get a dozen yellow roses arranged in a vase with baby's breath delivered by 11:00 AM as that's when she's leaving her office.

Nothing worse than NOT GETTING A SECOND CHOICE of COLOR, taking an AM TIMED DELIVERY at 8:30 AM, and then THE TOPPER, NO SECOND TELEPHONE NUMBER where my customer could be reached in that two hour window.

NAW! Just didn't need to PAY THEM to make MORE HEADACHES fore mee!
 
Curious

as to wether or not ya'll check your after hours service from time to tie by calling your own stores after hours.

I know of some instances where "test calls" were made to shops where TF kept folks on hold for upwards of ten minutes...

THis is not a service I have ever used, heard too many horror stories about both of them with upwards of a 50% problem rate with order information...
 
At the risk of being banned as a cheerleader.. I have used FAH since the beginning, and yes I do test calls..usually in the middle of the night or early AM.. and usually at holidays to see what my phone sounds like.
twice I was on hold for more than 5 minutes.. this was a busy holiday.. and you would have been on hold at my store also..
Most times it is answered very well.. my customers biggest complaint is that they know we have their data on file and don't like spending time remembering it.. the good & bad of a nice POS system.. a few will just call back at a better time.. or send an email.. but that is only a very few people.most love it since they can call anytime.
Non customers really don't notice a difference.
Of course there have been some bumps in the road.. like when they had some people answering the phone whose first (or second or third for that matter) language was not english..they solved that quickly.
BUT I do UPDATE MY DATA BASE OFTEN.. and I check regularly.
Like any TOOL this one works well if used as intended and kept in working order.. if it stopped being a benefit to me, I, too, would forward my phone to home or cell.. but this way orders come in already formatted for my POS and any 'stupid calls' are handled by them.
Unlike TOTo I willingly accept 11am deliveries (with the added time dollar surcharge which FAH's adds on and explains to the customer).
But I am in a rural area and I need as many 100% orders as I can get.. yes FAH takes a %but I figure that is what I would pay the sales staff taking the order. and of course I then market to these people.
No one has ever told me they were marketed to by FTD from this source..although everyone gets it in their CC bills from FTD.COM & 800>COM... yes it is a concern.. and I would drop them in a minute and take legal action if I saw this.. because THESE ARE MY CUSTOMERS and I purchase a service from FTD that I expect not to have raided..
Sorry it is so long.. but I am satisfied with FAH and I am keeping my eyes open,just as I do with other competitors
 
Carol has some GOOD points. I suppose it works for rural florists - however, it did NOT work for us. Up unitl 4 or so years ago, we had it. We had TOO many info calls, too many mistakes (corsage order for pick up at 8:30 am), and overall too costly for what you get.

I have Verizon VM service built into one of my plans. It does the job nicely, and 99% of my customers who call do so and leave a message for us to call them back - which we do 1st thing in the morning. We also encourage online ordering - especiall after hours.

FAH is nice because interfaced well with my POS, but overall too costly for my biz...
TEL is the same...
- H.
 
Re: SPECIAL MESSENGER was MY IDEA Carol..

Carol said:
Unlike TOTo I willingly accept 11am deliveries (with the added time dollar surcharge which FAH's adds on and explains to the customer).
Click to expand...

So DOO I Carol! I believe it was MEE that coined the REAL FLORIST money making strategy called $PECIAL MESSENGER DELIVERY $ERVICE sometime back in 1984.

However, my issue was over FAH taking an order fore mee at 8:30 AM for YELLOW ROSES delivered by 11:00 AM and with no second choice of color and no second (daytime, office, or cell) telephone number to enable us to reach the sender.

We don't always stock Yellow Roses because of their shorter shelf life and our data in their database clearly told them that, WE NEEDED A SECOND CHOICE of COLOR unless they were taking that order at least 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE.

And, our charge for SPECIAL MESSENGER DELIVERY $ERVICE was $24.95 then, which was also part of our database info which they FAILED TO QUALIFY or CHARGE to that customer.

The example I cited was the least of the problems I had had due to their OUTSOURCING during peak periods.

When Liz Stallone and Julie Stotler ran it, their in house sales associates did a fantastic job due to GREAT TRAINING.

And when my CALLERS shot down to the FLORIDA PRIVATE OUTSOURCED CALL CENTER, we had BIG TIME PROBLEMS!

Again, only a REAL FLORIST has the ability to CONTROL THEIR OWN POINTS of SALE since, only they know WHAT'S IN THEIR COOLERS, WHAT NEEDS TO BE SOLD, and the how and when of getting those customers WHAT THEY NEED and for WHEN THEY NEED IT FOR!

If they still WORK FORE YOU, that's great!

But, I like my calls forwared to my cell phone now and for that, I pay NO MONTHLY FEES or COMMISSIONS to anyone.

Best part is that, I control my point of sale which is critical to our customer care.
 
I had this service through FTD many years ago and didn't keep it long. Perhaps Teleflora does a better job. The problems I encountered were especially on holdiays when we were working late and the system was on and we wanted them to take the calls...after all the program was called FLOWERS AFTER HOURS! HA! They couldn't keep up with the volume of the subscribers on holidays. I tested their operators on several occasions-they were poorly or undertrained and did not represent our shop the way we do. We were charged for information calls, the orders were more than likely problematic due to specific instructions they took that we could not oblige. I have an answering machine now, that gives customers our hours of operation and directs them to our website. Works well for us.
 
Thumbs down to After Hours

We prefer to have an answering machine on our own phone, as well as on-line ordering on our website. We aren't impressed with TF or FTD's additional services" that cost way to much for what you get!
 
Another one of those love-ate relationships.

I do have Teleflora's 24 hour flowers. I do not love it. I do not hate it. I have had it about 7 months.


Cons
Poorly trained associates at holiday crunch time
Sometimes long hold times
No way of knowing how many calls you had and how many orders resulted
Spelling, grammer and improper info atrocities
OUTSOURCING (MAJOR ISSUE)
Associates not following what is listed on data base


pros
Having the ability to take orders 24hrs in a 24hr world with out hiring people to work 24hrs
Being able to have a life, when you are the only employee of a small business
Being able to forward phone to concentrate on time sensitive work whe working solo


I also use this service as a tool. I log into my work computer from home every morning to see what has come in during the night. That way there are no surprises. I can make the decision to go to the market for things I need before getting to the shop. Very rarely are there problems with not having what has been sold. More problems with spelling, info and hold times.
 
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