Teleflora Delivery Confimations now useless

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Again I will state, I don't know Teleflora's motivation as I am not privy to their management meetings or nor am I a mind reader. Unfortunately too often human beings in general are not motivated to do extra work that benefits the common good unless it results in personal gain or not doing it results in punishment. So it appears that TF took the route of punishment, I certainly cannot debate that there might be a better way anymore than most folks on this board will honestly say confirming delivery in some form is not the right thing to do.

As for my being obtuse, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

THEIR "motivation" is more dollars stolen from florists period!
I have drawn a line i the sand with FTD...I TOO MUST HAVE delcons for ALL my overseas orders, just like THEY must have mine......it's gonna turn ugly, very soon!

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

OK... I did it... I confirmed before they were delivered because I knew I wouldn't be back before 7 PM..
I'M bad... Less than two months and counting...

Karen, warrior wire service princess!!....

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

As for my being obtuse, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

I, for one, do NOT see or hear you as "obtuse", your opinions are highly valuable, and generate tremendous response, but, being from direct "hands on" experience, have you already "forgotten", that wire services, AND THE OG's that they "protect" are driving long time members away??
Yours prides itself in sending orders, to shops that can provide you with the best bang for YOUR customers...who are YOU gonna send your orders to???...an OG to fill??....puleeze.......

 

[prestonway]

THEIR "motivation" is more dollars stolen from florists period!
I have drawn a line i the sand with FTD...I TOO MUST HAVE delcons for ALL my overseas orders, just like THEY must have mine......it's gonna turn ugly, very soon!

So what?

We've asked for international Delcons for years.

One ask...wait 24 hours...no answer...out goes the CAN message.

Funny how quickly the reply comes in.

And this issue with fake DelCons...order not delivered on the date requested with no explanation why the delay...and a fake DelCon was sent...order gets cancelled.

No big deal...it's just the way it is...

Doesn't have to be done with any animosity, Mikey...it's just a simple request...

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Wow did I get you guys riled up! I think I have to agree with....well pretty much most of what ya'll had to say. I agree wholeheartedly we need delivery confirmations, in fact I was THRILLED when TF first added the option, it made my follow up work so much easier. I am just ticked about these new rules/fines/payments and their implications. Don't know if any of you have ever read Freakenomics, but it is a great read that brings psyc, economics, and statistics together. This kind of reminds me of one of the chapters about charging parents a couple of dollars if they pick up their kids late. Rather than parents picking up their kids more on time (the intention), they get picked up less because the penalty lessens the seriousness of picking up on time in their minds. Anyways, now I have a new problem to address: I have the Florida State Florist Association conference 3 hours away from my house (that I was supposed to leave for tomorrow night, but am going to push back till Friday night) and my assistant (my only designer) is out all weekend because her husband is in the hospital. I've got a part time college student who can take orders and make wraps and cubes, but that is where her experience ends. She is scheduled to do flowers for a recital this weekend, but thankfully I don't have any weddings. I am going to try to get a hold of a shop owner who closed about 6 months ago that I bought most of her inventory who I like, I just hope she is available. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

this AIN'T "riled up" Christi.....it isn't even a "1" on the oven dial......

 

[BOSS]

I do believe that the overall reason for the wires to require delivery confirmations is customer service, just like it is for the local florist>customer relationship. They are retailers with direct customer contact just like we are, also the bulk of wire orders these days are driven to florists via company storers and order gatherers. The OG's have demanded this level of service because their customers do. Simple as that, it's not a conspiracy...

The $1.00 charge is not to make a profit, I mean it's going to generate very little income when spread across all of the BIG3's order volume... the $1.00 is simply incentive to get lackadaisical florists to do what they should be doing anyway...

Just wait until they institute real time tracking like Fed/Up where the customer will see that you have not even designed their order yet, or that it left on your truck 3 hours ago and is still not delivered... that's when the fun will begin.... Y'all keep fill'n.....

 

[anytimeflowers]

I want to clear the air on my comment about obtuseness, in public.

Doug, I was not name-calling, I was specifically referring to your comment about my own website being difficult for consumers to use. I felt that you were being "deliberately obtuse" although I seem to have left out the "deliberately" part. I meant no disparagement to your intelligence or even you in general. I like you to be perfectly honest. I should have immediately made the distinction.

We don't agree on some issues in specific terms, but in broader terms of customer service and industry trends you would perhaps be surprised at how much we do agree on.

I apologize.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I want to clear the air on my comment about obtuseness, in public.

Doug, I was not name-calling, I was specifically referring to your comment about my own website being difficult for consumers to use. I felt that you were being "deliberately obtuse" although I seem to have left out the "deliberately" part. I meant no disparagement to your intelligence or even you in general. I like you to be perfectly honest. I should have immediately made the distinction.

We don't agree on some issues in specific terms, but in broader terms of customer service and industry trends you would perhaps be surprised at how much we do agree on.

I apologize.

it's ok Linda......Doug has everyone's respect and admiration, AND he too, is a big boy, and just LOVES to get into a boxing ring...we all fight, than we make up...it's all good!!..
Just because he's a pig headed bully, with 40 years experience in the industry, doesn't mean we can't disagree...
Oops, I apologize also......

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I do believe that the overall reason for the wires to require delivery confirmations is customer service, just like it is for the local florist>customer relationship. They are retailers with direct customer contact just like we are, also the bulk of wire orders these days are driven to florists via company storers and order gatherers. The OG's have demanded this level of service because their customers do. Simple as that, it's not a conspiracy...

The $1.00 charge is not to make a profit, I mean it's going to generate very little income when spread across all of the BIG3's order volume... the $1.00 is simply incentive to get lackadaisical florists to do what they should be doing anyway...

Just wait until they institute real time tracking like Fed/Up where the customer will see that you have not even designed their order yet, or that it left on your truck 3 hours ago and is still not delivered... that's when the fun will begin.... Y'all keep fill'n.....

Get real Mark.......FED/UP gets paid for what THEY do, and quite competitively.....we do NOT!
Florists that's DON'T care, never did, never will, and the delcon "fine" is of NO BENEFIT!

 

[BOSS]

Get real Mark.......FED/UP gets paid for what THEY do,

It's not that far off Mikey... MAS already does it, on transferred orders, you know when the designer is working on it, when the driver leaves with it, when he comes back...and more...

I'm just saying that this will be the next evolution they'll charge for... heck I can order a pizza, watch it go into the oven, then to "checking" then in the vehicle, and then in my door.... it's the next evolution....

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

It's not that far off Mikey... MAS already does it, on transferred orders, you know when the designer is working on it, when the driver leaves with it, when he comes back...and more...

I'm just saying that this will be the next evolution they'll charge for... heck I can order a pizza, watch it go into the oven, then to "checking" then in the vehicle, and then in my door.... it's the next evolution....

yes, and they're gonna want to "taste" them, before delivery........there comes a time, when ridiculous, is just plain ridiculous......it's like paying franchise fees, with NO support, NO advertising, and NO chance of profitability!

 

[Doug Munro]

it's ok Linda......Doug has everyone's respect and admiration, AND he too, is a big boy, and just LOVES to get into a boxing ring...we all fight, than we make up...it's all good!!..
Just because he's a pig headed bully, with 40 years experience in the industry, doesn't mean we can't disagree...
Oops, I apologize also......

I would like to address this personally as Mikey has made a comment here that I can not abide by.....

It's 30 years Mikey, not 40! we don't want people doing the math and thinking I am in a wheel chair

 

[Doug Munro]

I want to clear the air on my comment about obtuseness, in public.

Doug, I was not name-calling, I was specifically referring to your comment about my own website being difficult for consumers to use. I felt that you were being "deliberately obtuse" although I seem to have left out the "deliberately" part. I meant no disparagement to your intelligence or even you in general. I like you to be perfectly honest. I should have immediately made the distinction.

We don't agree on some issues in specific terms, but in broader terms of customer service and industry trends you would perhaps be surprised at how much we do agree on.

I apologize.

Linda,

I only suggested that your website might be difficult for consumers to use because of the emphasis you place on how many problems occurred when customers placed an order on the web, as I recall you made a statement to the effect that "every" web order had problem, This in turn led me to believe that there may in fact be a problem with the "mechanics" of your website. It was never intended as a direct "poke in the eye". We have been on the web for 15 years and trust me during that time we have experienced our fair share of problems with our web sites, the order process, or simply the usability from a consumer point of view. I am sure that anyone on this board who has developed their own website can state the same.

 

[Doug Munro]

It's not that far off Mikey... MAS already does it, on transferred orders, you know when the designer is working on it, when the driver leaves with it, when he comes back...and more...

I'm just saying that this will be the next evolution they'll charge for... heck I can order a pizza, watch it go into the oven, then to "checking" then in the vehicle, and then in my door.... it's the next evolution....

I would envision that in a "perfect flower delivery world" that not only would the customer be able to track an order throughout the process, but they would receive an actual picture of the recipients smiling face when they receive the flowers. Sound far fetched or ridiculous? I don't think it is, after all virtually every cell phone incorporates a camera. This would be a great upsell for the selling florist ( with the fulfiller getting a portion)and add a tremendous amount of perceived value for the sender. Let Amazon try and compete with this!

 

[master J]

I would envision that in a "perfect flower delivery world" that not only would the customer be able to track an order throughout the process, but they would receive an actual picture of the recipients smiling face when they receive the flowers. Sound far fetched or ridiculous? I don't think it is, after all virtually every cell phone incorporates a camera. This would be a great upsell for the selling florist ( with the fulfiller getting a portion)and add a tremendous amount of perceived value for the sender. Let Amazon try and compete with this!

I have mentioned and thought of this plenty of times, a video would be even better then a photo. I think the problem is #1 getting the driver to do it. #2 Also getting the recip to accept us taking their photo-video....most people do not want to have video or photo taken of them. But it is a neat idea, and you could try to do it , I just dont think you would get many people to accept it, but it's worth a try!

 

[lori042499]

I am going to apologize in advance because I didn't read this whole thread only some so content could be irrelevant in my post...


I just want to say that whether the decons that 800tftd all require is for the ogs or not....they are a good thing for all of us..as big a PITA as they can be....it saves time when customers call and ask if their arrangement was delivered, it can head off problems if you really want to check the out orders every day and make sure they were delivered...it is just plain good service tool to have in your arsenal for making customers happy...and I will tell you how I know this...

I had a TF site and pos for 5 years, I did not buy the delivery or email module so all the email addresses were kind of useless and very hard to use even if I wanted to send out inv or decons...I did decons for TF and 800 flowers every single day...I have now had floristware for little over 1 month and I have gotten so much feedback on email invoices and decons that I cannpt tell you how exstatic my customers are..I am collecting more emails than ever because I have a real concrete reason to. I am getting pictures of wire out orders sent through my email when I decon the orders and I am getting paid faster...What is not to love about all of that...before everything was a guess, did it get delivered, did it look ok, I'll assume my customers are happy...now between the email communications and facebook, I know more than every that my customers are happy with my service and love that I am adding all kinds of conveniences so they can place their order and know that they will be taken care of and know they will get am update as things progress..I know we all hate the igs and how they operate but many of the things they demand is things we should all be watching because it is a very good reason they are beating us in the getting the customers field....Convenience without cost to customer is probably the biggest thing we can use to sell better to the customer of today...

 

[anytimeflowers]

Well said Lori. Sometimes, (very rarely) my emotions get in the way of logical thought. Consider my behind blistered!

 

[Doug Munro]

I am going to apologize in advance because I didn't read this whole thread only some so content could be irrelevant in my post...


I just want to say that whether the decons that 800tftd all require is for the ogs or not....they are a good thing for all of us..as big a PITA as they can be....it saves time when customers call and ask if their arrangement was delivered, it can head off problems if you really want to check the out orders every day and make sure they were delivered...it is just plain good service tool to have in your arsenal for making customers happy...and I will tell you how I know this...

I had a TF site and pos for 5 years, I did not buy the delivery or email module so all the email addresses were kind of useless and very hard to use even if I wanted to send out inv or decons...I did decons for TF and 800 flowers every single day...I have now had floristware for little over 1 month and I have gotten so much feedback on email invoices and decons that I cannpt tell you how exstatic my customers are..I am collecting more emails than ever because I have a real concrete reason to. I am getting pictures of wire out orders sent through my email when I decon the orders and I am getting paid faster...What is not to love about all of that...before everything was a guess, did it get delivered, did it look ok, I'll assume my customers are happy...now between the email communications and facebook, I know more than every that my customers are happy with my service and love that I am adding all kinds of conveniences so they can place their order and know that they will be taken care of and know they will get am update as things progress..I know we all hate the igs and how they operate but many of the things they demand is things we should all be watching because it is a very good reason they are beating us in the getting the customers field....Convenience without cost to customer is probably the biggest thing we can use to sell better to the customer of today...

Now this is how technology should be used! I think that part of the issue is that as technology has evolved it has in some areas stomped all over our industries traditional way of doing things. It has no doubt made competitors our of former allies and at the end of the day the little guy ( the front line mom & pop retailer) has been the one to feel the pinch the hardest.We can debate till the cows come home how TF , FTD, and Bloomnet do business, whether or not they should be marketing and selling direct to the consumer, should they deal with Og's, etc, etc, etc,. However at the end of the day things are what they arena d frankly in a lot of cases if the WS's weren't stepping on the florists toes, someone else would be. Nature and business abhor a vacuum.

My attitude is that you can only change the things you have control over, and from my perspective ( and most of yours I suspect) that would not include FTD.com, Proflowers. or any of the dozens if not hundreds of companies that fight over every wire order in existence.

Regardless of TF's reason for enforcing Decons, the bottom line is it is a good thing for the consumer and for our industry if done right and if taken to heart by the average retailer a good thing for their business in the longterm.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Now this is how technology should be used! I think that part of the issue is that as technology has evolved it has in some areas stomped all over our industries traditional way of doing things. It has no doubt made competitors our of former allies and at the end of the day the little guy ( the front line mom & pop retailer) has been the one to feel the pinch the hardest.We can debate till the cows come home how TF , FTD, and Bloomnet do business, whether or not they should be marketing and selling direct to the consumer, should they deal with Og's, etc, etc, etc,. However at the end of the day things are what they arena d frankly in a lot of cases if the WS's weren't stepping on the florists toes, someone else would be. Nature and business abhor a vacuum.

My attitude is that you can only change the things you have control over, and from my perspective ( and most of yours I suspect) that would not include FTD.com, Proflowers. or any of the dozens if not hundreds of companies that fight over every wire order in existence.

Regardless of TF's reason for enforcing Decons, the bottom line is it is a good thing for the consumer and for our industry if done right and if taken to heart by the average retailer a good thing for their business in the longterm.

you know Doug...we are gonna clash...
eg.....I recently had surgery booked for a hernia....the surgeon's office stated, "we WILL confirm the date,and time of the surgery in advance"......so I thought, all is well!!.....the date got closer, I called the surgeon's office, and it was "confirmed" that I would get the information by mail, in advance.....OK THEN.
NO info, pre-op was already done.......hmmmm.......so, I figured something else came up (as it had twice before, and cancelled)...at 12:50 pm, on the supposed date, I get a frantic call from the surgical ward of the hospital, wanting to know where the hell I was, and that I'm now in big trouble for tying up a surgical bed and team, and that I WOULD NOT be considered in the future!!
This DelCon feature is the SAME CRAP......I'm the florist, I DO THE WORK, and I get this shyt!!

 

[Doug Munro]

you know Doug...we are gonna clash...
eg.....I recently had surgery booked for a hernia....the surgeon's office stated, "we WILL confirm the date,and time of the surgery in advance"......so I thought, all is well!!.....the date got closer, I called the surgeon's office, and it was "confirmed" that I would get the information by mail, in advance.....OK THEN.
NO info, pre-op was already done.......hmmmm.......so, I figured something else came up (as it had twice before, and cancelled)...at 12:50 pm, on the supposed date, I get a frantic call from the surgical ward of the hospital, wanting to know where the hell I was, and that I'm now in big trouble for tying up a surgical bed and team, and that I WOULD NOT be considered in the future!!
This DelCon feature is the SAME CRAP......I'm the florist, I DO THE WORK, and I get this shyt!!

Mikey, Mikey, Mikey,

On what planet would you choose to compare (and use as a standard) an example from the most inefficient organization on the planet.......government. Next you will be bringing examples from Indian Affairs or the Post Office.

There is absolutely no rational reason why our industry can not raise the bar and be the example of what retail delivery should be. Unfortunately as long as we look for reasons not to do it, or continuously point to the fact that our current procedures (the same one that have been in place for over half a century in some cases) are not designed for providing a higher level of service we are doomed to fail.

If the airline industry took this approach we would still be used multi prop planes and allowing three days to cross the country.

I know that this example may not go over well but lets face it Proflowers took advantage of changes in technology to reinvent how flowers are sold and shipped. Quite frankly they are lucky that in the beginning they did not bring the concept to me as I would have told them they were nuts and it would never work. My point here is that they embraced technology and made it work to their advantage, on the other hand it appears that many traditionalists in our industry simply refuse to accept it and will go down fighting. However, fight it or not eventually our industry will get there, unfortunately in the meantime the consumer will suffer with poor service and florists will miss out on the potential to actually build the business (see Lori's example).

As for clashing with you Mikey, not my intention. I hate to think I am confusing you with the facts as it appears your mind is already made up, lol.

Take care, and may the force be with you. BTW Mikey, don't look for me on the board tomorrow as I am off for the day (that's right another short week)