Teleflora to require DCON's in August

[RWK]

The only reason I mentioned time is that I have run into the time issue sooooooooo many times.

Guy orders flowers for the girlfriend/wife to go to the workplace, we make arrangement and deliver, get signature and time, Guy calls later " Why ain't my GF/wife got her flowers yet?, I look at sheet " They were delivered at 1 pm and signed by her", Guy, "THEY WERE - WELL, WHY AIN'T SHE CALLED ME", Have not yet figured how to be nice and not sarcastic in response to that one. Most of the time, I just say - "Well, I don't know why she hasn't called you" - SOOOOOO MUCH MORE I WANT TO SAY........sometimes I hate biting the tongue.

Always a guy........who wants to impress girl so he can get a little bit later on.......he hopes......

 

[prestonway]

PW, finally we are in agreement. If the customer wants the service, they need to pay for the premium services.

joe

It's not for premium delivery service Joe.

It's the regular delivery charge that gets me.

There was talk previously about how PF built their business model from the ground up. In other words, if we had to build this industry starting from today...

What would flower costs and delivery charges really be?

So I went to the PF site for same day delivery in Killeen Texas on a $39.99 alstro vase.

Their charge for delivery????

$24.98

How much of that is the filling shop getting?

And obviously their customers see the value, otherwise PF would be out of business.

So it's not about price.

And the last I heard, they're putting through "one or two orders", so what's stopping us from raising our delivery charges?

I know.

The shop down the street is willing to do it for less, so the delivery charge can't be raised.

You'd lose business.

So it's not gonna' happen...or could it?

 

[lisa greene]

I wouldn't mind if they gave use the customers email to send the confirmation to!

 

[Rhonda]

just spoke with a TF tech rep. He has not been advised of auto dcons. Only when the sending shop is an Armed Forces sender (an agreement with AF)

 

[sfox]

The receiving florist is simply making another local delivery, with any luck one of many that day. Their actual delivery costs are in theory no more or less on a wire order than on any other order.

The part you minimize in your post is the " in theory". A wire service delivery is not the same as a delivery that was sold at the delivery shop.

The shop making the delivery had no control as to what was stated at the point of sale. Promises could have been made or customer wishes not transmitted that make handling a wire order delivery very different than one that originated in the delivery shop. There are all kinds of variables that can be involved in a wire in order delivery, that won't happen when the order was sold at the filling shop.

The point of sale dictates the satisfaction level of the buyer. FEDEX can keep customers happy because the customer sending the item chooses the level of service they desire based on the cost that FEDEX has placed for that service.

 

[Joe Mioux]

Or go to a different shop that offers it as part of their free premium customer service plan.

How is the OG/WS operator going to find the shop that offers the service for free?

 

[TOTO]

YUP! My Question too!

This raises a point that has been bothering me for a few years now.

As florists, we charge a nominal delivery fee, usually between $7.00 & $15.00 for same day delivery.

For chits & giggles, I went to the FedEx site for shipping a 1 lb package from Victoria Canada to Edmonton Canada (Doug's city).

For delivery in three business days it's $11.57.

For delivery before 9:00 am tomorrow the cost is $41.95.

If we are truly supplying a superior level of delivery service, with hand delivery, phone calls to make sure someone is home, pictures of the arrangement, DelCons, ad nauseum...

...then why the *ell as an industry are we not charging a reasonable amount for this service?

If everyone were to receive $15.00 to $25.00 per delivery...

...would we even be discussing this issue????

Wee REAL FLORISTS give the consumer the best deal around when it comes to our DELIVERY FEES.

All one has to do is to go to FedEx, USPS, or UPS, and check their per pound prices for only NEXT DAY DELIVERY and not even SAME DAY DELIVERY 'cause none of them can DOO DAT!

I find it interesting that, a fore profit company insists on getting paid for each and every service and item THEY SELL, and yet when it comes to WEE FLORISTS, we're expected to provide a $ERVICE at chump change, or in this DCON case, FORE FREE!

Cathy pointed out the discrepency as well, and I agree.

If we want to model ourselves after all of the other carriers, then let's go for the whole Kit and Caboodle, especially the part about DA MONEY!

In today's world, it's become CATCH AS CATCH CAN, and more often than not, recipients are NOT AT HOME during the day, nor are their nice neighbors. And so, it becomes DELIVERY BY APPOINTMENT ONLY!

As a rule, we never leave any perishable by the door, which is why, we always CALL BEFORE DELIVERY, and then, leave a message.

Inevitably, we get the call at closing time and that person says: Oh, I just got home and YOU CAN DELIVER IT NOW.

No problem! We'll just have our dinner LATE AGAIN since I have to go out of my way now as the driver has already left for the day.

WEE FLORISTS consistantly go out of our way to fulfill our obligations to our customers and in our efforts to provide them with IMPECCABLE $ERVICE to include our IN THEIR NICE WARM HANDS personalized delivery. Only problem (in our world) is in the fact that, they expect it since, that's always what we've done.

It would be a nice change of pace if WEE were able to actually get paid for our level of $ERVICE and in line with what the BIG GUYS get.

We have always had our variable pricing tiers for SPECIAL MESSENGER DELIVERY $ERVICE OPTIONS, but that's an UPSELL FEATURE at the time of the sale and based on their WANTS and NEEDS.

The catch 22 is when they want our same-day delivery rate but the person isn't going to be home until after we close. Of course, the sender doesn't know that fact, and so it's left all on us.

DCON? Absolutely a great idea when the customers ask for it.

How Much? I like a BUCK, but that's in REAL DOLLARS, and not in WS Smoke and Mirror Wampum.

Unless and of course, I can pay them in LIKE and KIND!

 

[Joe Mioux]

It's not for premium delivery service Joe.

It's the regular delivery charge that gets me.

There was talk previously about how PF built their business model from the ground up. In other words, if we had to build this industry starting from today...

What would flower costs and delivery charges really be?

So I went to the PF site for same day delivery in Killeen Texas on a $39.99 alstro vase.

Their charge for delivery????

$24.98

How much of that is the filling shop getting?

And obviously their customers see the value, otherwise PF would be out of business.

So it's not about price.

And the last I heard, they're putting through "one or two orders", so what's stopping us from raising our delivery charges?

I know.

The shop down the street is willing to do it for less, so the delivery charge can't be raised.

You'd lose business.

So it's not gonna' happen...or could it?

so don't you and bloomzie just use FEDEx? If it isn't about the money and you need the Delivery Confirmation, AND PF is successful with their model of shipping - then just drop ship your flowers.

 

[twiggy]

Well I have to say- thanks LJVF for starting this thread- it's started me thinking maybe I (in a little town and no pos) should be doing this.

Right now I have similar customers as Dorothy, most everyone knows everyone. Many would not require this extra service- but, would they like to know I provided it if they should ever need it? (I bet yes) My online customers already expect it- like others have said- many other gift companies have order confirmation (I have that) and tracking. well I can go a step beyond and give them confirmation.
(Bloomz I like the extra phone call idea too.)

would me providing this service raise the bar among the florists in this community? (you bet! I also don't want my competition raising the bar on me-I'll be doing all the bar raising here, thank you very much!)

This will require extra planning and doing- but I think it's needed. I'll find a way to do this without too much extra drama. (i hope)

 

[Dazeal]

I didn't read through all the posts, but the best part of order conformations is the marketing side and getting email address, which is also linked to marketing. We don't do conformations, just because we're new to a POS (FW for 4 months) and haven't yet tried it.

We average about 5 orders a day for delivery. In 8 years 0 people ever called and said they didn't get their flowers. Maybe I should start doing it not because of the service side, but for the marketing side. Thanks for the posts, I think I might start using this feature in floristware.


As for drop shipping: Profit wise, it is near impossible for a florist to use fedex overnight standard on their own discount account and not piggy backing onto the Norcal discount (%70). Unless they were willing to pay the steep overnight shipping or part of the shipping was built into the flower price.

Norcal is the organization that most farms/wholesalers belong to in California and use their buying power to pwn the fedex discount. 1800flowers and proflowers discount is at 80%. I dabbled in this seedy world and failed, due to the Miami bottleneck. If anyone ever wants to know more about drop shipping, send me a pm.

 

[theRKF]

Wow - crazy long thread, and at least an hour of my day gone reading over 148 posts. If I'm repeating anything here, please forgive me.

I come from a good-sized shop in a large metro area. Part of my duties at Martin's was dealing with our delivery services (yes - that's plural services: 1-2 pool-type services, couriers, downtown driver(s) and our on-staff driver).

Our largest delivery services covered an area that would take over 3 hours of highway driving to get from one side to the other, and 1+ hours north to south. They service over 400 florists and have more trucks on the road than I want to think about.

When we installed MAS in Jan '05 (Wes was 2 weeks old at the time) we started a policy of providing delivery confirmations. For retail clients, we used it as a means to get their email address, a value-add for online customers that differentiated us from most shops at the time, and a way to get our emails read by the customer. As part of the process we also send DCONS to sending shops.

I keep hearing about the problems people have with delivery pools, and I'm sorry - I just don't buy it. We have a rule that all problem deliveries must be reported on the spot by the driver, to our shop. They must also call for permission to leave at the door. If we don't hear from the service the order is marked as delivered as part of our end of day routine.

If there is a problem with a delivery and the driver doesn't notify us, they don't get paid for the delivery and they might very well wind up paying for an apology bouquet.

That's customer service (florist or retail customer), and that's just how we roll.

Ryan

 

[kt4ye]

By the way, Yes JB talks MAS, MAS, MAS all the time, but all the POS systems have that capability. You don't have to have MAS exclusively to be able to excersise that option.

Well... we have an Eagle system here and, delivery confirmation is MANUAL.

IOW, someone has to sit at the Eagle Server and type the info into a separate message for EACH order. Depending on individual skill, it is about two or three minutes per order. PLUS the time to separate out the incoming wires from the locals AND the time to double check.

An ADDITIONAL cost on orders that are already undervalued!

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Wow - , .

I keep hearing about the problems people have with delivery pools, and I'm sorry - I just don't buy it. We have a rule that all problem deliveries must be reported on the spot by the driver, to our shop. They must also call for permission to leave at the door. If we don't hear from the service the order is marked as delivered as part of our end of day routine.
Ryan

Ryan:
all of our pools have rules about leaving packages & notification; rules about notification of a non-delivery, etc.

The thing is that these are the EXCEPTION deliveries -- not the every one, rule deliveries.

Maybe I misunderstood earlier, but I was led to believe that you wanted a positive Dcon on every order that our pool delivers, with DELIVERY TIMES AND CONFIRMED SIGNATURES.

In your shop, you assume that if you haven't heard from the delivering shop, the order has been delivered & you Dcon accordingly.

We would recommend doing the same thing.

Cheryl

 

[Dorothy]

This comment from Frank back there was totally uncalled for: "Yes, we sometimes have trouble receiving DelCons in the past (hi, Dorothy!)" and much of what else he said. Yes, I've had discussions about his DCON requests, in the past (yes, I recognized the innuendo), especially at the busy times and in the beginning he was sending them in a way that not only took time but COST ME MONEY to confirm the delivery! He changed to sending ASK messages instead, which I appreciated and told him so. I also told him that I could not guarantee immediate DCONs at our busiest times but I would do them when it was convenient for me to do so.

I am entitled to my opinion and it does look like my opinion isn't too far out in left field, judging from other posts on here. It's about convenience, cost, knowledge, integrated systems and manpower (again especially at the busy times), or lack there of any of those factors. Like someone else said too, when you're in a small town you know if/when there's a problem immediately. I think DCONS are a great idea, don't get me wrong, but most (in my limited 5 years experience) really weren't necessary. As for using them to get email addresses: I agree with this too but again in a small town, people DO NOT want to give out their addresses because well they're afraid of spam. Really, this is how it is.

People sometimes have to be reminded that's what's good for him or her isn't necessarily the best thing going for someone else.

I hope I don't come across like I'm totally 100% AGAINST DCONS 'cause that is just not what I'm trying to convey all....like others have said too, "it ain't easy" for everyone.

I'd love to hear ideas from other small town florists on how to tackle this - especially if it will be mandatory, which has not been CONFIRMED yet. Because I would like to hear real solutions so I can pass them on to the new owner. I've encouraged her to join FC many, many times but guess what? She's BUSY! which I am very happy to hear....

I apologize to anyone, in advance, if they are in any way offended by my need to defend myself.

Edit: Pardon me, Frank gave me permission to return DCONs by way of ASK so that it did not cost me $

 

[theRKF]

Maybe I misunderstood earlier, but I was led to believe that you wanted a positive Dcon on every order that our pool delivers, with DELIVERY TIMES AND CONFIRMED SIGNATURES.

I don't think we have received specs as to what TF in mandating yet.

I believe the wording on the DCONS we send by email and Merc goes something like this: "Dear blah blah, we are pleased to confirm your order to blah blah has been delivered. Our driver returned to the store at 2:34pm ..."

I'm paraphrasing - but the point is we confirm the delivery was completed and the time the driver returned to the shop (or, in case of a service delivery, when the service shuts down for the day). If we have a precise time, we'll list that time.

Ryan

 

[ourfathershou25]

Is this going to be just with Telefloral Headquarters Orders that they are gathering. Bloomnet does the same thing but they pay you .75 per confirmation.

 

[prestonway]

Yes, I've had discussions about his DCON requests, in the past (yes, I recognized the innuendo), especially at the busy times and in the beginning he was sending them in a way that not only took time but COST ME MONEY to confirm the delivery! He changed to sending ASK messages instead, which I appreciated and told him so. I also told him that I could not guarantee immediate DCONs at our busiest times but I would do them when it was convenient for me to do so.


Edit: Pardon me, Frank gave me permission to return DCONs by way of ASK so that it did not cost me $

Sorry Dorothy.

Usually I would just blow off an attack post like yours.

But not when it includes an outright lie.

We have ALWAYS sent our DelCon requests in the form of an ASK message which simply needed an ANSwer message to confirm delivery and not cost money.

I believe Ryan can confirm this, because he should know.

He set up our DelCon system upon installation.

Further, you make this seem like a big deal.

The shop that you used to own, and that you used to work at received 27 orders in the past 24 months. Not a huge number that your targetted posts seem to be implying.

And as always, if these orders are such an imposition, why not forward or reject?

Or if the actual shop owner feels the way you do, please let us know.

Thank you.

:corky

 

[theRKF]

Sorry Dorothy.

Usually I would just blow off an attack post like yours.

But not when it includes an outright lie.

We have ALWAYS sent our DelCon requests in the form of an ASK message which simply needed an ANSwer message to confirm delivery and not cost money.

I believe Ryan can confirm this, because he should know.

He set up our DelCon system upon installation.

Further, you make this seem like a big deal.

The shop that you used to own, and that you used to work at received 27 orders in the past 24 months. Not a huge number that your targetted posts seem to be implying.

And as always, if these orders are such an imposition, why not forward or reject?

Or if the actual shop owner feels the way you do, please let us know.

Thank you.

:corky

I'm guessing she was one of those that you mentioned earlier that replied to ASKs with GENs? I remember finding those situations very frustrating because a GEN msg saying "Your order was delivered" doesn't help me much when there are a couple doz - or a couple hundred - sent out for that day.

 

[Dorothy]

I'm guessing she was one of those that you mentioned earlier that replied to ASKs with GENs? I remember finding those situations very frustrating because a GEN msg saying "Your order was delivered" doesn't help me much when there are a couple doz - or a couple hundred - sent out for that day.

That was the actual "Confirm Delivery" choice in the system. No one told me to answer the DECON by ASK until I complained about the charge I saw on the statement. Guess I'm not the only one getting facts mixed up...

 

[Dorothy]

Sorry Dorothy.

Usually I would just blow off an attack post like yours.

But not when it includes an outright lie.

We have ALWAYS sent our DelCon requests in the form of an ASK message which simply needed an ANSwer message to confirm delivery and not cost money.

I believe Ryan can confirm this, because he should know.

He set up our DelCon system upon installation.

Further, you make this seem like a big deal.

The shop that you used to own, and that you used to work at received 27 orders in the past 24 months. Not a huge number that your targetted posts seem to be implying.

And as always, if these orders are such an imposition, why not forward or reject?

Or if the actual shop owner feels the way you do, please let us know.

Thank you.

:corky

This is the last thing and then I'll shut up (maybe I'll receive a Thumbs Up for that comment!).

You're not the only "florist" my shop received orders from.