Teleflora, worth it?

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Pushin Petals

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Nov 19, 2003
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Hi there

After one year in my florist shop I am begining to wonder if it is worth it to have Teleflora? I can seem to justify it anymore? My store does well yet I feel it is always the Teleflora bill that is a big pain in the you know what at the end of the month...any feedback here? I would appreciate both negative and positive feedback from all you established florists. Thanks.
 
pul the ws plug - you do not need them - go direct - there are a few f2f sites ont the www - i use a site i put together some 5 years ago.. http://www.directblooms.com/ the site is slow - but it works for us.. and it is free!
 
Pushin Petals said:
Hi there

After one year in my florist shop I am begining to wonder if it is worth it to have Teleflora? I can seem to justify it anymore? My store does well yet I feel it is always the Teleflora bill that is a big pain in the you know what at the end of the month...any feedback here? I would appreciate both negative and positive feedback from all you established florists. Thanks.
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Remember ... if you are paying the WS, it means you sent more than you received, so you're making money. You get to hold the funds for 45 days before paying, plus you get rebates for sending. If your incoming orders are at a reasonable level, they can be useful (not to start a big debate, again - it's been done before).

In the end you have to decide what's best for your shop - but I hate to see people get scared off a profit centre because they don't like paying the bill!

Ryan
 
phillip said:
pul the ws plug - you do not need them - go direct - there are a few f2f sites ont the www - i use http://www.directblooms.com/ the site is slow - but it works for us.. and it is free!
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Isn't that YOUR site?
 
Infinite said:
Remember ... if you are paying the WS, it means you sent more than you received, so you're making money.
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Not always true. It depends on your volume of orders. Someone that is only sending out 15 orders a month and paying could be losing money. I used to think the same thing until I talked to florists that sent out only 300 orders a year and belonged to 2 or more wire services.
 
GFLORAL said:
Not always true. It depends on your volume of orders. Someone that is only sending out 15 orders a month and paying could be losing money. I used to think the same thing until I talked to florists that sent out only 300 orders a year and belonged to 2 or more wire services.
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True ... I was speaking in generalities that apply most of the time. I quite often see shops that complain about having to write cheques for 2,3 even 5 thousand $$ a month to either WS. At that point, you should be making $$$ but all they see is a big cheque leaving their bank account every month.

Two wire services? I know shops that make it work for them, but for most I'd say it's silly. :)
 
That's true. Most of the very successful shops I deal with, complain bitterly about having to write those big checks to the wire services. I guess they forget that they already collected, or are about to collect, those monies from the consumer. :)

Some of the fees, however, are quite high. Especially for technology related services.
 
George Simon said:
Some of the fees, however, are quite high. Especially for technology related services.
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Care to elaborate George?
 
I'm not George but WS technology fees are outragous. Tf charges $59.95 for access to Dove plus you have to have a dedicated communication line(phone line) and then there are .75 cent charges per order received.

This equates to over $70 dollars per month just to have the pleasure of sending and receiving orders thru a "closed system network".

This isn't high speed technology either so I think that George is right when he mentions Technology fees are outragous. I think FTD is just about right in line of those costs too.
JMHO
 
BOSS said:
Care to elaborate George?
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Maybe someone who has one can chime in here, but I beleive that FTD's charges for the Mercury 3000 system are quite high, especially for a 386 computer!
Dove & Mecury Direct charges are similar, I think and not near as high as the Mercury 3000 charges.
 
George Simon said:
FTD's charges for the Mercury 3000 system are quite high, especially for a 386 computer!
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I concur to a point. These charges are higher, but mostly because costs associated with supporting OLD technology are higher. "IF" one could get all florists to get rid of out dated technology the costs would come down, but many florists simply want to keep what works for them, and do not want to upgrade.

I think if you were to compare apples to apples, like Advantage to RTI and MAS, you would see that FTD's fees are the lowest of the BIG3, especially when you consider that these fees include replacement if it becomes necessary, they are rather low.

Merc3000 is going away, far as I know, but there are still folks out there using Merc2000....go figure...
 
We seem to be getting away from the subject

The young lady originally asked about evaluating a need for her WS. This discussion has turned into one about WS technology.

I tend to think that any evaluation should be on a broader scope. As always let's look at the numbers. Let's say that you pay $150 for monthly dues only. To me, that means you have to send out $750 of wired business every month just to break even. That means that the 20% commission you earned is going completely to pay you dues and you made nothing. If you average order is $50, you had to send out 15 orders

Now let's say that you felt that technology might help your business and you decided to use the electronic sending system offered by the WS and that was another $60 a month. That means you have to add another $300 of outgoing wire business every month just to break even. Remember, the sending system didn't help you find the new customers who want to send those order. Some will tell you they are just easier to send now. Now you are up to 21 orders per month and the total commisson earned only equals the monthly payout for monthly membership and sending system. YES, there is a rebate if you pay your bill on time and in this case it would be $63. If you are content with a return of $63 for your investment in time and technology, then you might want to stay with the WS. Of course we haven't talked about the monthly amortized cost of the selection guide or any other monthly fees that are added on to your bill just to be a member. Each dollar added means additional outgoing business must be generated just to break even. If you are asking, how many orders a month does a florist have to send to make it profitable, the answer is in the ratio of incoming to outgoing that is important and not how many you send. Remember, belonging to a WS has two sides - outgoing and incoming.

And we didn't even talk about what incoming discounted business does to the average florist. But that's another topic.
 
BOSS said:
I concur to a point. These charges are higher, but mostly because costs associated with supporting OLD technology are higher. "IF" one could get all florists to get rid of out dated technology the costs would come down, but many florists simply want to keep what works for them, and do not want to upgrade.

I think if you were to compare apples to apples, like Advantage to RTI and MAS, you would see that FTD's fees are the lowest of the BIG3, especially when you consider that these fees include replacement if it becomes necessary, they are rather low.

Merc3000 is going away, far as I know, but there are still folks out there using Merc2000....go figure...
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I've heard about the Merc 3000 going away for at least 5 years now and 5 years from now it will still be here, unless FTD stops supporting it, which is highly unlikely.
However, the fees for the Mercury 3000 have been very high since it was first introduced.
 
Paying for the FEES

Griff - your example leaves out ONE little thing: Relay Fees.
How many in here collect a relay fee on outgoing wire orders? Hmmm?!?!?
We collect $8.00 per order PLUS pass on $5.00 to the filling shop for Delivery. That 8 bucks is paying for our FTD & TEL membership fees alone! And, YES, we have been collecting that 8 bucks for nearly 10 years now - no increase. We offer that customer 100% satisfaction, super service, and the fact that our name goes behind EVERY order out of our shops.

I consider rebates to harm the industry. Don't like 'em. My commission is just that, and is revanue. I'll take ANY order, as long as I can make $ on it (and 99% of the time you CAN if you CHOOSE to...)

ALL SAID AND DONE, you only NEED one wire service. It's all in if you can AFFORD two, or three, etc....

- Herb R.
 
PS Griff....

Forgot... TECHNOLOGY should NOT be paid for entirely by your wire service revanue. You should choose technology that will AID your business as a WHOLE, and not throw $150+ a month down on a machine the JUST transfers wire orders out. That's a waist. Instead, spend about 300 and STREAMLINE your ENTIRE shop with something that will do more than just x-mit an order for you... I treat my Advantge system like an employee: it processes orders, c-cards automatically, prints cards, routs drivers, runs payroll completely with timeclock, etc. All for about 4 bucks an hour. Pretty cheap employee, huh! The monthly payment is it's salary, and the support is it's medical! (get it!!! - support=medical....err...never mind...)

- Herb
 
Yo...

Dawny77 said:
Man, now I feel like I am in the stone age... We still use the Merc 3000 and I hate it. I have been on the phone with Tech Support so much, I know how to do half the things by heart.
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Sound like it's time for you to move to Merc. Direct... gotta Wintel machine around with internet access??? Time to do a cost comparison...
 
Dawny77 said:
Man, now I feel like I am in the stone age... We still use the Merc 3000 and I hate it. I have been on the phone with Tech Support so much, I know how to do half the things by heart.
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Merc. 3000 Tech Support will always tell you that is the 3rd party software at fault or, if they cannot blame the 3rd party software, that they'll send you a new machine or modem.
I tell flowerSoft customers to tell them that they don't have a 3rd party software to force them to look a little closer at the problem.
They have even tried to blame flowerSoft for their printer not printing, even after being told that flowerSoft does not use or touch their printer at all!
 
Service

BOSS said:
I think if you were to compare apples to apples, like Advantage to RTI and MAS, you would see that FTD's fees are the lowest of the BIG3,
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We have no fixed maint fee its pay as you go. If you dont need maint you dont pay... As time goes on and you become familiar with any system to maintain is less so why pay for something you dont use. Our average e-service is 7 per customer that equates to 210 per month. Most of our service calls after 3 months are education calls. You obviously can't train the years of experiance we have in 5 - 7 days.

Ref to Merc 3000 we have not used it since our inception just a modem only. Now we are MercDirect and internet based with FTD and FSI. As I talk to florists across the country I am still amazed at the amount of old technology that is still in place. They dont like change and the wire services dont want to lose the clearings so they continue to support it, hence so many operating systems. :boggles:
 
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