TFTD Offering Free Trial Memberships

conchandler

conchandler

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2009
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New Freedom
www.thetreehouseflorist.com
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Pennsylvania
Thought I needed to pass this on. A guy walked into my shop on Saturday, introduced himself as a new florist in the next town to me. Said he was looking for white spray roses or white roses for an order he needed to fill. Being the nice person I am, I welcomed him to the business, and spent some time chatting with him. He told me that he was offered free trial memberships from both FTD and TF, for 6 months at least. We are in an area of small towns, each about 5,000 population. His town is currently being serviced by us and at least two other florists. One is FTD and the other one and myself are TF. Seems a bit saturated. Soon time for me to jump out, I think.
Question is: Are the WS that desperate for members that they giving free memberships? And in an area that already has more coverage than they need, ... EXCEPT I will not fill OG orders....
 
yes they are. Non member towns are being offered low or free memberships. I've been out of TF for 2 months, they called 2 weeks ago offering free for 6 mos. Told them, get rid of the non florist shop in my town and I'd think about it.
Only for non member towns for FTD (Also Served By towns...)
 
I'm not sure it's desperation, rather it's pretty obvious that it's simply a numbers game, trying to get folks signed up, increase coverage for their stables of order gatherers, and simply generate numbers...

Many cities, mine included are over saturated with members of any one wire service, to the point, in many cases of one member per 5000 residents or even less. At some point, unless membership is free or very low cost the benefit is lost, my estimate is 1 member per 10,000, and the argument could be made for 1 in 20,000 depending on geography.

They ass-u-me the more members they have, the more containers they will sell (whether you sell them again or not), the more credit cards they will clear, the more card ads they will sell (when you forget to cancel), the more electronic end points that will remain open at holiday crunch time(1 member it's a 50/50 shot, 2 members it gets cut in half, etc) and they can ensure that FlowersSentToday's orders get filled, that Wesley Berries orders get filled, and on and on and on...

All things being equal, 2 members per 50,000 residents would probably be a profitable, workable scenario... but then again you have some cities like Saginaw MI, a county of 200,000 residents showing 30 servicing florists, with 2 FTD members, 13 Teleflora members and 4 Bloomnet, and 2 FSI members...

Problem is, that while the FTD members look to have a better shot at profitability, the consumer is not coming in the door because the holiday specials are junk, then the problem with the TF members is that there are simply too many for them to gain positive results from local marketing based on the saturation point...

There's more to this, but I'll shut up now... nobody really wants to hear it anyway.
 
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There is no such thing as a free membership. Let's see, sign up now for 6 months "free"...that will bring a florist to April, when they're busy with proms, Easter, Secy's Day, upcoming Mother's Day. They will forget to cancel all the freebies, including the free directory ads, and the w/s got ya! Now it'll take several months to cancel the freebies or get out completely, and the florist will end up paying for membership dues, fees, low-send fees, reciprocity fees, on and on and on (unless, of course, they are happy and want to keep their membership and all the ads and bells and whistles they got for free.)

Then, another 6 month free offering will come up... that will bring new sign ups "free" 'til, ah, let's see ... Christmas, when they're busy and forget to....blah, blah, blah...

churn and burn...
 
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Here's the thingy-thing....

Not only do they compete with you directly, set YOUR pricing, tie you up and beat you with a pos system, pull outrageous fees out of thin air, they ALSO help your local competition to compete against you by duping them into filling low-ball orders and OG orders in your market with "free" memberships bait.

The logic fails me, Spock.....
 
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bigvic said:
you should think of a wire service as a tool. if you are looking for orders from them you have the wrong idea. you want sending not recieiving. the only way you make $ with a wire service is if you send them a check.
Click to expand...

But you need FILLERS to send to so if they are unhappy and dropping from attendance like flies, who will you send your orders to? The business model only works if there is both senders and fillers. You should be concerned with filler concerns or you will shoot yourself in the foot.
 
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They are always offering free stuff, ads, membership, etc, etc, it is all opt out and they know we forget, then try to get a straight answer when to cancel by and talk to someone and forget it....

Marketing it is all marketing.....free sells...
 
lori042499 said:
They are always offering free stuff, ads, membership, etc, etc, it is all opt out and they know we forget, then try to get a straight answer when to cancel by and talk to someone and forget it....

Marketing it is all marketing.....free sells...
Click to expand...

This goes for many businesses out there, 3 months free magazines, what if you forget to cancel, or just don't bother like many people do? They all have a pretty good chance of making something off you, if not, there are others that they get hook line and sinker.
 
My shop is mainly FTD, Teleflora gave me a quote that would save me $1500 a month if I used them like I do FTD. Not sure what to do, still thinking, there's got to be a catch.
 
Like all things in life that are "free" that's just about what they're worth...

And Panda... say WHAT? $18,000.00/year?
 
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