Urgent Reminder From Teleflora President

Eric S

Eric S

Demoted Webmaster
Jul 12, 2005
2,944
2,096
113
Tustin
www.everydayflowers.net
State / Prov
CA
With Valentine’s Day orders making a very busy week for everyone, we should remember to be extra vigilant to ensure that all orders match up to customers’ expectations.

It’s quite likely that media outlets will be ordering flowers as part of Valentine’s Day stories and not identifying themselves as print or broadcast reporters. We recently learned of a situation in which the delivered arrangement did not resemble the Teleflora recipe. The flowers were not similar, it arrived late and there were mistakes on the care card. Remember that a situation with this many errors can result in negative PR for the entire floral industry and may impact Teleflora’s willingness and ability to send orders to shops that fail to perform to standard.

Of course, this is one of the most stressful times of the year. We understand that and appreciate all the work you’re already doing. However, please take the extra steps to ensure that we deliver on Teleflora’s commitment to quality products and services.



Sincerely,



Shawn Weidmann
Teleflora President
Click to expand...

My response:

I think its a little late to send this out. I appreciate the reminder but a little better notice would have been more appropriate. I think it would be better if a picture of the questionable product was sent to all of Teleflora members. So that all members can see and understand how important it is to provide a product that has the correct flowers, container and most importantly the design.

I have to also question the Network Quality Program that we have been paying into every month. Seems to me that the blame should be placed on this program not working if a member sends a product that is not acceptable. If a Teleflora members quality has fallen through the cracks then what’s the point of Teleflora members paying into this program. $240.00 a year that’s more then enough to do at least one or two test orders every year on each member.

I have never received a message about a test order whether it was good or bad and I'd like to know if its happening or not.

I’m requesting more information about the this program and feel as a member I need to know if its working or not.

Sincerely
Eric Shaw
Owner

Everyday Flowers
15012 Red Hill Ave Ste F
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 258-7293
Toll Free (800) 248-1493
www.everydayflowers.net
 
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Sadly Eric, like FTD...the "Quality Assurance TAX" is simply a cash cow bringing in monies without any concrete explanation/display of the offending "florist". We know, even from some of the applicants here (as was mentioned in another thread) that there is a severe lack of design ability, even the ability to follow an ingredient list and copy a picture.

You have to remember, the number of members IS more important than the ability/talent of those same members. Even with low order volume, the WS's make more money the more members they have. Sadly they have not chosen quality over quantity.
 
Eric,
I too would like to know where that money is going. We have been members since 2000 and have never been tested.

I do think it is NEVER to late to remind florist to be careful in substitutions, as so many florist put their least experience (aka least paid) employee on these designs, especially at the holidays. While they may be cookie cutter as some like to call them I do believe that it takes a smart and strong designer to execute them to look like the picture.
 
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Here's what I get when I try to reach teleflora.com from home.
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete.

* Have you disabled or blocked cookies required by this site?
* NOTE: If accepting the site's cookies does not resolve the problem, it is likely a server configuration issue and not your computer.
Click to expand...
I was gonna snag a picture to use as an example. If Mr. Weidmann wants florists to make arrangements to look 'full' like the pictures, IMO they need
1) More money than the SRP on most everything under $75 and especially the ones under $45.
2) To stop using so many spray roses which never look like the ones in the photos on a major holiday.

I saw a couple designs priced at $29.95 a few weeks ago and cannot fathom how shops can make and deliver them at those prices, even if they received $100% reimbursement.
 
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CHR said:
Here's what I get when I try to reach teleflora.com from home.
I was gonna snag a picture to use as an example. If Mr. Weidmann wants florists to make arrangements to look 'full' like the pictures, IMO they need
1) More money than the SRP on most everything under $75 and especially the ones under $45.
2) To stop using so many spray roses which never look like the ones in the photos on a major holiday.

I saw a couple designs priced at $29.95 a few weeks ago and cannot fathom how shops can make and deliver them at those prices, even if they received $100% reimbursement.
Click to expand...

yes

and in your pictures:

stop putting all the flowers on ONE SIDE and stating the arrangement is to be ALL AROUND
 
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Carol Bice said:
Seems to me that the email from him was like preaching to the choir. Those offending shops will not change because of that email going out.
Click to expand...

I see it as a cya on his part. but not really doing anything about this issue.

"We really really want good designs delivered but SIGH SIGH we just can't make them (members) do it". Sigh .. just keeping sending the QA checks.
 
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Kristine said:
yes

and in your pictures:

stop putting all the flowers on ONE SIDE and stating the arrangement is to be ALL AROUND
Click to expand...

Mike Soenen (Past FTD President) was asked why they always show the arrangements on one side in the picture. His response was that we do that because the customer wouldn't buy them otherwise.

I see............
 
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BOSS's Quote of the Day~!

Bigted said:
Mike Soenen (Past FTD President) was asked why they always show the arrangements on one side in the picture. His response was that we do that because the customer wouldn't buy them otherwise.

I see............
Click to expand...
Yup, that about covers it.....

I have another little item, that is sure to piss some folks off that I'll post in a day or three once I check out it's validity. Again from Teleflora, regarding an ongoing issue with FTD and their members, even dual members have an issue with this one.

Hint: It involves technology....
 
and test ordering doesn't do much good if they don't have a recepient who knows what they're looking at :)
 
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Sorry, everyone, that I'm a little late to the party! I've had a crazy few days between Super Bowl and now travelling today to OKC for a national sales meeting (where I hope to be a voice for the florists, if I can).

I haven't yet had time to read through everything here, but my colleague Danielle seems to be locked out of posting and asked me to reply for her in the short term. I'll also be going through and may have a few additional thoughts of my own. Anyway, here's what Danielle would like to pass along:

[FONT=&quot]I’m not surprised that some of you haven’t received test orders in the past or realize that you’ve received test orders. Teleflora’s Network Quality is comprised of more than simply mystery shopping (ie. test orders.) We regularly look at the following factors and data when evaluating members:

[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Consumer satisfaction[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Incorrect substitutions/late cancellations[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Prompt delivery[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Order skimming control[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Deceptive advertising[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Florist feedback on wire order fulfillment[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Arrangement quality and freshness[/FONT]
 
My response would be that Teleflora should stop the false advertising of arrangements, which by their own admission can not be filled to look like their pictures based on the recipe given and the price they are selling them for!!
 
Nicole, thank you. Maybe you can find this out... Exactly how many florists were directly tested in 2008?

Also, let me know what you mean by Danielle being "locked out" and I'll look into it.
 
LOL, You have got to be kidding. I think it speaks directly to this industries issues when TF sends a letter to it's members asking them to do their jobs properly during a busy period of time because the media may be watching.

Reading between the lines I see two things in this letter

1) TF has a serious lack of faith in many of its members to stand up to inspection.

2) It must be okay to perform poorly when nobody is watching

3) TF knows that sending this letter to only the offenders may cause a loss in membership, so it paints everyone with the same brush, identifying no one.

Just my thoughts
 
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BOSS's Quote of the day!

Doug Munro said:
LOL, You have got to be kidding. I think it speaks directly to this industries issues when TF sends a letter to it's members asking them to do their jobs properly during a busy period of time because the media may be watching.

Reading between the lines I see two things in this letter

1) TF has a serious lack of faith in many of its members to stand up to inspection.

2) It must be okay to perform poorly when nobody is watching

3) TF knows that sending this letter to only the offenders may cause a loss in membership, so it paints everyone with the same brush, identifying no one.

Just my thoughts
Click to expand...
I think that's te biggest quote of the day I have ever done~! But it's well deserved~!~!
 
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We obviously didn't do a good job writing the letter! Yikes! Our real intent was that if the story from Houston 'blew up' (which it didn't), that our network would be prepared both to see the story and know what happened, but also to know that other reporters would probably try and do the same thing in other areas to capitalize on the story.

We realize that quality hasn't been transparent enough of a process to date, so we've been making some big changes on our end. First, we're doing more than mystery shopping (though I guess that's something that's only changed in the last few years) and we're also instituting a new 'incentive program' for member shops. It won't be a monetary incentive, but more a recognition program that lets both consumers and other florists see a visual cue that a particular shop is in the top (TBD) % of all shops for quality. This will hopefully stoke the competitive fires a little bit and make it a valuable part of member business plan. That one's called Petal of Honor and if you have access to MyTeleflora.com you can search for that phrase and find the information we've released to date.

Specifically replying to Doug, here are my responses:
1) We have a serious lack of faith in SOME of our members, but not 'many' - however, you're right, it does mean that we have to tell everyone to be aware of the possibility for inspection by outside sources

2) It's not okay to perform poorly at any time, but policing the system is quite the challenge with as many members as we have and so we know that some shops 'get away' with poor quality for a long time - however, as I've outlined above, we are trying to find ways to change that

3) This letter was intended to be more of a 'heads-up' than a 'shape-up command' - thus sending it to everyone made sense. We just did a poor job of writing the letter. (Our bad.)
 
NicoleAtTF said:
It won't be a monetary incentive, but more a recognition program that lets both consumers and other florists see a visual cue that a particular shop is in the top (TBD) % of all shops for quality. This will hopefully stoke the competitive fires a little bit and make it a valuable part of member business plan. That one's called Petal of Honor and if you have access to MyTeleflora.com you can search for that phrase and find the information we've released to date.
Click to expand...
I mentioned this a while back for the wires to institute a positive feedback system for filling florists, rather than the poor filler list that some have been asking for. While they should be rated by the quality system, they should also be rated by their fellow florists. It's easy to put a higher ranking on one or the other in a system like that.

When I did mention this, though, the board went eeerily silent...
 
Ok - I'll try this again (rogue finger)..
How about 2 lists: one for those who really excel in both quality & customer service and those that, well, shouldn't be given a knife to wield. That TF phone book is pretty big - when I was a member, I used to try to find a website to check out style, flower choice, etc., I looked for reviews online, etc. Otherwise I felt that I was working in the dark sometimes. Maybe part of that "Quality Assurance Tax" could actually go toward assuring quality. IMO the letter sent by the TF president should not have been sent. You deal with the problem instead of creating a bigger problem by chastising the entire group. Just my humble opinion......Anne
 
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