Urgent Reminder From Teleflora President

[BOSS]

1) We have a serious lack of faith in SOME of our members,

Then that begs the question... WHY ARE THEY STILL MEMBERS??????????????????????????????????????

Most likely for the membership dollars they generate.

If any wire service actually used the dollars collected in the name of "Quality Assurance" for doing actual quality assurance, and policing their membership, they would not need to send out this type of letter in the first place, and secondly the consumer would not have to suffer inferior quality and service.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

Then that begs the question... WHY ARE THEY STILL MEMBERS??????????????????????????????????????

Most likely for the membership dollars they generate.

If any wire service actually used the dollars collected in the name of "Quality Assurance" for doing actual quality assurance, and policing their membership, they would not need to send out this type of letter in the first place, and secondly the consumer would not have to suffer inferior quality and service.

Again, it comes down to our inability to monitor as closely as we'd like. We have been removing shops from membership for quality problems, but it takes time to gather enough data or to actually put the data to use. You're right, it's not an ideal system and we could/can do a better job (which is what we're trying to do with the changes highlighted previously). Even with a very efficient system, however, there will always be a few who don't 'keep up' and it takes time to discover a problem and deal with it.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

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

Again, our purpose with the letter was NOT actually to highlight a quality issue, but to create awareness of a potential news story we'd heard would run. We wanted to make all members aware, though obviously the composition of the letter was not clear on this. We did make an error in the composition, but I firmly believe we were correct in attempting to notify our members of such a situation.

 

[BOSS]

Even with a very efficient system, however, there will always be a few who don't 'keep up' and it takes time to discover a problem and deal with it.

Agree'd...

Perhaps the system should work on the front end and not the back. Check them out, test them BEFORE they are allowed to become a member...

Novel idea 'eh?

 

[Doug Munro]

Ahhh, the concept of problem fulfillers?

Where have I heard this one before......wait now, its coming back to me. I actually started a thread "Problem Fulfillers" over 6 months ago on this board and asked that it be given a "sticky" so it stayed at the top. There it stays even today, yet it still does not have one name listed. What it does have is 20 some odd comments discussing all the reasons why its wrong and no one will "out" poor performers.

Frankly hoping anyone will name poor fulfillers is at times like trying to get a doctor to testify in a malpractice suit, the ranks close very fast.

 

[Doug Munro]

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.)

Nicole,

You are right about one thing it was a very poor job of writing the letter. However I suspect that one of the reasons nobody at TF noticed it was that in reality it is reflective of the industry.

Every year at the holidays the same issue rears its ugly head, that in the flower business "what you see, is not necessarily what you get". so everyone lives in fear that sooner or later someone will point this out in mass to "Joe Consumer"

The bottom line unfortunately is that the wire service business is in some ways like running a labor union, in the big picture it would be best to get rid of the "Bub Slugs" who don't know which end of the hammer to hold, but they can't because they rely on the union dues. So rather than raise the standard, you simply drop it to the lowest common denominator. Does this improve the quality of construction, not likely. In a perfect world individuals would strive to better themselves to meet the stringent requirements and become a member of the "labor union" or the wire service, and would wear that membership as a badge of honor. Unfortunately that is not going to happen when the only qualification for membership is a cheque book.

What really amazed me is that the letter in question actually came from the desk of the big guy at TF. That in itself is a sad statement

 

[lori042499]

I will say that as a small sending shop, I would not have the ability to give my opinion on shops that I think shouldn't have a knife...I do have an extensive list of shops I will not use from 25 years experience...some shops I won't use because of quality, some because they skim a percent off the top, some because of service or delivery preformance...but I am way too picky and some of these shops would be fine with people so why should I name them when it is by my criterior that I won't use them...see what I am getting at here...I am one person with a few bad experiences or inside knowledge, I don't feel that shops can make that judgement from limited experience, TF however has to deal with continuous complaints for the same senders and can compile that list easier with greater accuracy, you would think....but then again they do have those membership dollars and lits of other things that they need to figure in before yanking them...like how much product they buy or ad revenue or sending...so there you have it another conundrum...



Oh yeah and 800-flowers has been reminding their florists for years that the media will be scrutinizing the quality and composition of arrangements...so it only seems to be appropriate for the others to follow suit...especially where they do get bad press every single holiday....

 

[CHR]

Doug - that posts rings incredibly true.Thanks.

Nicole - the product selection is corrupt. Designers make the product shots and then Marketing comes in and places ridiculously low prices on the arrangements - with reality of local costs thrown out the window. Florists who raise concerns about availability and costs basis are banned from photo shoots (or never invited back). There used to be a push back at the corporate level (advocating for what happens in local shops) but its voice is muted.

We know consumers want low prices, but the current system of selective hearing sets both florists and the company up for complaints. The letter totally misses the company's responsibility in the equation.