Wire Services vs My Customer

evn in all of this.....are we forgetting the beginnings.......were it not for the customer placing the order to start with....then there would be no order transmission, no sending florist, no filling florist, no delivery, no anything.
 
RWK said:
evn in all of this.....are we forgetting the beginnings.......were it not for the customer placing the order to start with....then there would be no order transmission, no sending florist, no filling florist, no delivery, no anything.
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I'm NOT going to lose sleep over a losing proposition, do YOUR job, I'll do mine, when a customer enables YOU to transmit an order, DO your job,and I'LL do mine, and I WON'T do it for nothing.....costs are rising, get THAT in your head, and act accordingly, with ALL the nuances that go with that!!
 
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master J said:
You may be right Mikey, there are a lot of "bains" in this industry, but I choose not to fill those orders through WS because I got too many junk orders and it was wasting my time. I am not trying to preach to anyone on what is right or wrong, I am just saying, if you choose to fill, you should fill without skimming, or in my case, at least fill the order at all when there is a funeral or something very important.

As for giving customer a number to call a florist direct instead, I do do that in a lot of cases, but most of my customers don't want to bother with that, so I provide that service for my customers who don't want to be bothered and yes I make money(commission) on that order.

The reason I use the WS for sending only is because it's easy for me to click button on my POS. I don't have time to be calling florists direct with orders, it take too much time.

I thought this thread was more about the filling florist not the usual sending florist problems....
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Adam you know I love you, but I must say this..
as a sending only, making the most money possible from your wire orders, you don't have time to call the florists, maybe if you know in your heart of hearts an order is going to be difficult(like a cemeatry or church hate those for wire ins) you should call the florist to make sure you are talking to a competant one...one that cares...you know you can tell right away when you actually pick up the phone...when you send through the pos you could be sending to a guy sitting there picking his nose, not knowing a thing about flowers or care about the shop he has, or a teenager that is way more interested in her text convo than your order..

As a filler, I wish that sending florists would do a few things,

1. take into consideration the area sending to and price accordingly, flowers in nyc are way more costly than atlanta ga
2. Get proper info on funerals, cemetaries, hospitals, we do not make enough money to chase your orders all over the countryside...Cemetaries suck to deliver to without proper info and noone is ever around to guide you, same is true for churches, noone mans these bldgs anymore and noone returns calls in a timely manner...
3. get a separate delivery on top of the order, so many shops are still sending 30 and 40 dollar arrangements without added delivery this is a recipe for disater especially with deliveries being in the 7-10 dollar range
4. get phone numbers for the recipient, don't assume that we have the info or that your info is all correct and we won't need it, just having a phone number for someone in our part of the world helps cut back on how big of a pita you order can be for us...

I go as far as getting the rm number at hospitals and funeral info for myself, because really if my customers orders are that important to me and I charge them 12.99 service fee and get 20% commission, I should make darn sure that the info I send to the florist better be correct or i have noone else to blame but myself...don't take orders and provide a 100% satisfaction garuantee and put off on the filler anything but making the darn thing because chances are they will not handle it like you would, it is not their order...I jump thorugh hoops for many a shop just because I feel it is good business, I have taken a stance that I want ti fill for shops like mine and only shops like mine, shops that put 100% into everything they do, I call shops and find out how they are before sending...I have had many a shop help me with difficult very last minute orders for funerals on Saturday afternoons for sunday delivery, but I have had the foresight to tell muy customer, I will try to do this for you, but you need to work wityh me on price and avalability because a florist other than myself needs to handle this aand may incur other costs running around doing this last minute order...I let my customers know that my colleagues do not work for free and that an imposition on thier schdules and time may cost them more money, but I also let them know that they can trust me to get it done in a proper manner. The dishonesty and suckiness can run both ways, that is for sure...but some of us do a really go job at the expense of our qon livelihoods, and at some point it gets tiring to do the job someone else got paid more money for for just pressing a button and letting someone else worry about the whole thing...it gets tiring being responsible for someone else's @@@@ show...
 
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Mikey the Flower Guy said:
I'd love for Joanne's reply, to become the mantra of our industry...her shop is busy, what does THAT "tell" you.
I KNOW what it "tells" me........there's a LOT of LAZY florists out there, and THOSE are the ones that cause most of our industry's injustice, and the wire services have EVERY reason to be blamed for "allowing" it....... no longer are wires services, ANY of them, to be considered a worthy partner...just "tools"....
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Excellent point! If we could see each other as "partners" in this business, we should all be successful. When I call another florist to fill for me, I expect them to treat my customer as if it were their own. If I don't get that sense of commitment from them, they don't get my order. Mikey is right that the WS is a tool, not a true partner, and using their tools (clicking a button), you tend to forget that your commitment to your customer is not done until the order is filled to their satisfaction. So we need to start treating each other as the true partners we should be, so that we can all succeed. I have had some of the most fruitful conversations calling out my orders, almost as good as being on FC. ;-)
 
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Another thing about the wire service pos systems...they work on a rotation, so you may think you are sending an order to ABC Florist, but if for whaqtever reason, their line is busy, the system automatically chooses the next florist listing in line. At least that's how Richard Cooke, my rep told me. The question arose, in my case, because I had a call from an out of town friend to tell me they wern't happy with an order they had transferred to us on the dove system. Apparantly, there is an option to choose your preferred florist? Anyway, when I explained that we do not have the Dove system, he was 1) shocked, 2) annoyed, 3) stunned that he did not get some sort of notification from TF that sending to me online was not an option. I don't know how he ended up finding out who sent his order, and I don't really care...no doubt he sorted it out. But now he calls me directly and talks us through what he wants. Now I know what his shop sells, for how much, when his delivery cut off times are etc, etc,.
Point is, if you find someone you like, call them, it's good for you, better for them, and the best for our customers. And you get to say hi to someone who may become a friend.
JP
 
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I will at the end of July become a sending member only for eflorist/teleflorist. We have a split in the uk of 70% to executing member 5% to eflorist/teleflorist and 25% commision to sending member (no membership fee's). I now feel the time has come to become a sending member only. I can't make ends meet on executing these orders as I send so few orders a month. And to add to this eflorist/teleflorist has put up it's fees for full membership to £60 or so a month. I have my own website that is now doing well with incoming orders so I feel I have a better presence locally with these orders. I have always filled the orders completely only deducting the standard delivery charge. I will always add extra if the order doesn't look how I feel it should. Yes people may think I am mad for doing this but we get great feedback so it can be worth it and make you more money ontop, but the time has come to stand alone on incoming orders.
 
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WOW, a $12.00 fee to transmit an order to another florist?!?
I've got to raise my prices. Considering that a phone call is almost always under one dollar, and less if you send it via a pos or email.
I charge 5.00, and I can't help thinking that's a bit of a rip off.
Do you all charge that much service charge for an outgoing order?
JP
 
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OB1 said:
WOW, a $12.00 fee to transmit an order to another florist?!?
I've got to raise my prices. Considering that a phone call is almost always under one dollar, and less if you send it via a pos or email.
I charge 5.00, and I can't help thinking that's a bit of a rip off.
Do you all charge that much service charge for an outgoing order?
JP
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my charge is $7 and I'm thinking about raising it, but I don't send much now anyway since I prefer to give my customers a name of a florist to call.
 
OB1 said:
WOW, a $12.00 fee to transmit an order to another florist?!?
I've got to raise my prices. Considering that a phone call is almost always under one dollar, and less if you send it via a pos or email.
I charge 5.00, and I can't help thinking that's a bit of a rip off.
Do you all charge that much service charge for an outgoing order?
JP
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We Charge $8
 
Wire Services aside, I don't know why a filling florist wouldn't fill the order to value.
I've said it before, but this could be the RECIPIENT's first encounter with our store.
Why would I want to send them any less than the absolute best of what we carry?

We CHOOSE to belong to a wire service, it's not slavery we're forced into. Do your job and fill to value.
It makes me laugh. you KNOW when you sign up for 800TFTD that you will have 27% taken off your order (plus, plus, plus), if you didn't want that...why did you sign up?

I just take off my stated delivery charge of $7 and fill from there.
If you send me an order for $47, you get a $40 vase arrangement (or whatever was ordered)
It's just good business sense.
 
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I also fill to full value...I much prefer the florist to specify a 40 dollar item with a 7.99 delivery but if given a whole dollar amount, the 7.99 delivery comes off the top then it gets filled to full value...I think the confusion of this fact is coming from another thread involving net profit...Wire orders for me get the same exact treatment as my own orders
 
lil_goldie said:
I don't know why a filling florist wouldn't fill the order to value.
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Most do....

But also, many think about the 20-33% they give up which comes directly from the NET and often the owners salary.
 
I guess I shouldn't say "I don't know why a filling florist woudln't fill the order to value."

I know the reasons why they don't, but it confuses me when people are just focused on the here and now of the "bottom line"
I think about the recipients overall experience with our shop and how THAT will effect the bottom line the next time they need a gift.
 
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lil_goldie said:
Wire Services aside, I don't know why a filling florist wouldn't fill the order to value.
I've said it before, but this could be the RECIPIENT's first encounter with our store.
Why would I want to send them any less than the absolute best of what we carry?

We CHOOSE to belong to a wire service, it's not slavery we're forced into. Do your job and fill to value.
It makes me laugh. you KNOW when you sign up for 800TFTD that you will have 27% taken off your order (plus, plus, plus), if you didn't want that...why did you sign up?

I just take off my stated delivery charge of $7 and fill from there.
If you send me an order for $47, you get a $40 vase arrangement (or whatever was ordered)
It's just good business sense.
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Chantelle, I KNOW you mean well........so, can you "guarantee me" that MY customer can get 30 white and 30 red carns, on a saturday morning order, for saturday afternoon, without "calling" you to confirm??....please, it's ambiguous to say " we fill to value" when you MAY NOT have the "leeway" to "sub".....
 
We only charge $4 on a wire out, because that's what FSN charges us. Before that we only charged $3.00 and for really good customers, I might not charge anything. Sometimes, I think we're too nice to be in business! Joanne's right, sometimes I feel like it's a rip-off when the transfer goes real easy, but then other times, it might take me 1/2 hour or more to find a florist who can fill what, when, where and how I need it.
 
conchandler said:
Let's see Boss, that would make you how OLD to know about this???
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I'll be 55 in January.... but it's a life long study for me....so.....

For a new gig to develop and survive, I feel it has to be based on the past. That which worked and made the playing field even for all the players, not just those with the big bucks. For it to work, everyone involved has to have the same "buy in" or investment into whatever it is that is the new face of flowers across the miles.

Today, too much of what happens in our industry is not controlled by those most affected by it, the florists are in most cases the last ones in the line. Many it seems are happy with the way things are. Greedy to get even a thin slice of the pie, rather than to fight for the lions share, that IMO they deserve because they look at "some" as better than "none" and would not want their competition to get the order, even if they know they will lose money on it.

Will a new "association" blossom and grow in the floral industry? I doubt it, there is too much apathy toward the antics of the few and not enough resolve to force change by those that really could make a difference.

I can only imagine if we were talking about food rather than flowers. Those controlling the bulk of the profits (food) taking their cut and getting fatter, while those that are farming the very thing that keeps them alive are left with the crumbs, and getting skinner (thin margins) everyday, until they finally have no energy left to farm, and then too the fat cats at the top of the pile die off for lack of sustenance (orders).

It will change one way or another, economics dictate it. Will I be around to see it happen? I doubt it.
 
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