Wire Services vs My Customer

[Wolvie]

Well I've read this whole thread and I had no idea that fulfilling florists not filling an order to full value was such a rampant problem! I own the Wharncliffe/Commissioners location of Forest of Flowers, and I have the exact opposite problem....I would much prefer to fill an order than send one. With the volume that our franchise buys, I make fantastic margins even if I only get 80%? of the order thru the TF system. We sell 1 dozen roses for $19.99....and still make a great profit. With other stores charging their customers $40, even if we got only 50% of the order we would still be getting paid the same as a customer pays us.

Different pricing structures from store to store is probably more the problem than anything else. If I send an order through to another florist and describe it as "modern design with tropicals in tall glass vase" for $75 I might be envisioning 12 tropicals with lots of specialty greens because that's what I could do for that price, but I might get 6 tropicals because that's all that florist would do for $75.

I guarantee you my store never has a problem with our profit margins when filling an order.

The other nice thing is that since there are 7 Forest of Flowers stores in the London area, if I don't have a certain flower in stock I can call any of the other stores and one of them will likely have what I need to fill the order as requested.

Please, send me your orders!!!!

 

[anytimeflowers]

Well I've read this whole thread and I had no idea that fulfilling florists not filling an order to full value was such a rampant problem! I own the Wharncliffe/Commissioners location of Forest of Flowers, and I have the exact opposite problem....I would much prefer to fill an order than send one. With the volume that our franchise buys, I make fantastic margins even if I only get 80%? of the order thru the TF system. We sell 1 dozen roses for $19.99....and still make a great profit. With other stores charging their customers $40, even if we got only 50% of the order we would still be getting paid the same as a customer pays us.

Different pricing structures from store to store is probably more the problem than anything else. If I send an order through to another florist and describe it as "modern design with tropicals in tall glass vase" for $75 I might be envisioning 12 tropicals with lots of specialty greens because that's what I could do for that price, but I might get 6 tropicals because that's all that florist would do for $75.

I guarantee you my store never has a problem with our profit margins when filling an order.

The other nice thing is that since there are 7 Forest of Flowers stores in the London area, if I don't have a certain flower in stock I can call any of the other stores and one of them will likely have what I need to fill the order as requested.

Please, send me your orders!!!!

Wow, a dozen roses for $19.99.....and still make a great profit.

Your product would probably not meet the needs of my customer. My customers are used to a rose that is roughly two feet long, your $20 would just barely cover my COST of those roses, container, greens, and labor. I do so hope that a delivery charge would be extra?

 

[Wolvie]

Linda, that's a 40cm rose....we sell our 60cm premium roses for $40/doz. And yes, delivery is extra. I don't know what it is like in Minnesota, but here in Ontario the grocery stores sell a lot of flowers, so our model has always been to offer price points that compete with them while at the same time having all of the quality flowers and services that a traditional florist has also.

Oh, and we never charge for labour. And that $19.99 is for roses only....bb and greens are an upsell.

 

[lil_goldie]

I don't bother to call, Ricky. Only because, like Mark says, I need efficiency on my side and there is also a lot of phone in wire orders.
However, I do not take extremely specific orders.
Say we've discovered it's a sympathy piece for an older lady going to the funeral home.
I would ask if they wanted fresh flowers or a plant.
If they want fresh flowers I would suggest a traditional sympathy tribute in pastel shades.

That is about as specific as I would get on a wire out without calling.
If the customer wants something specific like 12 pink roses, I tell them to also make a second choice (something everyone should have like red or white roses) and educate them so they aren't upset if the second choice. If they are uncomfortable with this i WOULD take the time to call.
But mostly, I make my sale based on very loose filling parameters. It's the only way to avoid disappointment for everyone.

 

[lori042499]

Well I've read this whole thread and I had no idea that fulfilling florists not filling an order to full value was such a rampant problem! I own the Wharncliffe/Commissioners location of Forest of Flowers, and I have the exact opposite problem....I would much prefer to fill an order than send one. With the volume that our franchise buys, I make fantastic margins even if I only get 80%? of the order thru the TF system. We sell 1 dozen roses for $19.99....and still make a great profit. With other stores charging their customers $40, even if we got only 50% of the order we would still be getting paid the same as a customer pays us.

Different pricing structures from store to store is probably more the problem than anything else. If I send an order through to another florist and describe it as "modern design with tropicals in tall glass vase" for $75 I might be envisioning 12 tropicals with lots of specialty greens because that's what I could do for that price, but I might get 6 tropicals because that's all that florist would do for $75.

I guarantee you my store never has a problem with our profit margins when filling an order.

The other nice thing is that since there are 7 Forest of Flowers stores in the London area, if I don't have a certain flower in stock I can call any of the other stores and one of them will likely have what I need to fill the order as requested.

Please, send me your orders!!!!

It sounds to me by your prices that you carry a grocery store quality flower...premade bunch style flowers...Most flower shops sell premium flowers...like 70-80 cm roses and specialty exotics not just bunches of ginger parakeets and leaves...also with exotics advanced design IMHO is what makes those arrangements worth while, many florists just take 7-12 stems and jam them into a vase like other flowers, my customers are not used to this and there would be a complaint. I would also get complaints if I sold a 75,00 dozen of roses and got a cheap standard roses vase with 12 40 cm roses leather and bb, that in IMHO is only worth 30....so yeah there are major problems filling whne florists only take what they sell and their prices as gospel.

This is the very reason I call ahead to ask what the shop carries and what I can expect sent, not putting your place down, but if I called your shop for roses and was told they were 40cm grocery packs but done up real nice in a vase, you would be told sorry I cannot have that for my customer....I am sure your product is nice and I am sure your product is designed well, but in standards it is far inferior to what the majority of small shops offer...

 

[Wolvie]

I think perhaps I've led some of you down the wrong path with my $19.99/dozen roses example. Our feature roses is about the only thing we do that competes with the grocery chains in price and quality, everything else is top notch. The idea of those roses is to get people into the store and then they see all of the other wonderful things we do. It's a marketing ploy, pure and simple.

My full time designer is in her 50's and has been professionally trained and has been in the business since she was a little girl...I would put her designs up against anyone. Our bouquets are all European style handtieds, we create everything ourselves. When I say a modern style exotic design, I mean with heliconia, birds, antherium, ginger, monstera leaves, etc.

When you send an order for roses, do you not request a certain length of rose so that the filling shop knows what to use? I would never use 40cm roses on an order worth $75....that would be premium roses even if the sender didn't specify that.

I'm not upset or defensive, just want to make sure that people here understand that our shop is like any other, except that we have roses that helps us compete with the grocery chains and drive more customers through our doors.

When I get my facebook page up and running I'll pose some pics of some our designs and you can judge for yourself.

 

[NicoleAtTF]

John-
These are very good questions and very similar to what Joanne Plummer asked me earlier in the thread. It's, unfortunately, true that we don't have a system that can work on a large enough scale to reliably track individual shops for their depth of inventory or flower selection or the education or training courses achieved by the staff of a single shop. We know that the existing system of using the data we collect on every order is not perfect, but we do believe that doing what we can with the information we do have is better than sitting idly by. Additionally, we have ramped up our 'secret shopping' efforts across the network and the results are not only enlightening in terms of the quality of an individual shop, but these things do inform our product design, as well.

We do seek to be as friendly as we can to the concerns of our members as it relates to availability of product, pricing, and so on. When we do this, we keep an 'average' in mind, since we know that with a network of 17k or so members, most of our decisions will have to be based on what we think is most workable for the majority of the network - it's a very real balancing act for us, and we do our best to come to decisions that will be good for as many of our members as possible, but will also be desirable to the flower-buying public.

I know that's never the answer florists want, but unfortunately, it's the best I can give for now. I hope that helps somewhat.