Emailing Photos to Customers

[CHR]

We routinely email photos to customers, especially those ordering custom designs in higher price ranges. Just wanted to share a note we received from a customer today:

Hi Cathy!

The arrangement is breathtaking to say the least! It is absolutely what I was looking for!! I wanted to get something extra special for my (girlfriend) today and this arrangement I believe will leave her speechless!! I am so excited and cant wait for her to receive them!!! Thank you so much for your brilliant creativity and awesome customer service! Your staff has been so helpful and attentive!! I am sure to remain a frequent and faithful customer!!! You guys are not a florists---you’re artists!!

xxxCustomer_Namexxx


It does take a bit of extra time to shoot and send a photo, but the feedback has been tremendous and we believe it has gained us fans, not just sales.


We just passed 600 images in our blog gallery and it's the routine of taking photos that has allowed us to build such a large online portfolio.


I know others here have used this kind of tool and just wanted to post a reminder to consider offering the service as part of your long-term marketing strategy.

 

[Sher]

Your pics outshine mine no doubt but even mine get raves...consumers are not expecting it and they like that extra touch. I think it reassures them that we are Real Florists and that they can count on us to send what they want...Nice post and good reminder CHR!
Sher

 

[duanermb]

Buffie did her first one the other day, at the request of the sender. Not set up for it, but we rallied and got it done!

I think this can be HUGE for us as as differentiators in the floral business.

Our ecommerce provider (FSN) has the "upload pic" right in the dcon area. Very forward thinking. (Too forward for us right now, but we'll get there)

 

[Victoria]

Sending a picture to the client is something I've done for a while. I give them a front and back shot so they can see the contents. It is always appreciated and has occasionally won a corporate client.

V

 

[elmo]

I hear ya'll. I've been e-mailing shots of designs for a while now. Out of state funeral orders love it, they see what was sent in their honor to the funeral, no guessing if it was nice or not. I ask if they would like a photo e-mail of their order, most do.Think its just one more service we can offer that keeps us apart from others that don't offer a full service.

 

[Kristine]

we started doing this last month when we lost a local soldier in Afghanistan.

we emailed digital pics to soldiers all over the world and received some very nice thank you notes in return. We have started offering it to other customers, some say yes others say, No I trust you - you always do it nice.

Now that our new computer has arrived at the store, it will become much easier

 

[tylertownflorist]

We've been e-mailing a photo to every one that provides an e-mail address. Floristware makes it really simple. Every order that goes out the door is photographed and attached in the system. When the decon msg goes out, the pic is attached. We get a large amount of feedback from it. Customers just love seeing what was sent. Our locals that order also know that if they don't have e--mail and did not make it to the rec's house or funeral, they can come in and just ask us and we pull up the order and show them what was sent.

It is also helpful when they say "Could you send the same thing that I sent to Aunt XYZ's funeral?" We just simple look click a button and see the order for that funeral and choose that item for the current order, the pic can them be seen by our designers...Takes all the guess work out of it.

It only takes a few seconds to snap a pic...I highly recommend it to everyone to do it!

 

[Rhonda]

doing this right now for a gourmet basket we just sent out.
And I have done it for cemetery deliveries.

 

[CHR]

Wow. Awesome feature, tylertownflorist. Love the idea of going back in the record to actually see what was previously sent. Kudos to FloristWare.

 

[twiggy]

how do you decide which customers get photos?
I would love to do this but my mind wanders to the super busy/stressful/chaotic holiday times, when sometimes it's all you can do to get your orders out the door. (especially when it will be me doing most of it)

 

[Rhonda]

Had just emailed the pic of the fruit and gourmet and checked my email and there is a return email asking for the same thing on the 29th to her other sister!!

 

[elmo]

how do you decide which customers get photos?
I would love to do this but my mind wanders to the super busy/stressful/chaotic holiday times, when sometimes it's all you can do to get your orders out the door. (especially when it will be me doing most of it)

Tag your design before you photo, at the end of the day download all at one time, then shoot your e-mails out and be done with it. This can be done after hours or at home. Not the same hour as delivery. Does take a little time to do this but a great service to offer.

 

[tylertownflorist]

We bought a wireless card from Amazon.com for our camera. It loads them on the computer as we take the pics. We them rename the photo to the order number. You can then attached them right then as you complete the order in FW, or later that day. If you attach before deliver cons, it will automatically be sent out with. it is great!!!!!!!!!!!


**Eyefye is the brand name.**

 

[PhillyPhlorist]

Yea but...

...this is a GREAT idea, and IS something that we should be able to do - but how do YOU do this efficiently?

Pardon my being blunt, but it's like "you just 'click', attach the photo and your done!" Really?

Seriously - how does your process work? How do you get the photos off the camera, named properly with order #, into your POS system, and attached to each order EFFICIENTLY enough that you could do 30-50 orders a day? What about Mom's Day? 300+ orders???

I would LOVE to be able to do this, and FTD Mercury CAN do this-but not efficiently (IMHO). Would like to know your SOP (standard operating procedure) for attaching photos to your work.

Thanks, Herb

 

[Victoria]

I send to all out of town customers. I offer the service to in town (over the phone shoppers) as well.

I just scan to the computer and send via e-mail. Of course I keep all I send for future information.

V

 

[veronika]

The question is would you take pictures of the arrangement for a company a week prior to sending it? We had one company reguesting a picture before anything gets send. This could be a nightmare, what if they didn't like it and you end up doing picture after picture, and the cooler gets fuller and fuller. The other problem would be doing a bigger arrangement, getting in the product the week before, sending the picture and then the arrangement ends up sitting in the cooler all week. I for one am in a smaller town and do not easily sell over a 100 arrangement. Just wondering how many of you would go that far for a customer.

 

[CHR]

The question is would you take pictures of the arrangement for a company a week prior to sending it?

"We can create a custom sample design for $___. Of course, you wouldn't want the same flowers a week later so we'll bill you for the second copy at that time."

We had one company requesting a picture before anything gets send. This could be a nightmare, what if they didn't like it and you end up doing picture after picture, and the cooler gets fuller and fuller.

Could happen - but my guess is it's few and far between. We've had similar experiences with customers in the shop who want to 'supervise' as we make their design.

We've emailed hundreds of photos and have never had someone demand one in advance.

Have you considered adding more of your own images to your "every day" pages on your website? This usually goes a long way to instill confidence in new customers.

 

[tylertownflorist]

...this is a GREAT idea, and IS something that we should be able to do - but how do YOU do this efficiently?

Pardon my being blunt, but it's like "you just 'click', attach the photo and your done!" Really?

Seriously - how does your process work? How do you get the photos off the camera, named properly with order #, into your POS system, and attached to each order EFFICIENTLY enough that you could do 30-50 orders a day? What about Mom's Day? 300+ orders???

I would LOVE to be able to do this, and FTD Mercury CAN do this-but not efficiently (IMHO). Would like to know your SOP (standard operating procedure) for attaching photos to your work.

Thanks, Herb

This is how our order process goes:
Someone takes the order
Order prints out on the printer in the design room
Sales person or designer gets the order and it goes in the appropriate (?) place, either in the correct days basket, or on the silk, plant, or FC boards if for that day.
Order is prepared and the enclosure card and deliver slip (with FW they are at the bottom of the card) is attached to the arr. Each deliver slip has the order number on it
the Paper work is then placed in a wall file holder (like the ones at the doc's office on the outside of the door. This is located by a computer.
Someone then pulls the paper work, locates the arr, snaps it's pic. Using the wireless card in the camera, it is automaticall sent to that computer, The order is then "Viewed" in the production area, where you click the picture button, it then comes up to the folder that has the pic,you right click to change the name to the order number, re click on the pic after renaming and hit enter . The pic is then attached to the order
The Designer is then choosen and any notes about the order is entered, the it is then marked as ready to ship. The arr is then placed on the right table based on the route FW says it should be on.

I know this sounds like a long process, in all actuality (?) the amount of time is about 1 1/2 minutes. Who does not have that amount of time to do this. To double check an arrangement to ensure quality?

Now with out the wireless card for the camera, yes it was time consuming. But with the wireless card, no time flat.

We have simply made this part of the production of the arr. If we did not do it, for us it would be like leaving ribbon out the arr, or leaving the card off. It is second nature.

It has also saved us when someone complained. When I showed a woman the pic (To just make sure we were talking about the same arr---it was at a funeral people make mistakes) she got pissed that we had a pic and turned and walked out without requesting the refund. Can we say she just wanted something for nothing???

Really good practice. I highly recommend it.!!!!!!

Hope this makes it clear for you.

PS
The Someone that handles this, is someone who is assigned to do this along with making sure the delivery drivers are out the door with the right arr etc etc.

As far as 30 to 50 arr, last week for just 1 Funeral we had 45 Arr, we also had 4 funerals that day.

The total area for the pic taking and tagging etc etc is about an 8 x8 area of my back room.

PSS

Sorry this was so long..I can get very wordy at times

PSSS
We

 

[tylertownflorist]

...this is a GREAT idea, and IS something that we should be able to do - but how do YOU do this efficiently?

Pardon my being blunt, but it's like "you just 'click', attach the photo and your done!" Really?

Seriously - how does your process work? How do you get the photos off the camera, named properly with order #, into your POS system, and attached to each order EFFICIENTLY enough that you could do 30-50 orders a day? What about Mom's Day? 300+ orders???

I would LOVE to be able to do this, and FTD Mercury CAN do this-but not efficiently (IMHO). Would like to know your SOP (standard operating procedure) for attaching photos to your work.

Thanks, Herb

This is how our order process goes:
Someone takes the order
Order prints out on the printer in the design room
Sales person or designer gets the order and it goes in the appropriate (?) place, either in the correct days basket, or on the silk, plant, or FC boards if for that day.
Order is prepared and the enclosure card and deliver slip (with FW they are at the bottom of the card) is attached to the arr. Each deliver slip has the order number on it
the Paper work is then placed in a wall file holder (like the ones at the doc's office on the outside of the door. This is located by a computer.
Someone then pulls the paper work, locates the arr, snaps it's pic. Using the wireless card in the camera, it is automaticall sent to that computer, The order is then "Viewed" in the production area, where you click the picture button, it then comes up to the folder that has the pic,you right click to change the name to the order number, re click on the pic after renaming and hit enter . The pic is then attached to the order
The Designer is then choosen and any notes about the order is entered, the it is then marked as ready to ship. The arr is then placed on the right table based on the route FW says it should be on.

I know this sounds like a long process, in all actuality (?) the amount of time is about 1 1/2 minutes. Who does not have that amount of time to do this. To double check an arrangement to ensure quality?

Now with out the wireless card for the camera, yes it was time consuming. But with the wireless card, no time flat.

We have simply made this part of the production of the arr. If we did not do it, for us it would be like leaving ribbon out the arr, or leaving the card off. It is second nature.

It has also saved us when someone complained. When I showed a woman the pic (To just make sure we were talking about the same arr---it was at a funeral people make mistakes) she got pissed that we had a pic and turned and walked out without requesting the refund. Can we say she just wanted something for nothing???

Really good practice. I highly recommend it.!!!!!!

Hope this makes it clear for you.

PS
The Someone that handles this, is someone who is assigned to do this along with making sure the delivery drivers are out the door with the right arr etc etc.

As far as 30 to 50 arr, last week for just 1 Funeral we had 45 Arr, we also had 4 funerals that day.

The total area for the pic taking and tagging etc etc is about an 8 x8 area of my back room.

PSS

Sorry this was so long..I can get very wordy at times

PSSS
We also take pics of all wire orders even though currently you can't attach in the FW system. (I hear it is comming though) We use the same process

Hope this helps

 

[meherr]

I have an Eye-Fi at home and love it, but at the shop, we don't have a wireless router - it's all cabled. Doesn't the Eye-Fi require a wireless router? It would definitely simplify the process, but I'm not sure how to make it work at the shop. Any ideas?