sending vs filling and the flower business

Status
Not open for further replies.
Our state (Louisiana) requires licensing for florists, and the test is difficult. It is 1/2 written, on care and handling, identification of plants and materials, laws, etc, and 1/2 practical, you are judged on wiring and taping, focal points, design, etc. 5 of 125 passed the quarter I took it. We have requirements of product availability in our shops at all times, and are inspected quarterly. I hate having another state run addition to my business, but it keeps every Tom, Dick, and Harriet from opening a shop. We pay a testing fee, and an annual renewal, and must have a licensed florist in our shop 32 hours per week, or close down. If you get more than one unsatisfactory visit, you are on 90 days probation, and if you mess up, you lose your license, and unless you hire another qualified florist, you must close your shop. It's an alternative that can be started in any state or province, if it is really wanted.
 
In reading the membership requirements for TF and FTD, they supposedly have similar requirments to become a member. Obviously they don't stick to those rules. One of the shops out here not only does not have a qualified designer but the person that owns the shop is not even the person that holds the FTD membership. Goes to show you the last time that this shop was visited by an FTD rep. The person that holds the membership has not been involved in the shop for at least 4 years.
FTD and or TF should be policing shop quality. They are adveristing guarenteed customer satisfaction and yet there are no measures taken to assure quality. Yes, there is the supposed quality assurance program in FTD but we can all see how well that is working. Signing up shops without inspections and requirements is just plain stupid. But then again, it's all about corporate gain anymore and nothing to do with quality, at least as far as the ws's go.
 
Originally posted by jbarb
In reading the membership requirements for TF and FTD, they supposedly have similar requirments to become a member. Obviously they don't stick to those rules. One of the shops out here not only does not have a qualified designer but the person that owns the shop is not even the person that holds the FTD membership. Goes to show you the last time that this shop was visited by an FTD rep. The person that holds the membership has not been involved in the shop for at least 4 years.
FTD and or TF should be policing shop quality. They are adveristing guarenteed customer satisfaction and yet there are no measures taken to assure quality. Yes, there is the supposed quality assurance program in FTD but we can all see how well that is working. Signing up shops without inspections and requirements is just plain stupid. But then again, it's all about corporate gain anymore and nothing to do with quality, at least as far as the ws's go.
Click to expand...
It's my understanding from their rules, who ever's name that appears in the directory, is the one that is responsible for paying the bill. (the new owner could be paying the name in the directory) Likely FTD hasn't been updated on the status of the new ownership, and if they have been updated, and havn't did anything about it, then that's FTD's fault.

My opinion anyway.
 
The retail floral industry was sold a bill of goods 12 years ago. and they have been paying the bills ever sence.

The shops crying for incomming orders from 3rd. party vendors are the same ones who didn't know what they were doing in the first place. IMO, the more they get, the better the rest of us are. As a matter of course, they lost their own customer base through shoddy work, that ultimately priced themselfs out of the local market as a result of having their remaining customer base subsidise the incomming traffic. Resulting in a further reduction in the cost of goods associated with any order in an effort to wring out some kind of living for all the effort. Now we have the curious problem of the 3rd party vendors charging an absolutely outrageous price for a flower gift while the recipient gets little or nothing in return. Is there really any wonder why people are direct shipping cookies and cr** like that instead of flowers.

Case in point. 1-800fl sells a boxwood tree 9" wide by 18" high with a few no nothing decorations on it for 79.95+ 8.95 for the privilage of "placing" the order + applicaple sales tax. In N.Y. your looking at the 95$ range when all is said and done.

After looking at FTDs DIRECT TO THE CONSUMER CATALOG. their was little wonder why there ARE so many new direct ship consumers. It was paticularly hard to follow the pricing structure on some of their floral items. Especially the difference between the "traditional dz. roses arr. with that of the "martha" look dz. roses.

Bump all this foolishness down the food chain. Give of yourself freely to those who seek it. In the end, both problems in the industry wil take care of themselfs. Let us see who beats who to ch.7/11.
 
Boy, K, times they ba a chang'n 'eh.....

The upcomming round of Holidays in our beloved industry, are really gonna tell the tale...

NO chapter 11...HERE......

All my best for 2003....Happy New Year...and do we need it !

mark
 
800 Flowers advertised a 6" poinsettia for $39.99 on their web site + other charges. I figured the total came to around $50. Of course they made a big spill about the poinsettia being the Plum Pudding variety as if it was something rare. I had Plum Pudding points in 6" for $17.

All I can say is if the 800-Flowers of the world want to keep peddling 6" points for $50 and 18" boxwood trees for $95 to the public more power to them. How long do you think the consumer will put up with this? Wonder how many complaints these shysters get? I bet its alot.

Florists will win the consumers pocketbook in the end. Consumers aren't as dumb as the order gatherers think think they are. :D

Happy New Year!
 
I don't know about markets other than our own, but we're seeing that *NOW*.

I've had people call me because they found our website with the international toll-free. We had one woman order a Teleflora Golden Angel through a service and was charged $120 total for it - and this service sold it as 'all carnation'. We got the order via the Dove and filled it to spec - we didn't get $120 - and she came back because she didn't like what she got. When she saw that ours had roses and was $68CDN, she was livid, called the service and cancelled. They're out a customer (and a vocal one at that) and we've got a new one. She's not the first one we got this season and she won't be the last.

It's only a matter of time.
Audra
 
Knife has a good point about what the customers are getting from 1800.com but on the other hand I recieved an order from a real shop this Christmas that was right out of the selection guide. The price sent for this was $65 which was the $59.99 for the SRP in the bood and $5 delivery. I would never send something like that out of my shop for $60. The cogs on this arrangment were $7.66 plus labor. This was right out of the book. On top of that, if the specs were followed the arrangement was 10" tall and 14" wide. The arrangment that went out of here was worth the price and it looked like it. The customer was happy. My point is, maybe one of the reasons we are seeing a dwindling flower market is because of these overpriced arrangements. For $60 I would expect more than 4 roses, 4 carns and 2 stems of minis in a basket with some greens. So it's not just 1880.com that is doing this.
 
At least you didn't try that hard to do the customer right and then get a complaint because it didn't look just like the picture. It happens. Go figure.
 
Originally posted by jbarb
Knife has a good point about what the customers are getting from 1800.com but on the other hand I recieved an order from a real shop this Christmas that was right out of the selection guide. The price sent for this was $65 which was the $59.99 for the SRP in the bood and $5 delivery. I would never send something like that out of my shop for $60. The cogs on this arrangment were $7.66 plus labor. This was right out of the book. On top of that, if the specs were followed the arrangement was 10" tall and 14" wide. The arrangment that went out of here was worth the price and it looked like it. The customer was happy. My point is, maybe one of the reasons we are seeing a dwindling flower market is because of these overpriced arrangements. For $60 I would expect more than 4 roses, 4 carns and 2 stems of minis in a basket with some greens. So it's not just 1880.com that is doing this.
Click to expand...

One of the strange things in the world is, they will pay for overpriced arragements on websites, but complain in person at your shop because it's too expensive. Different type of customer I expect.

It's up to the sending shop to get the correct information and as much information as possible to send the order to the filling Retail Florist from their customer, if they don't get the information, the sending Florist shouldn't take the order or send the order till they do, some owners of shops need to instruct their staff on the proper gathering of information from customers for outgoing orders which includes the proper prices to send, which of course varies for different regions.
 
Does anyone besides me think that maybe someday the wire services will have to pay us to take their orders? I mean as soon as say 80 or 90 percent of people in the world who order flowers have internet access what is the point?
I would hope that if I was not in the industry and wanted to order flowers, I would have enough sense to locate a florist in the city I was sending them to myself. I mean there is a florist online or at least a way to get an 800 number to a florist in a lot of cities already. There is google, flowershopnetwork.com, locateaflowershop.com and it goes on and on. People will smarten up eventually and send them directly to or call the florist don’t you think?
 
Originally posted by BonJonBovi
Does anyone besides me think that maybe someday the wire services will have to pay us to take their orders? I mean as soon as say 80 or 90 percent of people in the world who order flowers have internet access what is the point?
I would hope that if I was not in the industry and wanted to order flowers, I would have enough sense to locate a florist in the city I was sending them to myself. I mean there is a florist online or at least a way to get an 800 number to a florist in a lot of cities already. There is google, flowershopnetwork.com, locateaflowershop.com and it goes on and on. People will smarten up eventually and send them directly to or call the florist don’t you think?
Click to expand...

There is still the issue of quality and accountability. Even with FTD's no-look free membership shops, if something is screwed up badly, the WS can make sure the filling shop isn't paid. If the customer phones blindly they don't know WHO or WHAT they are giving their CC info to. Customers can send through their favourite shop with confidence, because their billing info is safe, and they have a recourse if there is a problem.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back