slow holiday...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Rhonda at work said:
BTW...FTD will get my request for termination before their June deadline. All done arguing with .com about their lack of insight into a small town florist and all the workings of one.
Click to expand...


Rhonda, You could just opt out of receiving .com orders instead of leaving FTD completely, like BOSS has done. That way, you would still be able to receive Merc orders from fellow florists.
 
All Internet activity booming. Calling from out of town while looking at our website - avoiding the middleman - way up!!!

So very happy to NOT buy the wire service containers anymore (not until they only cost $1.00 later LOL). Makes the holiday much more profitable and less nutty. Chaos still abounds, but I know it's a profitable chaos instead of a running in circles for pennies type of chaos.

Walk-ins for on the spot or come back in an hour corsages was ridicuously up. What happened? People were coming in that kept saying they couldn't find corsages anywhere - horray! Corsages are one of the most profitable items we sell.

We still have tomorrow to go. 11am -4pm and delivering too. Working with four instead of the usual holiday six - very exhausted, but we seem to be working like a well trained team - how did that happen? Certainly not complaining!
 
12BucksFor2Dozon said:
Uhh...not quite...

You have a telephone and a web site and you make and deliver your product, your a local business.

You have a telephone and a web site and SKIM 20% + rebate from the order, then send to some foolish florist to make the product and deliver it, your a scummy order gatherer.

<...whew...guess I had a little too much coffee this morning...>
Click to expand...

Scummy?

SKIM?

Foolish florist?

Someone apparently/obviously doesn't yet realize the industry has changed. Hello? It's 2006!

A foolish florist is one who doesn't roll with the punches and realize selling flowers is nowadays a multi channel national sales business. Or a foolish florist is one who watches sales disappear to multi channel marketers and thinks that somehow b*tching about it and calling smart ones names will somehow stop the flood.

I suggest you put some valium in your coffee

But thanks for thinking of me...

opinions vary

as always...

blessings to you and yours
 
bloomz said:
...Someone apparently/obviously doesn't yet realize the industry has changed. Hello? It's 2006!

A foolish florist is one who doesn't roll with the punches and realize selling flowers is nowadays a multi channel national sales business. Or a foolish florist is one who watches sales disappear to multi channel marketers and thinks that somehow b*tching about it and calling smart ones names will somehow stop the flood.
...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree that since order transmission systems (OTSs) are what the OTSs are, OGing is a viable business opportunity...hmmm, but then again, so is pornography. Does that fact that the internet allow huge sums of money to be made in "2006" through the exploitation of pornography make it OK? Maybe, but that's another thread...but wait, a lot of children are being harmed with that business model, oh, but since its "2006" and this IS the internet age, I guess I'm just NOT "wit' it, bro"

The OTSs are squarely to blame for destroying the well-balanced, karma- neutral system of the out-of-area F2F deliverey with their greed. But it's ok, because OGs may be winning some battles now, but consumers are much smarter than you give them credit for and soon (looks like VERY soon looking at all my web orders over the past two months), you OGs and OTSs will lose the war.

Scummy is scummy, and as you said, period. OGing is nothing but MLM, another scummy business that tries to make money off the exploitation of friendships and ignorance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
Je-sus! Now I'm like a pornographer?

That post is just too full of bullshirt to even dignify with an intelligent comment I am afraid so I will just say, as usual that...

opinions vary.....and

blessings




ps - are your eyes brown by any chance?
 
fairfield said:
Here we go again. Another major floral holiday and it is slow.
Jason
Click to expand...

Jason, Don't fret. Act. Market yourself and the shop. Network. Advertise. Think positive. Set goals and relentlessly pursue them. Get together with other flower shop owners that are interested in prospering and share ideas. Make your shop "the" place to go to get top quality flowers. Make your shop the kind of store where customers feel welcomed and appreciated. It is a tough business - tougher than ever - but you can prevail. Can you have all the business like we used 20 years ago? No. The market has changed. What you can do is dominate your particular neighborhood. It just takes plans then the execution of those plans. Visit FlowerChat frequently for ideas and inspiration - I sure do!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
fairfield said:
The simple fact is that somebody advertising in my town when their business is 100 or 1000 miles away is unethical. They know that they will not be delivering the orders they receive.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think that advertising in someone else's business "territory" to steal their customer can be said aggressive, but not unethical.

If the advertisement is deceptive (e.g., "free delivery" scam, pretending to be a local florist, "fresh from the field", etc), then it's a different matter. It could be a matter of legality (false advertisement) as well.

fairfield said:
They are taking my local orders and claiming it is just business. Yes, I have every opportunity to do the same in this free country. But, I won't. I feel that my business should be conducted in my area.
Click to expand...

I agree, but for a different reason. We currently restrict our business to our local area only, just because the local area is where we can be most competitive in business-wise. For example, I don't have enough ad money to make our shop showing up in google ad everytime a customer typed in "florist." But I do have enough budget to make it showing up if a customer typed in "florist in (our town name)." We also registered our store in every local business directory, which is something OGs can't do legally.

Finally, whenever we recieved wire-ins from OGs, we fill to the value and make it nice as a matter of agreement with WS. However, we add a sticker to these orders, telling the customers that they could save if they called us direct. I don't consider this sticker unethical either. Aggressive, yes. Fair game in my book.
 
Yep, what Goldfish said...
 
bloomz said:
Je-sus! Now I'm like a pornographer?
Click to expand...

Well... pornOGrapher...

Just kidding. I don't think 12Bucks is saying that you are one. I took his post as a reference to exploitation of the internet. I can't remember exactly why Al Gore invented the internet (sorry, I had to), but I believe it had something to do with the exchange of information. If you believe that OG's are unethical, then you would most likely agree that they are exploiting the internet for financial gain at the expense of the local florist and with the help of a wire service.
 
Well I don't believe that, but

Opinions vary...
 
Frank said:
Jason, Don't fret. Act. Market yourself and the shop. Network. Advertise. Think positive. Set goals and relentlessly pursue them. Get together with other flower shop owners that are interested in prospering and share ideas. Make your shop "the" place to go to get top quality flowers. Make your shop the kind of store where customers feel welcomed and appreciated. It is a tough business - tougher than ever - but you can prevail. Can you have all the business like we used 20 years ago? No. The market has changed. What you can do is dominate your particular neighborhood. It just takes plans then the execution of those plans. Visit FlowerChat frequently for ideas and inspiration - I sure do!
Click to expand...

I'm doing my best to do all of these and, yes, I will prevail (I hope). Even though I will b*itch about the wire services and OG's, I do have a positive outlook. Tough business is an understatement. More like cutthroat. I thought wreckin' yard monkeys were a tough crowd!

Jason
 
goldfish said:
I disagree. I think that advertising in someone else's business "territory" to steal their customer can be said aggressive, but not unethical.
Click to expand...

I agree with that if the advertiser will service the territory. Remember, I stated that it's unethical when they take the order knowing that they will not actually provide said service.

goldfish said:
If the advertisement is deceptive (e.g., "free delivery" scam, pretending to be a local florist, "fresh from the field", etc), then it's a different matter. It could be a matter of legality (false advertisement) as well.
Click to expand...

Actually, most florists advertise "the freshest flowers" which is no different than "fresh from the field". Other than that, I have yet to see an honest OG advertisement OR speak with an honest wire service representative (FTD, TF, 800Flowers, Florist Interlink, and another out of Denver). The only suits falling under false advertisement I hear of are against drug companies, so as far as legality goes, they are on the up and up. Right?

goldfish said:
I agree, but for a different reason. We currently restrict our business to our local area only, just because the local area is where we can be most competitive in business-wise. For example, I don't have enough ad money to make our shop showing up in google ad everytime a customer typed in "florist." But I do have enough budget to make it showing up if a customer typed in "florist in (our town name)." We also registered our store in every local business directory, which is something OGs can't do legally.

Finally, whenever we recieved wire-ins from OGs, we fill to the value and make it nice as a matter of agreement with WS. However, we add a sticker to these orders, telling the customers that they could save if they called us direct. I don't consider this sticker unethical either. Aggressive, yes. Fair game in my book.
Click to expand...

It's your order. You bought it. You should be proud of who made it - you! What really sucks is when you find out one of those orders originates in your own area!

Jason
 
Sticker Shock?

goldfish said:
Finally, whenever we recieved wire-ins from OGs, we fill to the value and make it nice as a matter of agreement with WS. However, we add a sticker to these orders, telling the customers that they could save if they called us direct. I don't consider this sticker unethical either. Aggressive, yes. Fair game in my book.
Click to expand...

I just love the sticker idea...sheer genius! Please share the details of your sticker...size, wording, etc... and can you quote any customer comments who called you after receiving "the sticker shock!!!"????
 
Ditto Diane, we are also trying to let customers know about this practice (my husband delivers for me at holidays, and literally takes minutes to explain to customers door to door as he delivers, telling them that the sender could save $$ by calling us directly, if they like our flowers, to pass on our name etc etc.) Sure would save time.
thanks,
tracy
 
goldfish said:
Finally, whenever we recieved wire-ins from OGs, we fill to the value and make it nice as a matter of agreement with WS. However, we add a sticker to these orders, telling the customers that they could save if they called us direct. I don't consider this sticker unethical either. Aggressive, yes. Fair game in my book.
Click to expand...

The WS will not take kindly to your sticker...had a fellow boardie do this and the recipient called FTD to complain about it. Florist got called on the carpet and was told in no uncertain terms..."it is our customer"...there will be no further orders from us if you continue to use your "stickers' . They stopped and started using a 3 way Thank you Pc for the recip to send to the sender with their info and a discount on their next order, a freebie for the recip to come into the store for and they continue to market to the DOG's customers...I understand they have "gathered" quite a few converts! Just an idea....
Sher
 
I have never had a problem with the "disclaimer" we use on .com and 800 orders we fill. It basically states the sender can bypass the non entity flower phone sellers and come right to us. It works! Our direct c/c orders this Mother's Day really shows. Even had a couple who said their Mom had passed along our toll free number to them.
I as a ws member have a right to let the recipient know that we tried to fill the order as close as possible to what was requested by the sending "shop" (meaning especially containers, pink lilies the day before the big day etc) and that had the customer called us direct we could have told them the exact choices they could have delivered and what the exact delivery charge would have been (due to rural area deliveries). If FTD wants to suspend me, so be it. They can sign up one of the other 5 shops who have no trained designers.
 
Sher said:
The WS will not take kindly to your sticker...had a fellow boardie do this and the recipient called FTD to complain about it. Florist got called on the carpet and was told in no uncertain terms..."it is our customer"...there will be no further orders from us if you continue to use your "stickers' . They stopped and started using a 3 way Thank you Pc for the recip to send to the sender with their info and a discount on their next order, a freebie for the recip to come into the store for and they continue to market to the DOG's customers...I understand they have "gathered" quite a few converts! Just an idea....
Sher
Click to expand...


Hmmmm..... you're paying their wages and they take you on the carpet for promoting your business. More nerve than a canal horse.

V
 
fairfield Actually said:
FRESHEST[/B] flowers available, yada, yada, yada. But NEVER to we advertise 'fresh from the field'...because that is simply not true.

Anyway, I understand your points - all very justified. Also, when I see an order originate from our area - had one where I KNEW the sender - I question WHY. He sent it through TEL.CON, and I recognized the recip. name as one of our customers. When this happens, I immediately questioned MYSELF as to why this happened....did I fail to advertise properly, did we provide poor service to him in the past, or was it some goofy offer he got with his credit card statement?!?!?!??? I suppose the only way to know for sure would be to ask him!

Lastly, about advertising to recipients...the 3-way card is the best idea I have used. The stickers get missed, and CAN be a 'negative' item as seen by others. BUT, it is VERY hard to get a GOOD return on this type of "advertising". Watch how much $$$ you put into the program and track the returns. Sometimes your PRODUCT is all you need, and in this case, may be the best form of advertisement...

- H.
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back