Teleflora Delivery Confimations now useless

[BOSS]

I agree with Doug... (did I just say that?)....

I agree that individual shops should give this level of service to their customers, and even to other B&M florists, however, I myself would not want to offer this level of service to company stores or order gatherers making them look good. BUTT, if you accept these orders, I do feel it's your responsibility to follow through.

You can't change "their" system, so if'n ya don't like "their" rules, get out of "their" game....you will be happier for it, I promise...

 

[Simon Says]

What I don't understand - all right, there are many things, but on this specific matter - is if you, the florist, are asked to deliver on a certain day (and, if appropriate, by a given time) and you accept the order, then surely you have to deliver it and really, a confirmation is not necessary: in short, if you said it would be done, then do it! Really, that is what the purchase/contract, you agreed to is about.

If you cannot deliver it, regardless of the reason, then that is the time you should be in contact with the sender.

The way the WS are doing this is, in my opinion, far to complicated.

 

[bootcampguy]

Because we are now in a world that wants to know. Yes, your solution worked for 100 years, but now times have changed. If we have any problems, we notify "who ever", ws, og are Buttwipe himself. We've been doing email delviery verifications for 2 years, only because more and more of our commercial accounts asked for it. Thye asked, we did, but it's on "our" terms. We're getting ready to launch email-video del. confirmations (don't ask me how yet) but it will come. The only thing that gets my short crunched up is that they expect us to send aks for all those order with changes, over 50% of the order for funerals don't have the right del date, so i have to go in and send an ask to change the date, wait for a reply or confirmation by them, them when the right del. date comes, then send DC. I was in the process of writing the policy today for this whiler reading this post: Policy: "click all and send all" then: Delivered as requested............done, thye don't like it, put me on the midnight shift.....

 

[Simon Says]

Because we are now in a world that wants to know. Yes, your solution worked for 100 years, but now times have changed. If we have any problems, we notify "who ever", ws, og are Buttwipe himself. We've been doing email delviery verifications for 2 years, only because more and more of our commercial accounts asked for it. Thye asked, we did, but it's on "our" terms. We're getting ready to launch email-video del. confirmations (don't ask me how yet) but it will come. The only thing that gets my short crunched up is that they expect us to send aks for all those order with changes, over 50% of the order for funerals don't have the right del date, so i have to go in and send an ask to change the date, wait for a reply or confirmation by them, them when the right del. date comes, then send DC. I was in the process of writing the policy today for this whiler reading this post: Policy: "click all and send all" then: Delivered as requested............done, thye don't like it, put me on the midnight shift.....

Realise we're in the 21st C and maybe I'm flogging a dead horse but many customers I have accept the "if we say we'll do it, we'll do it" approach and, perhaps I am fortunate in that respect.

For corporate that insists on del confs, we'll supply. What we also do for corporate is take a picture of the delivery and keep that on file in case there is an issue later on - doesn't apply at funeral homes/houses of worship.

For individuals, if they want a del conf., we'll probably also take a picture of the delivery and if we think appropriate, send that to the sender. IF we can sell the sender the picture confirmation - for example if it is for a birthday with the recipient getting the piece, we will but only get a few takers on this and mainly if across country/really long distance. Don't do it at holidays - because of the time but maybe we should.

The good thing about delivery confirmations to your customers is getting their e-mail if they didn't place the order on-line with you.

 

[Doug Munro]

What I don't understand - all right, there are many things, but on this specific matter - is if you, the florist, are asked to deliver on a certain day (and, if appropriate, by a given time) and you accept the order, then surely you have to deliver it and really, a confirmation is not necessary: in short, if you said it would be done, then do it! Really, that is what the purchase/contract, you agreed to is about.

If you cannot deliver it, regardless of the reason, then that is the time you should be in contact with the sender.

The way the WS are doing this is, in my opinion, far to complicated.

Based on my experience, I would suggest that the reason the WS's are doing this is that far too many fulfillers don't adhere to the "purchase/contract" they agreed to.

Again, this is all about the customer.

 

[anytimeflowers]

Doug, here we go again.

I highlighted the statement to demonstrate WITHOUT PREJUDICE, where this comes from and why. Clearly the measure is driven by the order gatherers. If it were not, the email would go directly from the florist to the customer.

I fully appreciate that this is a customer service issue. My point is that the florist is now forced to just mark items delivered even when they are not, or risk penalties. What sort of service is that?

The reality is that these orders are fraught with mistakes. Every time a consumer places an order online, without florist guidance, there are mistakes, sometimes big mistakes that need to be rectified. One florist spent the better part of a week getting flowers into the hands they were meant for. Wrong name, wrong address, etc.

As a florist yourself, you know about those consumer phone calls, "Did she get the flowers yet?". They call the florist instead of the recipient for various reasons. It's a terrible pita for me on Valentine's Day with just a few of those calls, I can only begin to imagine what that must be like for ogs.

Yes, most certainly this new policy is driven by the ogs.

But let's look beyond the who and why. Even on my own site, people consistently order for the wrong date because they forgot to select the correct delivery date, especially for funerals. For me it's an easy solution, I email or call them and advise them when the service actually is, then leave the order active until I've actually delivered. Same for any other order. Another example would be that the recipient is on vacation. Most of the time, I don't find this out until after the delivery has been attempted.

In either of these examples which occur most often for me, would it really be considered good customer service if I marked those as delivered? Really? I don't think so, I know for a fact my customers apologize when they have given the wrong info, and appreciate the extra steps I take to rectify their mistakes. Now if I confirmed that the delivery was made today and later the customer finds out that the funeral was two or three days later, they think those flowers were sitting wilting at the funeral home for two days, (even though they were not, I only confirmed, didn't actually deliver). It's just another complaint waiting to happen.

You are going to turn that around and say the florists are to blame, there is a clear set of instructions to deal with these situations.

Don't bother. As evidenced, most are just going to send a DC to avoid penalties and hey, maybe even make some dough. Most certainly they are not going to fumble through a cumbersome protocol in hopes that TF will accept that the change was necessary and actually credit back the dollar per. The customer service part of it would fly if that's really what it was about but it's not. It's a matter of CMA for all parties except for the consumer. You know, the customer part of service.

Good customer service includes honesty and being realistic to the consumer.....I'll let the rest of that remain unsaid.

 

[anytimeflowers]

Based on my experience, I would suggest that the reason the WS's are doing this is that far too many fulfillers don't adhere to the "purchase/contract" they agreed to.

Again, this is all about the customer.

And you just confirmed the rest of my statement about the bad little filler fools.

 

[Doug Munro]

Doug, here we go again.

I highlighted the statement to demonstrate WITHOUT PREJUDICE, where this comes from and why. Clearly the measure is driven by the order gatherers. If it were not, the email would go directly from the florist to the customer.

I fully appreciate that this is a customer service issue. My point is that the florist is now forced to just mark items delivered even when they are not, or risk penalties. What sort of service is that?

The reality is that these orders are fraught with mistakes. Every time a consumer places an order online, without florist guidance, there are mistakes, sometimes big mistakes that need to be rectified. One florist spent the better part of a week getting flowers into the hands they were meant for. Wrong name, wrong address, etc.

Yowser, If I only read your posting and didn't know any better I would assume one of two things that the internet was far too diifficult a tool to be used for the flower business, or that the average flower buyer was a "knuckle dragger" who couldn't possibly comprehend the complexities of placing an order and need their hand held through the process.

I have intentionally highlighted a number of parts of your posting so I could respond with my take on them

1) The email would go directly from the florist to the customer (I take it that in this case "florist" translates to fulfiller)
This assumes three things that come to mind,
First that every order placed had a sender email associated with it, whereas in real life a good portion will not.
Secondly that the sending shop (or OG) is willing to give up that sender information to a fulfiller and take the risk of that fulfiller direct marketing to that customer (intentionally or not).
Third, that passing on the senders email address to a third party (wS or fulfiller ) does not violate any legal privacy concerns.

2) My point is that the florist is now forced to just mark items delivered even when they are not, or risk penalties
No, the florist is not "forced" by any wire service to deliberately falsify delivery confirmation, that is a choice that a fulfilling florist would take upon themselves rather than do things properly and in the best interest of the customer. To be quite frank, I would have little interest in dealing with any fulfiller that would make that choice, our customers and the commitment we have made to them is just to important to our company

3) The reality is that these orders are fraught with mistakes. Every time a consumer places an order online, without florist guidance, there are mistakes, sometimes big mistakes that need to be rectified.

Please...... lol. This statement takes the cake. If this were indeed the case Proflowers, FTD, and 1-800 Flowers combined would need a staff equivelent (or larger) than the entire United States Armed Forces. If you are experincing this level of problems on your own web site you need to take a look at it as you have a problem. Speaking for our own website, the reality is that we have VERY few problems in the actual order process. Typically the larger portion of problems occur at fulfillment (substitution, missed delivery, under value, need I go on?)

As I have stated many times in the past and will continue to in the future, the bottom line is we need to work towards improving our entire industry from top to bottom. The consumer does not want to concern themselves with the process behind the delivery of flowers, who is an order gatherer, who is not, whether a shop has their own truck or uses a pool, etc, etc, etc. THEY JUST WANT THEIR FLOWERS DELIVERED!

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Based on my experience, I would suggest that the reason the WS's are doing this is that far too many fulfillers don't adhere to the "purchase/contract" they agreed to.

Again, this is all about the customer.

Doug, do you fully "understand" the ramifications of any undelivered, yet "confirmed" order???
Your are defending progress, on behalf of wire services, and the stable of OG's period!
I CANNOT "confirm" a delivery, without 'KNOWING" that it's delivered......sometimes, that's NEXT day, or way later THAN THE 7:00 pM LOCAL TIME DEADLINE!!
i HAD 44 DELCONS THAT WERE REPORTED BETWEEN 7:00 PM, AND 7:15 PM, ON MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND SATURDAY, WHEN I GOT A CHANCE TO BREATHE!!...YOU ARE "CONDONING" THAT BULLCRAP??....(yes, I'm yelling) what a stupid crock & load...I had drivers out till 9:00 pm, did YOU??
get a grip.......this is a stupid argument!

 

[anytimeflowers]

Please...... lol. This statement takes the cake. If this were indeed the case Proflowers, FTD, and 1-800 Flowers combined would need a staff equivelent (or larger) than the entire United States Armed Forces. If you are experincing this level of problems on your own web site you need to take a look at it as you have a problem. Speaking for our own website, the reality is that we have VERY few problems in the actual order process. Typically the larger portion of problems occur at fulfillment (substitution, missed delivery, under value, need I go on?)

No, they don't "experience" it silly. That's what the filler florist is for

 

[Doug Munro]

Doug, do you fully "understand" the ramifications of any undelivered, yet "confirmed" order???
Your are defending progress, on behalf of wire services, and the stable of OG's period!
I CANNOT "confirm" a delivery, without 'KNOWING" that it's delivered......sometimes, that's NEXT day, or way later THAN THE 7:00 pM LOCAL TIME DEADLINE!!
i HAD 44 DELCONS THAT WERE REPORTED BETWEEN 7:00 PM, AND 7:15 PM, ON MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND SATURDAY, WHEN I GOT A CHANCE TO BREATHE!!...YOU ARE "CONDONING" THAT BULLCRAP??....(yes, I'm yelling) what a stupid crock & load...I had drivers out till 9:00 pm, did YOU??
get a grip.......this is a stupid argument!

Mikey, settle down before you burst a valve.

My point here is not how hard you worked, or how late your drivers were out, or which one of us worked harder at Mother's Day. My entire point here is that we are no longer in the 1950's when someone should have to phone around to god knows where to try and track down an order they placed.

Our industry for a large part still operates as it did decades ago when this was acceptable. Today's consumer demands a lot more, and the challenge for us as an industry is to meet those demands. All of us, (including everyone on this board) expects a much higher level of service as a consumer that was typically expected even 1-2 decades ago. Unfortunately we all want to avoid or set these expectations aside when it comes to our own industry.

As to what I condon, I clearly stated that I do not necessarily agree with the all of methods employed by the WS's. However the bottom line is the concept of confirming deliveries is a solid one, one that needs to be embraced. I do note that you neglected to mention the consumer in your rant, or are they not that important in the scheme of things, or at a time like Mothers Day maybe they should just be grateful to get flowers period! After all they probably never had to work until 9:00.

Obviously there are some things we may never see eye to eye on.

 

[Knife's Wife]

Gosh People, really how dare you all question the good intentions of TF....they are doing this for the customer!






NOT

 

[Doug Munro]

Gosh People, really how dare you all question the good intentions of TF....they are doing this for the customer!






NOT

Whatever their motivation the reality is that customer deliver confirmation is long overdue. There can not be any disputing that a way to do this is needed, after all at a time like Valentines Day how many calls to any flower shop are "Has my order been delivered?".

 

[Simon Says]

Anyone remember that TF had timed delivery for the last Mother's Day. They charged the sender several $s more for that. I wonder if anyone got any time(frame) specific order(s) from TF at Mother's Day and, if so, curious as to whether your got additional $s for handling that (ie: TF gave you some of the $s they gathered for the scheduling) and whether you had to do your delivery confirmation back to TF by a given time, for example within an hour of the delivery time frame or slot?

If you don't think that requirement coming from the WS within the next 12 monthw, I think you'll be wrong.

 

[secretgarden]

Doug I agree 100%, confirming delivery is something that should be standard practice. That is where my agreement ends. The way they are going about it is going to cause more trouble then it's going to fix.
1. Florists ARE going to confirm things that have not been delivered period. This will cause more complaints and issues.
2. The process to get the date change may be a couple of clicks of a mouse, but those clicks will cost the florist money. I am not 100% sure but I believe inquiry messages have some sort of fee attached, please correct me if I'm wrong.
3. What about the florists that are still not on dove or have dropped the dove because of expense. Like it or not there are florists out in the big bad world that have never touched a computer. They will have to call and probably wait on hold to get delivery confirmations done. I can't see them getting around doing them.

My complaint is that it is going to reward florists for bad behavior. They are going to click confirm and get their $1.00, as long as it fits the requirements, or they are going to click confirm and save a $.1.00

So tell me how sending and receiving false confirmations is going to help the florist industry. How will this give people more confidence when they find out that even though they got a DC only to discover their item has not been delivered. (by the way read the complaints, hundreds, dare I say thousands of angry holiday shoppers received delivery confirmation even when it had not been delivered).

We offer delivery confirmation if the customer is willing to pony up an email address. We are working on more efficient ways to include photos with each one but we have a bit of a learning curve with the older staff. Their are florists that will gladly do whatever it takes to make it right for THEIR customer, not someone else's customer!

 

[ChristiBrown]

Wow did I get you guys riled up! I think I have to agree with....well pretty much most of what ya'll had to say. I agree wholeheartedly we need delivery confirmations, in fact I was THRILLED when TF first added the option, it made my follow up work so much easier. I am just ticked about these new rules/fines/payments and their implications. Don't know if any of you have ever read Freakenomics, but it is a great read that brings psyc, economics, and statistics together. This kind of reminds me of one of the chapters about charging parents a couple of dollars if they pick up their kids late. Rather than parents picking up their kids more on time (the intention), they get picked up less because the penalty lessens the seriousness of picking up on time in their minds. Anyways, now I have a new problem to address: I have the Florida State Florist Association conference 3 hours away from my house (that I was supposed to leave for tomorrow night, but am going to push back till Friday night) and my assistant (my only designer) is out all weekend because her husband is in the hospital. I've got a part time college student who can take orders and make wraps and cubes, but that is where her experience ends. She is scheduled to do flowers for a recital this weekend, but thankfully I don't have any weddings. I am going to try to get a hold of a shop owner who closed about 6 months ago that I bought most of her inventory who I like, I just hope she is available. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

[anytimeflowers]

Nicely said Lori.

Doug, I'm not experiencing problems with my website. It isn't that the consumer is confused HOW to use it, they just often have incomplete or inaccurate info, same as they do when they call or come in to place an order. I think you are just trying to be obtuse.

I totally agree about delivery confirmations, and I do that for my customers if they want to give the contact info. I always do for website orders. The difference is that I can communicate with them, whether it's just to let them know the delivery went off without a hitch, or the recipient called in sick to work and we will redeliver. There should not be a threat hanging over florists heads.

I do not believe that TF came up with this out of the blue for customer service, I guess we will just disagree about that.

I don't have to worry about it myself, the orders I fill are my own.

 

[Doug Munro]

Nicely said Lori.

Doug, I'm not experiencing problems with my website. It isn't that the consumer is confused HOW to use it, they just often have incomplete or inaccurate info, same as they do when they call or come in to place an order. I think you are just trying to be obtuse.

I totally agree about delivery confirmations, and I do that for my customers if they want to give the contact info. I always do for website orders. The difference is that I can communicate with them, whether it's just to let them know the delivery went off without a hitch, or the recipient called in sick to work and we will redeliver. There should not be a threat hanging over florists heads.

I do not believe that TF came up with this out of the blue for customer service, I guess we will just disagree about that.

I don't have to worry about it myself, the orders I fill are my own.

Again I will state, I don't know Teleflora's motivation as I am not privy to their management meetings or nor am I a mind reader. Unfortunately too often human beings in general are not motivated to do extra work that benefits the common good unless it results in personal gain or not doing it results in punishment. So it appears that TF took the route of punishment, I certainly cannot debate that there might be a better way anymore than most folks on this board will honestly say confirming delivery in some form is not the right thing to do.

As for my being obtuse, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

 

[LOTAKIDS]

OK... I did it... I confirmed before they were delivered because I knew I wouldn't be back before 7 PM..
I'M bad... Less than two months and counting...

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Whatever their motivation the reality is that customer deliver confirmation is long overdue. There can not be any disputing that a way to do this is needed, after all at a time like Valentines Day how many calls to any flower shop are "Has my order been delivered?".

well, how about "I DON'T KNOW, until I ACTUALLY "know"......