Valentine's Day Aftermath

BloomingFlorida

BloomingFlorida

New Member
Apr 12, 2009
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Gulfport
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Florida
How do you handle unprocessed, undelivered V-day orders from Wire services sent to you on 15th? In general we do not replace or remedy orders that were mishandled by another florist in the area. We do get calls to do that and I think it is wrong. Last year we did a few V-day orders on 15th where the wire service apologized to the customer on the card clearly indicating their wrong doing. I am not quite excited about doing that either because I fear the recipient may not quite grasp the source of the error but will always remember that it was flowers from us that didn't get to them on time.
 
In the past, we have filled these orders but quickly decided that this was not in the best interest of our business. The recipients ALWAYS blame the delivering florist. My business partner delivered one and was rudely treated by the person at the door saying that it's about time, this should have been received yesterday. Even though she told him that we had just received the order that morning, he was not appeased.

When we have reached our capacity, we politely decline orders explaining that we are not able to fill their order AND deliver it in a timely manner but do offer pick up. The big 3 machines need to do the same thing. They cannot expect to keep taking orders all day on the 14th and expect the florists to fill them with no questions asked.
 
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nope, will not accept those orders. It makes you look bad, not the order broker who promised the world... and didn't deliver
 
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Flowerchatter03 said:
In the past, we have filled these orders but quickly decided that this was not in the best interest of our business. The recipients ALWAYS blame the delivering florist. My business partner delivered one and was rudely treated by the person at the door saying that it's about time, this should have been received yesterday. Even though she told him that we had just received the order that morning, he was not appeased.

When we have reached our capacity, we politely decline orders explaining that we are not able to fill their order AND deliver it in a timely manner but do offer pick up. The big 3 machines need to do the same thing. They cannot expect to keep taking orders all day on the 14th and expect the florists to fill them with no questions asked.
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run away as fast as you can. this is the biggest reason we left FTD. Last Mother's Day they were still trying to get orders filled 12 days AFTER mother's day. I accepted ONE order from FTD.com over the phone for a late delivery. The sales rep swore to me that the sender and recipient knew it was FTD's fault and not mine. She begged me to take it. I, personally, delivered it to a very pissed off momma. She had no idea what was going on and tore into me until I explained what happened. She then apologized to me for her rant, and apologized for her son being a "moron and not using a local florist" (her words not mine). This was 12 days AFTER mother's day.
 
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Last year after MD one WS had over 9000 (yes, 9,000) orders still in the hunt mode looking for a home. You know we got the blame.................day after orders can be frustrating.
 
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Not to sound like a broken record, but absolutely, no way, no how will we do this f-up's. Not even with the apology on the card from the w/s. Our first Mother's Day, we did 3 of these, which I delivered. I was cussed out by 2 of them. No explaining in the world will do.

This Christmas, we were asked to do one of these. told the w/s no way. They called back begging, saying they would give us 100%, apology on the card, yadda-yadda. I eventually told her the only way would be if a) I got 100% + $10, and b), they called the recipient and the sender to apologize and clearly explain that the florist that will be delivering the arrangement was fixing the problem. Had they not called by the time I went to deliver, I would have walked away with the arrangement still in hand. They did what they said they would do, and the recipient said to me as soon as she came to the door "I heard what happened, I'm so glad someone was able to fix it". She's been a regular customer since.

I'm convinced the apologies on the card mean absolutely nothing, and the recipient probably thinks it was added by the delivering florist as a way to CYA....

But again, even if they do what I asked at Xmas, I/we won't be doing any of these. Read the card messages carefully.
 
BloomingFlorida said:
Aw Geez....

Just saw that my wife started this thread. She knows my policy on this. I'll have to ask her why she was asking this question. :dunce
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LOL, now that is way too funny!
 
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BloomingFlorida said:
How do you handle unprocessed, undelivered V-day orders from Wire services sent to you on 15th?
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REJECT~!

Not in any wire services anymore, but when we were, we apologized for no middleman order gatherer... real florists, for sure... but not the junk order salesman...
 
i have one local florist that has over 500 orders sitting there for v-day delivery. all from the WS's...she took the shop over about 1.5 years ago. I'm hoping she will get the hint sometime soon. I've preached and preached to her..but to no avail. She accepts everyone(WS) that comes in...and same thing every holiday makes no money. cant fill all of them.. still delivering days after v-day.
 
directflowerimporters said:
I've preached and preached to her..but to no avail. She accepts everyone(WS) that comes in...and same thing every holiday makes no money. cant fill all of them.. still delivering days after v-day.
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That's just dumb.... and sad, and...
 
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I would look at this as a chance to win the customer over to my shop. I would write a nice letter on what happened and how the sender if they orders from me will get a better service than through a wire service.
JUst today I took an order from someone who had placed previous orders through other wire service. She realize she should cut the middle man and order directly from me. I now have a new direct 100% orders. Many time I have a chance to win one over I do. One order at a time.....
 
Luc said:
I would look at this as a chance to win the customer over to my shop. I would write a nice letter on what happened and how the sender if they orders from me will get a better service than through a wire service.
JUst today I took an order from someone who had placed previous orders through other wire service. She realize she should cut the middle man and order directly from me. I now have a new direct 100% orders. Many time I have a chance to win one over I do. One order at a time.....
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Do you send this message to the recipient on a separate card? I too would like to say something like "next time order directly from us and you won't be disappointed" but I am not sure if that would always work in our favour. Did the lady that ordered from you was a disappointed recipient that you helped out last year?
 
Sometime it's done when the recepient comes in and tells us how happy she is with our order. I am pretty good in finding out their name in the conversation and I remember thier orders. I would say something like " Tell so-so to call us direct next time, here is our business card. I tell them by ordering direct with me they save money. After Mother's Day I can many phone calls on where their orders are that was sent through a wire service. In the conversation I always tell them all my orders where delivered on time by Mother's Day. Not like the other flower shop in our town. They are overwhelmed and they are still delivering flowers sunday night and often they run out of flowers that they donot open on the monday and tues until their next flower shipment on tose orders ues. Everyone florist should take advantage when that door opens just a little. I also want to say that I fill as much as 30 more orders on the mon and tues after mother's day. Many of them are people whose order "disappear" online.
 
Luc said:
I would look at this as a chance to win the customer over to my shop. I would write a nice letter on what happened and how the sender if they orders from me will get a better service than through a wire service.
JUst today I took an order from someone who had placed previous orders through other wire service. She realize she should cut the middle man and order directly from me. I now have a new direct 100% orders. Many time I have a chance to win one over I do. One order at a time.....
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The only problem with this is that you are trying to win over the receiver---NOT the person that SENT the flowers. Odds are that person is not going to call the person that sent them flowers and tell them they should have ordered directly. They will instead be gracious and say how beautiful they are and the sender will send thru the WS again next time. (at least that is my opinion).

I know florist instinct says "make the customer happy" and "get them their flowers", but in reality you are cutting your own throat. Again, IMO, the best solution is to let the WS disappoint. Customers will not blame the local florist, even if WS tries to blame it on them. They will instead not reorder from them. Customers are not as stupid as people on here sometimes think. Yes, they may be easily enticed by ads for cheap flowers, but once they get burned, they will get wise.

As for me personally----I would NEVER EVER EVER deliver a late WS order I don't care what the circumstance IF is still belonged to WS, but I am WS FREE!! So glad to be done with their games.
 
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I have no problem rejecting orders especially when I know they come from a gatherer. Anytime I can succeed in getting someone to switch I work on it. If it means starting with the recepient telling thier family members to order through me than it is a bonus. I have been successful in getting that done. If I can talk to the send, I work my magic with them.
Many of the orders I get from customers after a major holiday are not wire orders. They are real customers that (a) forgot or (b) someone who placed an order online and it was rejected by me at one point.

As far as games, I like games, since I am good at playing. Just today I got a TF order from HQ. the description asked was vague so I sent an ask. THe reply was that it came to them through another flower shop in the US. (flag#1) So I phone my canadian office and ask where the order originated. I got that florist information and I looked at their web site. I found what the consumer ordered and it clearly said $84.95 + delivery which I did not get. So I sent a message that the sender paid $9.95 for delivery and I would like to get it. With in a few minutes I got my price change. SO someone either the sending florist or tF HQ scammed the sender by not sending the full amount. When I will talk to the recepient since I know her, I will casually ask her how was her order and second that she should tell her dad to phone me direct and I will give her my business card. Now I turned future orders to 100%. I dont always succeed but I will try!
 
Exactly Luc... All OGs and even some florists collect service charges and delivery charges, yet FAIL to send them to the filling florist.

When I was still in a ws, towards the end, I'd send an ASK P MO$ for $9.95 and get it 95% of the time. Everyone should!
 
Ask and ye shall receive....

So far, we have asked for an additional $5 to $25 on about 90% of the wire orders this holiday. Of those, we have gotten the money about 75-90%. We have minimums based on zip codes for w/s, and for the holiday, we increased those minimums, as well as the delivery. I send the price change request, saying; "Holiday minimum for this zip code is $xx.xxx. Please adjust or cancel." If you're not asking, you're giving money away.

On a side note, a florist down the road, who we have a good relationship with, was telling Anette that TF would not give her a price change, and they told her she had to do the arrangement at the price given. We got rid of TF a long time ago, but find it hard to believe that they can enforce that. Anyone else with TF run into this? If they tried to pull that on me, I'd just toss the order. What's the worst they could do, not pay you on the order you didn't do?
 
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