Comments on: Valentine’s Day Aftermath: Don’t Give Up After a Bad Bouquet

By: Gina Kellogg

Gina Kellogg — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:58:12 +0000

Robin: I hope you went ahead and wrote your own blog on the topic, too! (And felt free to add a link to this article!) The more we can explain how wire services work to consumers, the sooner we can get them to stop wasting their money! Ironically, a good friend of mine contacted me a few days after Valentine’s Day to ask me if I’d ever written on this topic because her husband had gone online to purchase her flowers. He had simply typed in the name of his city and “florist” and thought the first listing he got was a legitimate site. She wanted others to know so they wouldn’t be ripped off like her husband was. (I sent her a link to this article.) And I’ve made a note to myself to make sure I do a better job of educating my own friends and family about this topic in the future. Apparently, I haven’t done as effective of a job as I thought I had in getting this message out!

By: Florist Chronicles

Florist Chronicles — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 07:32:47 +0000

Thanks for your feedback Robin… and you are right… we need to educate the public as best we can…

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:40:46 +0000

Thank you for writing this! I was planning almost the exact same blog entry after working for a large wire-service florist over Valentine’s Day. The general public just does not understand the difference. Very well done!

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:45:03 +0000

Hi Gina
Love the artical, you hit it right on, but the only thing i do not agree on is the funeral flower suggestion on asking the funeral director who would they recommend for flowers. I do not know about other towns, cities etc. but here in roanoke va. the funeral homes, director has there special pick of one florist to do flowers for them(because they get a kick back) and (do not support all local florist (as they claim to) that do a great job with pride) they ask all of there customers do they want them to take care of the flowers for there loved one for there funeral, and I have seen many casket sprays that would not be acceptable to any of my customers. just sayin. Mark

By: Gina Kellogg

Gina Kellogg — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:05:25 +0000

Calla:

Thanks so much for adding more details to the conversation! All these little bits of information help others have that much of a better idea of why they just need to call their florist directly and work with them to develop the best arrangements possible.

By: Florist Chronicles

Florist Chronicles — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:11:29 +0000

YES, I like your description of the order gatherers Calla, and I in particular love the way you point out that florists pay a fee to them, which then gets used for advertising to compete against them. I didn’t really consciously think of it that way.

And thanks for the link to that interesting facebook discussion. Talk about being put on the spot…

By: Calla

Calla — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:43:37 +0000

Like most small independents, establishing a shopping cart is costly. I developed my main website with a TF site attached as a shopping cart. At the outset I advise shoppers that these photos represent the ‘attitude’ they wish to create and the color preferences, and that we do not have the range of TF containers. They are encouraged to call us anytime to discuss the flowers available and most frequently that is what they do. Most people just want to feel in control: poking around a shopping cart allows that sense as long as they are assured that they can expect the best from us. Otherwise, enough information is posted on the main site, Yelp, Google etc that a shopper can determine the integrity of the business, and then can order online in the night and trust that we’ll do it. I’ve never had a complaint that our work does not represent what was intended either in product quality or style integrity as at http://www.flowercomplaints.com.
I do not consider myself an ‘order-gatherer’ for Teleflora because I use their shopping cart product. And it is essential to have a primary website to get rank listings, otherwise, I see shops here that have only the TF/FTD franchise sites and they are not anywhere close to the first several pages of Google. I don’t consider myself an order-gather because I use the international services to do the work my customer chooses to entrust me with, vis a vis what they would intend from our shop. Most probably my customers believe they will do far better to discuss with us and choose their pricepoint and preferences than to either Google or go online themselves. That’s the relationship of a florist.
In the context of this discussion, I think what needs to happen to assist florists is to –ensure–that customers understand what an Order Gatherer is. It’s not a florist using some of these tools, it’s the Order-Gatherer-Companies’ Head Offices–FTD, TF ProF,FCa, and etc etc–that charge us fees to send them business and then compete with us for that very SAME business by using our fees to place themselves number one on page one and at the top in the adranks as well. Most florists don’t have that budget or acumen. I think the Head Offices must surely be feeling the $$ slide associated with don’t bite the hand that feeds you!
What I’m doing is everywhere I can, I’m planting a note on what I consider true Order-Gatherers sites to inform the customers who are writing there. So let’s get on with our own educating and go on every twitter, facebook and blog. This membership site boasts “half a million” flower routings…to its affiliates but keeping what, $100M? intended for florists. Here’s the latest:http://www.facebook.com/flowersca/posts/372122469467240?notif_t=feed_comment_reply

By: gina kellogg

gina kellogg — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:55:55 +0000

Here are a couple of additional articles that explain how wire services and order-gatherers work for anyone who would like more information:

http://alwaysupward.com/blog/a-rose-is-a-rose-is-not/

http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page13.aspx

By: gina kellogg

gina kellogg — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:49:06 +0000

Linda:

I know it’s hard for some florists (who aren’t professional writers like I am) to put their thoughts in writing, so I make it a goal to do it for them–that’s pretty much the whole point of the FloristChronicles website. And we encourage florists to link to these articles on their websites and Facebook pages. All they need to do is write some short intro text and then add the link. (And, if they ask me to, I’d be happy to help them develop that text for their sites!)

As for the fees–I know! I didn’t go into detail on that because the topic is already so confusing for most consumers that I just wanted to get the basic message across that they aren’t getting their money’s worth without muddying the water with too many details that might confuse them. WE understand, and we want them to–but they just have a hard time with the complexities of the whole situation…

Thanks for your comments!
g.

By: gina kellogg

gina kellogg — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:42:58 +0000

Well said, Brendon! (And, Linda, as you can tell, even though Brendon is in South Africa, you’ll almost always get a response from him on “U.S. time” because the man is so dedicated to his work that he hardly ever sleeps!)