Today more and more people are using the internet to order their flowers. There is a right and wrong way. First of all the wrong way is simple. Don't pick and click. You never know if you are at an actual florists website. This is what happens. First the florist you thought you were contacting is actually something called an Order Gatherer, OG for short. The OG collects orders and sends them to a local florist. They don't really care what florist it might be nor the quality of florist it might be. The OG first of all takes a percentage of your order right off the bat. Now they are giving the receiving florist less money to fill the order. At the receiving florist they are going to take the deliver charge out of the money they were given by the OG. Now you may have spent $60.00 on the flowers you ordered, but now you are down to less than $40.00 for the receiving florist to create that $60.00 arrangement you thought you ordered. If the OG does this all day and takes 500 orders they made close to $6000.00 just for taking the orders and doing nothing but forwarding them to a receiving florist. OG go and buy domain names and phone numbers all over the country. We florist have been fighting these guys for years. They even take adds out in the Yellow Pages making it look as though they are a local florist you are calling. You may be calling a phone bank in any state or any country for that matter. We florists end up doing all the work and making less of a profit and working harder just to make ends meet. In all this is putting many flower shops out of business.
We florists have done away with our floral wire flower sending services because it is better for us to help our customers to get what they want from a local reputable florist. Many florist just call a florist of our choice and order direct from a local florist where we give them a credit card so they get 100% of the order and you get 100% of the value. Many florist may charge a nominal fee of $2.00 to $5.00 to handle this service for you. I know for me it may take several calls to local florists until I find exactly what my customer is looking for.
To make things even easier I suggest that the customer Google's florist with the zip code (Example: Florist 33609) to find a local florist and call directly and see what they have to offer. Many times you will find that they may have a special that day. Maybe something you might not of thought of sending, but being on special you get a better value. If there is something in particular you are looking for such as an orchid plant and the florist you are calling may not carry orchid plants. Ask them if they know of or would recommend another florist in the town that might specialize in orchids. You'll be surprised when they take the time to help you out. We get calls for certain items which we don't carry, but we know of other businesses in the area that carry these items. I'm never afraid to direct a customer to another florist or business if I can't help them. Statistics show that the customer you helped will nine chances out of ten call you first when they are in need of flowers in my town the next time.
Another thing to do when ordering is to make some suggestions of flowers you would like, but allow them to create something called a designers choice arrangement. You will be quite surprised at what your friend or loved one will get. Designers are just that. They are professionals trained in the floral field and if you allow them to use their creativity you will be overwhelmed by getting something unique. You may want to specify you want a vase or possibly a decorative container, or even tell them to put the money into the flowers and not the container.
Long story short. PICK UP THE PHONE!!!!! Today we rely way to much on the pick and click websites. Just because you picked a particular arrangement it's not always what you get. Look at the fine print that says "Substitutions may be made depending on flower availability." Call the florist and get more, along with a personal touch.
