Turn 2: An Effective Technique for Obtaining Mother's Day Orders for Easter

April is here which means it’s time to “Turn 2” and double up on those holiday orders by training your staff to ask for Mother’s Day orders when customers call to order their Easter flowers. This is the perfect time to pull out one of our favorite sales tools… the “Turn 2!” Watch this brief video (we promise, it’s less than a minute), to refresh yourself and your staff.

Do you utilize the Turn 2 technique at your shop? Is there a different strategy you’re using that you’ve had success with? If so, we’d love to hear about it! Please share your ideas a comment below!

FTD Update

Dear friends,

Last week we reported on a news item from the Chicago Tribune that raised concerns about the financial stability of FTD due to a recent regulatory filing by the company warning that it may go out of business or shrink its operations if it cannot find a buyer or raise money by June 1.

In that article, I stated that there is no reason to be alarmed by the news after a conversation I had with a trusted source at FTD clarified what was originally reported in the Tribune. That statement was my opinion and I tried to make it as clear and simple as I could.

However, since that article was published, I have received numerous calls from concerned florists and the number one question I’m asked is if they are going to get paid from FTD for Mother’s Day and beyond.

My answer…NO WAY would I know that, but I can certainly understand if people are feeling nervous or uncertain. If you do have any concerns about getting paid for the orders you fill for Mother’s Day and beyond, I strongly encourage you to call your local FTD representative or consider exploring your other options.

You still have time and the choice is up to you. I’m always here to talk anytime if you have any questions or concerns. Please comment below or drop me a line at aconforti1@gmail.com.

Have a great week!

-Art

Enhance your brand with new professional floral images from Bloomerang

How can I gain new products on my website?

See Bloomerang’s image gallery on Flickr (if you need logins, call (941) 806-1911 or drop us a line here and we will be happy to assist you).

Would you be surprised to know that most people judge a website by its images? Of course not, because we all do that. It's the first thing we notice when we visit a new website; it's instinctive, like judging a car by its color. It's only after that first impression that we take a closer look to see how things are arranged.

Except many potential customers never make it that far.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so your first impression must make an impact - that's why professional photos are everything. You may have the best shop in town or a website that cost you $20K, but if your website looks tired and neglected, it reflects poorly on the image and overall company culture you're trying to portray.

Here at Bloomerang Solutions, we understand how important it is for retail florists to have high-quality images that reflect the beauty of the finished products, that’s why we provide website-ready floral images for you to use in your shop. If you are already a member of AMS, log into your Flickr account and see the beautiful new designs we have added and will continue to add for you to use. If you are not currently a member of AMS, forgot your password, or would just like some more information, simply fill out this form and we’ll take care of the rest. Even with strong features, a website needs great images to perform it’s best.

Do you need help with images for your website? Bloomerang Solutions is here to help! Give us a call today at (941) 806-1911 or send us an email to set up a free consolation. From social media to websites and online marketing, Bloomerang Solutions can help your business bloom!

Deception Marketing Hurts Florists Locally and Nationally

Deception marketing has often been abused by national companies and local retailers that want to look like large, nationwide companies. Do a Google search for “florist” and pick any city and the same names keep popping up. No matter which city you choose, you’ll almost always find names like Avas Flowers, Rita’s and Ranch. These companies try to appear local and in local markets, but they’re not.

What are some of the signs that a shop may not really be a local florist? One of the biggest red flags is if they answer the phone with something generic like “Flower Shop” without any other name association.

The video below is from a call to a shop located in Punta Gorda, Florida. This particular shop is trying to emulate a 40-year-old shop named Port Charlotte Florist, located in a neighboring city.

While the shop answers the phone “Flower Shop,” it also has a recording that states “Number One Florist.” Most people would probably be fooled because they make it vague on purpose. Their website offers even more mystery; there isn’t even a name on it at all!

The unfortunate fact is that this is what we are up against in this industry. Deceptive marketers thrive in the floral industry because many people who order flowers aren’t familiar with legitimate, well-established flower shops that serve the recipient’s local area, so they do a Google search and check out a few of the top listings without ever knowing the difference.

Unfortunately, they usually end up disappointed with the results – or worse yet – just flat out ripped off because they gave their credit card information to someone who misrepresented themselves as honest florists. And I don't have to tell you who the swindled customers think is ripping them off because you've surely fielded phone calls from angry customers who fell for the scam and now they're mad at you!

We need to work together to educate consumers and put a stop to these dishonest marketing tactics. It’s bad for the consumer and it’s bad for florists!

Listen for yourself and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Have a great week, everyone!

Art

What’s the Difference Between Surveys and Reviews?

The difference between surveys and reviews is that surveys speak to you - the business owner - from the customer. We attach a coupon to our surveys and it's usually the most redeemed coupon because it targets our own customers and the responses inform us what we can do to improve their experience.

Reviews, on the other hand, allow your customers to speak to the world about their individual experience with your company.

The Bloomerang difference?

None of your clients have to select or login to any website or search engine, like Yelp or Google to leave a review.

Once they leave the review, we monitor and push it to the web within a few days. Our Google-certified software allows companies getting reviews to be rewarded online with gold stars in their organic local listings. The more reviews they get, the better they rank for SEO.

If shops get a bad review, we cannot remove it, but we will notify you to reach out to your customer to discuss what happened OR we will do it for you!

This program is guaranteed. Anyone that runs a homemade program and does not allow negative reviews to be published is not using an approved system and cannot get the gold stars.

Organic listings are FREE, and cannot be manipulated. Only a Google-certified program can achieve the gold star rankings.

Now you know the difference between surveys and reviews.

Reviews make it easy for businesses to stand out with five key features:

• Review Monitoring: Monitor all of the location reviews from customers — including those on third-party sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp — in one place. Automated notifications alert businesses to new reviews as they appear.

• Review Generation: Encourage real customers to submit reviews based on actual visits and experiences. Leverage email, SMS, receipts, and five other channels to leverage in search.

• Review Balancing: Bloomerang’s review balancing algorithm dynamically chooses the most impactful site to direct customers to ensure an even distribution.

• Review Publication: Publish the reviews you generate to your business website or app with pre-optimized Schema.org widgets so stars appear in your organic search results.

• Review Response: Respond to reviews where needed. With workflows and approval settings, local managers can respond to reviews for locations they manage.

• Review Insights: Analyze review trends and changes over time so you can remedy issues as they arise–and reward loyal customers as you so choose.

How often do you talk to your customers to find out what they think? It’s simple with surveys from Bloomerang Solutions. We can help you customize surveys for you shop that will tell you everything you’ve always wanted to know (but never asked). Best of all, we can get this up and running on your site by the end of the week. Take the guess work out of customer service with surveys from Bloomerang Solutions. Give us a call at (941) 806-1911 or drop us a line here for more information.