A thorough discussion of planning and implementing a successful points based loyalty/incentive program can be found in the public articles section of our website.

Most FloristWare users want to take advantage of the advanced e-mail marketing features contained in the software. Unfortunately in order to take advantage of these features you first need to have customer e-mail addresses on file.

So, the process of e-mail marketing typically begins with the process of collecting e-mail addresses. This is something that is usually best done on an ongoing basis - each time you make a sale or take an order you should be collecting (or confirming) the customer's e-mail address.

I think you always have to look at is a little negotiation. The customer has something you want (the e-mail address) but - given that most people are tight with personal information in general and e-mail addresses in particular - they're reluctant to give it up.

You need to "buy" it from them by giving them something they want. And - of course - you want to pay as little as possible!

All of the ideas above are excellent. Here are the things I can think of, some of which overlap with what has already been said:

1. Points/Incentive Program

If you are running a points/incentive program you can explain that a customer has to share their e-mail address to take part. You can even copy the credit card companies (very good at this kind of thing - it never hurts to copy what works!) and offer something like a "new customer sign-up bonus points" - extra points for customers who are joining the program for the first time and sharing all of the information that you want. The thing I like about points is that they are "cheaper" than a straight up discount and tend to keep the customer involved.

2. Fundraising Program

Same as above - if you have a fundraising program and the customer wants to take part explain that your system requires you to enter their e-mail address for record keeping.

3. Reminder Service

If you offer an electronic reminder service to your customers (reminding them about birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) then present it is a valuable service you are offering them free of charge - once that requires you to collect their e-mail address.

4. Electronic Receipt/Invoice

When dealing with phone orders an electronic receipt/invoice sent to the customer can be very appealing. Not just for the records but to catch any mistakes. Tim Huckabee - a sales trainer I really respect - encourages shops to tell the customers to review the receipt/invoice for potential errors (delivery date, address, card message, spelling of names, etc.) very carefully. It's a great idea and you know what? It works - the customers often catch something!

5. Photograph of Product/Delivery

You can also use photographs to get their e-mail address. You might want to e-mail them photos of products they should consider during the sale process or you could promise to e-mail them photographs of the actual finished product and/or delivery.

6. Delivery Confirmation

Explain that if you have their e-mail address you can automatically send a delivery confirmation once the flowers have been delivered.

One or our most popular articles is of interest to florists whether they use FloristWare or not. It is a guide to designing a successful points based loyalty/incentive program.

It has been updated and is now available in revised form. We hope you find it useful.

There is a very good article on persuasion that should be of interest to any florist who is running a loyalty or incentive program. Point number five in the article is especially relevant:

Make people feel as if they've already made progress toward a goal. A car wash offering a loyalty card nearly doubled customer retention by changing their offer from "Buy eight washes, get one free" to "Buy 10 washes, get one free—and we'll start you off by crediting you for two washes."

If you are currently running the kind of "buy ten dozen, get the next one free" program popular with many florists think about this advice and stamp their card an extra couple of times when they first join the program. If you are worried that will get too expensive then change your program - instead of requiring ten purchases switch it to twelve (buy a dozen dozen...) and give them two stamps for free.

If you are using FloristWare to run your program you are in even better shape - this is exactly what the New Customer Bonus Points feature is for. You can tell FloristWare to credit new program members with bonus points.

We talk a lot about the power of the Fundraising feature. We really believe in it - many of our clients use it very successfully and we'd like to see still more benefiting from it.

This article "Investing in Your Community Will Boost Your Sales" on the American Express OPEN site contains some great and very relevant information.

If you are already using the Fundraising feature in FloristWare should give you some tips for maximizing results. If you aren't yet using the Fundraising feature we hope that this article encourages you to give it a try.

There is a great article in Canadian Florist magazine that drawing on findings released today as part of the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer.

Of special interest is the statistic that a majority of consumers will pay more "when they believe a company provides excellent service".

This is good news because service is one of the areas where you can really surpass the grocery stores and order-gatherers. Make sure that you are taking advantage of all of the features in FloristWare to give you a competitive edge.

Inc. Magazine has a great article on starting a customer loyalty program.

We believe in this kind of program and we encourage our users to try this kind of marketing. Please take a look at our article on designing a successful points-based incentive/loyalty program.

Lately it's been great to see so many users preparing for the busy season with the marketing features in FloristWare. We have had a lot of inquiries and traffic on our new support site about generating customer lists for email campaigns and physical mailings.

We often get included in the emailings. We love to see what the users are up to but it can be surprising to see how often florists lead with price. Price can be a powerful motivator but please don't cheapen what you do. There are other vendors out there that can always be cheaper but they will never be able to match the quality and service provided by a real local florist.

The MarketingProfs.com website has a great article on the downside of leading with price. Please take a look.

We often hear from users that want to use the marketing features in FloristWare to promote special in-store events. There is a great article on the AMEX Open forum on this very topic and we encourage you to check it out.

FloristWare can really help you with step 1 (Start early and go viral). The marketing features make it quick, easy and free to notify your customers about the event.

FloristWare can also help with step 2 (Call a charity). The fundraising feature is an ideal way to get a charity interested in partnering with you.

One idea that we have seen used really well for step 6 (Offer a game) is a "name the flower" contest. There are lots of varieties most people have seen. One shop had a few different arrangements featuring some less common varieties and they went home with the people that could identify the contents.

Good luck and have fun!

There is a very interesting article on the MarketingProfs website about how referencing your loyalty program in marketing emails can improve performance dramatically.

What does this mean for you? If you are using the points program feature in FloristWare (and we hope that you are) you should reference it in your email campaigns to improve your results.