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.