Tips & Tricks

Mother's Day is fast approaching! With that in mind we are going to be checking in with regular updates on what you should be doing to get ready.

Planning on running extra stations during Mother's Day?

FloristWare users who pay on an annual basis can activate an extra FloristWare station in February and May at no extra charge. Users that pay on a monthly basis can add an extra station for one month for $150. In either case it is essential that you schedule your installation appointment with FloristWare Support on or before April 29, 2011.

Planning any changes to your FloristWare configuration before Mother's Day?

Are you planning to add new hardware like card swipers, printers, etc? If so you need to get the equipment in your shop as soon as possible and schedule configuration prior to April 29, 2011.

Getting started with enclosure cards before Mother's Day?
If you are not yet using FloristWare to print enclosure cards but plan to start before Mother's Day it is essential that you order them immediately - this is a peak period for the printers in this industry and it will already be hard to arrange for delivery in time. You also need to schedule configuration of FloristWare for card printing prior to April 29, 2011.

Special Bonus: We're Covering 40% of The Cost of FloralStrategies Training With Tim Huckabee
Would you like a written guarantee that your average sale will increase by 20% or more? Tim Huckabee, the President of FloralStrategies.com makes and keeps such a promise! You may know Tim from his column, Flower Shop: CSI, in Floral Management magazine or heard him speak at national conventions since 1997.

As a special bonus to our valued users we are underwriting 40% of Tim's fee for you to get him in your shop during the month of April. The discounted rate is $595 within 200 miles of NYC, $895 outside that range. Contact FloristWare now at 800.983.6184 for further details and to save a date for your shop. This is a one-time special and the training sessions are being filled on a first-come, first served basis. Think about how much more you can earn by adding $10 to $20 more to every sale!

We've had a few calls from users who wanted to send one last e-mail blast before Valentines day. If you are thinking about the same thing please check out this article on Improving Your E-Mail Marketing for Valentine's Day.

There are a few points that seem especially relevant right now...

1. Keep it short and simple. Don't waste too much time crafting the e-mail.
You don't have much time to create a masterpiece right now anyway - you just want to remind your customers that Valentines is here and you are ready to help.

2. Qualify the e-mail addresses and information about the people... Don't carpet e-mail blast every address in your database.
The good news is that FloristWare has great tools for helping build targeted lists of customers.

3. Use a third-party e-mail system.
FloristWare is great at creating and refining lists and it can also send those e-mails out but ISPs are getting more and more aggressive about shutting down their clients (you) who send large volumes of similar mail. They will assume you are spamming and block you from sending. With that in mind you should consider a dedicated e-mail marketing service to actually send your mail. The two we suggest are ConstantContact and MailChimp. In either case you create the list in FloristWare, export it to the service you select and they look after actually sending it out and keeping from getting in trouble with your ISP.

Good luck!

We've had a few calls from users who wanted to send one last e-mail blast before Valentines day. If you are thinking about the same thing please check out this article on Improving Your E-Mail Marketing for Valentine's Day.

There are a few points that seem especially relevant right now...

1. Keep it short and simple. Don't waste too much time crafting the e-mail.
You don't have much time to create a masterpiece right now anyway - you just want to remind your customers that Valentines is here and you are ready to help.

2. ...Don't carpet e-mail blast every address in your database.
The good news is that FloristWare has great tools for helping build targeted lists of customers.

3. Use a third-party e-mail system.
FloristWare is great at creating and refining lists and it can also send those e-mails out but ISPs are getting more and more aggressive about shutting down their clients (you) who send large volumes of similar mail. They will assume you are spamming and block you from sending. With that in mind you should consider a dedicated e-mail marketing service to actually send your mail. The two we suggest are ConstantContact and MailChimp. In either case you create the list in FloristWare, export it to the service you select and they look after actually sending it out and keeping from getting in trouble with your ISP.

Good luck!

With the busy season fast approaching many florists will be hiring additional employees to help get them through it. There is a great article on this very subject at the Inc. magazine website.

One of the best things about FloristWare is that it so easy for new employees to learn. We received this e-mail from a user just before Valentines 2008 describing how quickly his temps were able to pick it up:

Oh, I did have one great reaction from a temp to the software. She didn’t work with us Christmas, so the last time she has been in the floral shop side as an employee was mothers’ day last year. We were still on pen and paper with cash registers, credit card machines, the whole nine yards.

She came in for a hour last week and I gave her her login and password. She then started playing with the software. Taking a “phone order” then a “walk in with customer info” then a complex walk in with customer info and delivery on the same sale. Then finally a walk in with no customer information. It was minimal how much she had to be talked through. She loved the fact that she doesn’t have to write encloseure cards, fight for access to a cash register or credit card machine, or have her hand cramp up from writing three/four/five orders during the same phone call from the same person. She likes the duplicate feature!!! She is thrilled, and I am thrilled that I get another computer friendly person for VD!

Flowers look nice. That visual appeal is something you should exploit as much as possible.

Good photographs are essential. Using your own photographs - and not the same images you see on thousands of websites - is something you need to consider.

With that in mind please take a look at this excellent article on Improving Product Photos .

There is a great article on the Inc. site about how you can use a "mystery" shopper to evaluate the performance of your employees when it comes to dealing with customers.

You should read the article to understand the idea (having someone pretend to be a customer and reporting back to you) and benefits but don't get discouraged. While they may be talking about some grand and fairly complicated programs you are lucky - you can do the same thing cheaply and affordably.

This is one of the great things about this business - most of it is done over the phone! You don't need to hire a service to provide mystery shoppers - you can have friends and family members call to place orders while you listen in.

This is a powerful technique that you can implement at virtually no cost. I knew one florist who would visit a different friend or family member every few weeks and listen in while they placed an order to his shop. They would get to keep the flowers and he would refund their payment.

Tim Huckabee of Floral Strategies makes great use of the mystery shopper technique - it's one of the cornerstones of his program. If you ever want to hear someone expertly dissect the handling of a phone order and then show you how to do it right you need to try his service.

Every day you run a daily sales report. Do you also take the time to fill out the information in the "Notes" tab?

You should. You don't have to get into a lot of detail but enter information about the weather at the very least and some staffing comments if at all possible.

Why? Because you can then use the "Daily Notes" report to make some really interesting predictions. For example: It is Wednesday afternoon and the forecast says Friday will be very cold and snowy. You can search for all cold, snowy Fridays and FloristWare will show you the trends for those days. This lets you plan efficiently.

You'll need to stay it for a while - the feature is useless until you have some history in the system. Once it's there you will be glad you did it.

Some users have asked about the process of selecting Product Categories and Products - specifically the default sort order of the lists. Even more specifically they have asked why it is that newer products/categories go to the bottom of the list.

The answer is that - by default - FloristWare sorts these lists by popularity. Every time a product/category is selected it's popularity increases. Each time you come to the list FloristWare puts the most popular items at the top.

This is a problem when you introduce new products/categories because they will go to the bottom of the list and stay there until they "catch up" to the other older products. Fortunately there are several solutions.

The first is changing the sort order of the list - just click on one of the blue column headers to sort the list by that criteria, click again to reverse the sort.

You can also reset the popularity:

Settings > Lists > Product Categories > Erase Popularity
Settings > Lists > Products > Clear Popularity

These buttons will clear the popularity so that all products/categories start over and the most currently popular will quickly rise to the top. This is very handy if you introduce seasonal products and want them to appear first.

There is a third solution if you don't like the popularity sort and would prefer to go use an alphabetical sort by product name. The advantage here is that the list never really changes - some people find that kind of consistency easier to work with.

Settings > Policies > Policy - Default Sort Order

This will allow you to choose the default sort order you feel will work best for your store.

FloristWare allows you to discount by either percentage or fixed amount at the sale, order or item level. For more information please see this support article.

Many newer users have mentioned that they get a lot of "do you know if my order has been delivered yet?" calls.

FloristWare can help. The ProgressTracker feature will give you instant access to the status of any order and can also be used to send delivery confirmations.

For detailed instruction please see this instructional video.

Some of our newer users have been showing a lot of interest in some of these powerful features. We haven't covered them in a while so we've assembled some material below.

Reminder Calls

Reminder Calls: Set-Up
This article will show you how to activate the Reminder Call feature.

Reminder Calls: Making Effective Reminder Calls
This article will show you to make effective reminder calls that turn into orders.

Sales Calls

Sales Call: Set-Up
This article will show you how to activate the Sales Call feature.

Sales Calls: Making Effective Sales Calls
This article will show you how to make effective sales calls.

Listen in iTunes
If you spend any time stuck in traffic you might consider listening to this series of seven podcasts covering these and other FloristWare marketing strategies.

Some of our newer users have been showing a lot of interest in some of these powerful features. We haven't covered them in a while so we've assembled some material below.

Reminder Calls

Reminder Calls: Set-Up
This article will show you how to activate the Reminder Call feature.

Reminder Calls: Making Effective Reminder Calls
This article will show you to make effective reminder calls that turn into orders.

Sales Calls

Sales Call: Set-Up
This article will show you how to activate the Sales Call feature.

Sales Calls: Making Effective Sales Calls
This article will show you how to make effective sales calls.

Listen in iTunes
If you spend any time stuck in traffic you might consider listening to this series of seven podcasts covering these and other FloristWare marketing strategies.

We have a lot of new users over the past few months and - as they become more familiar with FloristWare - they are starting to ask more advanced questions. With that in mind we're going to review some of the most important topics.

First we're going to look at charge accounts. A charge account lets your customers charge their purchases to an account and be billed later. Related articles appear below:

Accounts Receivable: Adding New Accounts
This article will show you how to add new charge accounts.

Accounts Receivable: Clearing Credit Balances
This article will teach you how to "Tidy-Up" your Accounts Receivable by clearing any accidental overpayments.

Accounts Receivable: Default Accounts
This article explains how default accounts are selected and "attached" to your customers.

Accounts Receivable: Editing An Account
This article will show you how to edit the information that you have on file for an account.

Accounts Receivable: Opening Balances
This article will show you how to record an opening balance when opening a new account.

Accounts Receivable: Recording Payments
This article will teach you how to accept a payment on account.

Accounts Receivable: Writing Off Unpaid Invoices and Balances
This article will show you how you can write off unpaid invoices and balances in your Accounts Receivable.

It is also a good idea to read up on Deferred Payments - starting with an explanation of how they differ from charges to accounts:

Payment Methods - Deferred vs Account
What is the difference between 'Deferred' and 'Account' Payment Methods?

Defer Payment: What It Means and When To Use It
This article explains what the "Defer Payment" option does and how it is meant to be used.

Defer Payment: Collecting Deferred Payments
This article explains how FloristWare can help you collect deferred payments.

Defer Payment: Taking Deferred Payments
This article explains how to enter a payment for a sale on which payment was initially deferred.

Earlier in the week I was speaking with a user who shared a great way to end phone each phone order. She encouraged me to pass it along to the other users - I hope you find it useful.

At the end of each order she explains to the customer that they will receive three e-mails. The first will be their receipt, and she encourages them to review it carefully and call back if there are any questions or concerns.

The next e-mail will be a delivery confirmation. Here you want to stress that you are adding this valuable service free of charge.

Finally she explains that in a few days she will send a follow-up email - just to make sure that everything went well and that everyone was happy with the flowers.

Here is the best part - she will also ask for an online review/recommendation! She is putting all this great customer service forward (putting the customer in her debt) and then politely asking for a small favor in return. It is a great idea and a very persuasive technique.

Please give it a try!

In this post we'll review the last - and most difficult - point from the article on collecting receivables from the American Express OPEN Small Business forum:

5. Know when to walk away

The hardest part of the collections process is recognizing when there simply isn't a way left to get a customer to pay an account in full. Whether you're dealing with a customer who has declared bankruptcy or simply disappeared, there is a point where it's simply a matter of giving up — rather than using your time to chase after an unpaid account, using that time to find new customers is just more practical.

You don't want to give up too easily, of course. But if you take a good, hard look at how likely your business is to receive payment and it seems to be close to impossible, it's time to consider settling for less or even walking away.

There may come a time you have to accept that payment may not be coming. At that point it is better to spend your time and energy collecting on the accounts that are more likely to pay or - even better - by concentrating on building new sales and getting new accounts.

Use the reports and notes in FloristWare to help you gauge when an account is a lost cause and then use the "write off" tools to clear it out so you aren't constantly being reminded about it. You also want to be sure to close the account so that no further charges can be made.

There is a great article on collections On Bloomberg Businessweek that reinforces much of what we have been talking about here.

The biggest mistake small business owners make is waiting too long to follow-up. The probability of collecting on a delinquent account drops dramatically each month following the due date, from 81 percent after two months to 52 percent after six months, according to the Commercial Collection Agency Assn. If an invoice remains outstanding for 12 months, the chance of collection drops to less than 25 percent, the trade group says.

...and...

"Demand letters rarely make a difference. Instead, get on the phone. Find out why the customer is late and nail down a defined payment arrangement," Steven Harms, a Birmingham (Mich.)-based attorney and collections expert, advises. Inquire about the state of the customer's affairs: Is business slow? Why are payments late? Customers operating in good faith will use this conversation as an opportunity to discuss their inability to pay and try to negotiate a revised arrangement.

So - again - please use the features in FloristWare that let you stay on top of your receivables. Don't wait, don't just keep sending statements. Let FloristWare help you through the process. We want to see you get paid!

In this post we'll review how FloristWare can help with item #4 from the article on collecting receivables from the American Express OPEN Small Business forum:

4. Don't let the situation drag on

...Getting an account paid quickly is just as much a priority as getting it paid in full...

This is incredibly important. The longer you let an account go the less likely they are to pay. At best you are subtly teaching them that they can let things slide with you, that you are one of the vendors they can get away with paying last - an impression that means you will always get paid late. An even bigger concern is that they may go out of business or be totally broke before they get around to making payment. The actual outcome isn't as important as one simple truth - it's always better to get paid sooner rather than later.

How can FloristWare help? It starts with invoicing - take advantage of the feature in FloristWare that lets you send invoices automatically as soon as you complete the sale.

Next - stay on top of accounts with the receivables aging and Payment Chaser reports. These are designed to help you collect faster.

And don't be afraid to call. Florists generally don't want to make collections calls and often choose to just insert punitive terms on statements in the hope it will catch someone's attention. It probably won't - if someone is way behind it is likely they aren't even opening them. Use the payment chaser and give them a call. That is what it's for. Send duplicate invoices as needed - FloristWare makes it easy.

Also - change their account status. That way FloristWare will flag it if they try and make additional purchases so you can ask about their outstanding balance. And of course you should freeze their account as soon as you start to think you might not get paid.

Today we will look at how FloristWare can help with item #3 from the excellent article on collecting receivables on the American Express OPEN Small Business forum:

3. Remember that your customers are valuable

In a collections situation, there's a tendency to see a client who hasn't paid as the bad guy. It's completely understandable, but an approach based on that viewpoint is almost certainly going to put a client off. After all, no one wants to feel like they've done wrong, no matter the actual circumstances. Finding an approach that takes the client into consideration is crucial.

Barry Maher may now be a motivational speaker and consultant, but he made his mark as a salesman and sales manager. Maher says, "For me, the key to dealing with customers who are behind on their payments is to treat them as valued customers. To avoid embarrassing them, we start out by 'just touching base' to see if the payment fell between the cracks or there was some oversight. Then we show understanding, allowing them to save as much face as possible and, at all costs, avoid getting their back up, so they become defensive and look for reasons why they shouldn't have had to pay in the first place."

This is true - customers are valuable. It's also important to remember that not all customers are created equal and you should use the AR tools ine FloristWare to help you tell them apart.

For example - you may have a long standing customer who buys a lot, generally pays well and is starting to fall behind a little. That seems like a good customer who is in a rough patch. You want to work with them so that you can get your money and continue the relationship when things get better. You don't want to anger them to the point where they start buying their flowers elsewhere. In addition to losing that future business you also increase the chances that they decide to not pay at all.

Another customer may have bought a lot but not made payments. This is an entirely different thing - a customer who doesn't pay isn't worth very much at all. There are lots of people and businesses that do this - go to a new vendor, start charging and not paying, until they get cut off and move to the next one. If a customer has no payment history you have reason to be concerned and you need to stop the bleeding. Those may be pursued more aggressively - when their is no relationship and no payment history it makes sense to (at the very least) suspend the account.

Another situation might involve a customer who used to buy a lot and pay well. Suddenly the payments have stopped and you are starting to worry.

What is happening with their purchasing? If they are not purchasing at all as their balance gets older a couple of things might be happening. They might be cutting spending so they can get current. They may also have moved on to another vendor once they got the impression you were losing patience with them. Once that happens it will be tougher to get payment - and any future business - from them.

Collecting receivables is tough. You want to collect your receivable with alienating your good customers. That means you have to have to be careful and review it on an account-by-account basis - don't just send the same threatening letter to everyone. Use the tools in FloristWare (Payments by Accounts, Purchases By Account, Aged Receivables By Account, etc.) to help you differentiate between your accounts and deal with each in the appropriate manner.

Today we are going to look at how FloristWare can help with item #2 on the excellent article on collecting receivables from the American Express OPEN Small Business forum.

2. Put a standard system in place

... If your invoices don't go out on a regular basis, a past due account may be more a matter of the client not realizing that there was an invoice than choosing to ignore it...

Many florists are accustomed to sending invoices/statements once a month. Typically this is more out of habit than anything else.

There was a time when AR orders were written on paper, rung through a cash register and then left for a bookkeeper to enter into an Accounts Receivable system at some later point - usually once a month. Statements would then be run (and it usually wasn't easy - another reason for doing it infrequently).

Once they switch to FloristWare they continue doing things this way but we hope they will consider changing. FloristWare gives you the option of emailing/faxing/printing (ready to mail) invoices as soon as a sale is charged with a single click. All users should definitely do that!

Why? You will get paid quicker. If a customer orders on (for example) August 2 why wait until August 31 to bill them? You definitely won't be paid until they get the invoice so get the invoice to them as quickly as possible. If you want to be generous with terms you can specify thirty days but start the thirty days as soon as the sale is made - not almost a month later when you finally get around to invoicing it.

But there is another important consideration. If you wait weeks to invoice the flowers are almost certainly already in the garbage. People are far more inclined to pay quickly if they are still enjoying the item. They will to some degree resent (and drag their feet) paying for something they have already discarded and can barely remember.

That last part about remembering is very important too. When someone gets an invoice while the purchase is still fresh in their minds they are far more likely to pay quickly. If they get it a month later they hesitate. "Flowers? Did I order flowers last month? I don't remember. I'll have to check that out - later". At this time sending payment involves some research. That means work - work they are very likely to put off until you start chasing the payment.

And the last reason for invoicing immediately? FloristWare makes it so easy! You just click a button and it's done. It's actually more work to generate statements later.

Please - take full advantage of FloristWare and send invoices as soon as sales are charged.

On Thursday we will talk about #3.

There is an excellent article on the American Express OPEN Small Business forum called 5 Ways to Make the Collections Process Easier.

We hope all FloristWare users will take the time to read it. Each of the five points they mention are great and we are going to examine how FloristWare can help with each of them.

1. Plan for collections from the start

...recommend making your first contact with a new customer with the collections process in mind. "Be careful on the front side in who you extend credit to," Brumback suggests.... Make a copy of the person's driver's license"...

Many florists extend credit to anyone who asks for it. People from outside the business generally agree that florists are far too generous in granting credit. Florists generally disagree - they often feel that credit is expected and if nothing else may give them a competitive advantage.

It is your decision to make but credit is a privilege and not a right. If a customer asks for credit you have a right to ask for certain things in return.

At the bare minimum you should have the customer complete a credit application. You probably are not going to run a credit check but this gives you some information about the person/business you will appreciate if you ever have to collect. Ideally you will also get a credit number for security.

We believe credit applications are so important we first included them as a feature in FloristWare v2.5.

Any customer that requests credit should be required to first complete and return one of these applications. An even better approach is to ask them to complete the application and actually pay for their first purchase while you review it but, at the very least, get the application completed.

Next Tuesday we will talk about #2.

There is a great article on the Inc. site about how CRM software like FloristWare can help you build stronger relationships with your customers.

The second point really jumped out at me:

2. Rewards
Every industry has companies who do reward and customer loyalty programs differently. It is a very simple form of saying "thank you." And particularly of late, loyalty programs seem only to have grown in popularity. Why? Customer loyalty programs are the next-generation marketing strategy. It is a viable and measurable marketing tool that small businesses can use to retain their customers and grow their business.

User feedback has always indicated that the points based incentive program is one of the most powerful features in FloristWare. Seeing it mentioned as the second point in this article makes me even more excited about.

I hope all users take advantage of this feature. All florists may also benefit from this material on designing a successful points program.

Earlier in the week I spoke with a user that was not printing the cash-out sheet as part of the Daily Sales Report. Instead they were reconciling payments to receipts - a much more complicated way of getting the same result.

Users are strongly encouraged to print the cash-out sheet each day and just balance to that. It's quick and easy and gives you everything you need.

One of the most powerful features in FloristWare is the ProgressTracker - a tool that lets you follow each order throughout the entire process - helping you with preparation, shipping and delivery. It finishes up by sending a delivery confirmation to the customer.

Most of the time users are advancing orders through the system from "Preparation" to "Ready To Ship" to "Out For Delivery" but, sometimes, a mistake is made and a user wishes they could move an order backwards in the process.

Here is an example - they accidentally move an order from the "Preparation" area to the "Ready To Ship" area before it is actually ready.

Most users don't realize that they can move the order backwards - in fact it's actually very easy! Just hold the shift key down and click the button you would typically use to advance the order.

This tells FloristWare that you actually want to move the order backwards and it will ask you to confirm that. Just click "Yes" and the order moves back.

I recently came across a very good article on employee theft and occupational fraud that any small business owner - especially those that deal with cash should read.

It is also a good idea to review with some of the controls in FloristWare. Our theft prevention tools are some of the most powerful - and least used - features in the system.

Nobody ever wants to think that they might have a problem but it almost certain that you will be a victim at some point. It is best to use the tools as a deterrent before you have a problem.

Part 1 - The Suspicious Activity Report
Part 2 - Late Cancellations
Part 3 - Cash Refunds for Non-Cash Payments (Same Day)
Part 4 - Cash Refunds for Non-Cash Payments
Part 5 - Cash Refund On The Same Day As Sale
Part 6 - Reducing Internal Theft
Part 7 - Advanced

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

FloristWare now gives you the opportunity to set up different printers for Worksheets, Receipts, Statements, and more.

To change your printer settings, go to Settings -> Features -> Printer Settings
Select a report, choose your printer, paper size, and paper source.

You can also change printers 'on the fly', simply hold down your SHIFT key while clicking the PRINT button in FloristWare. You'll see the Printers windows and can select your printer, and make any other printer output settings.

Need help? Call our support line at 1.888.531.3012

The PROGRESS TRACKER is a great tool for reviewing the upcoming days orders and activities. Make sure you and your staff take full advantage of this very useful feature by clicking the DATE - select tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and even more.

Don't forget to check all your options in bottom menu bar, and you have even more choice.
Use Progress Tracker as a quick view of what's going on in your Flower Business.

Can't find Progress Tracker? Make sure it is enabled under Settigns -> Features (Manager Level)

When faced with a customer that wants to pay later FloristWare gives you two main options - you can charge the sale to a house account or you can "defer" payment. Both options are similar in that they involve making a sale now and arranging for payment later. The real question is which method is better.

We believe that you should only ever give an account (and charge privileges) to people or companies (usually companies) that purchase from you on a regular basis. If they purchase often then an account and the things that come with it - like the ability to generate statements, etc. - really make sense.

If it is a person who just orders a few times a year "deferring" is probably the better option.

There is one exception. If you have someone who is making a very large one-time purchase (a bride would be a good example) and they want to be able to make deposits prior to receiving the goods and/or make payments on an ongoing basis afterwards it is probably better to set up an account. It can then be closed out when the wedding (for example) is over.

One of our favorite users recently completed her new website. It is a great example of what a florist can accomplish when they choose to go their own way and create their own unique site instead of just plugging their name in to a website template.

The European Flower Company is a real florist in Massachusetts offering fresh flower delivery to the following towns on a daily basis: Braintree, Cohasset, Hingham, Hanover, Holbrook, Quincy, Rockland, Norwell, Weymouth, East Weymouth, South Weymouth, North Weymouth. It is a great shop and they now have a great website!

Some very astute users have noticed a change to the order process in FloristWare v2.5 and have asked why that change was made.

The change involves the enclosure card information. We used to collect it after completing the product selection. In v2.5 we are trying to get the card type and message before we begin product selection.

Why? In preparing this update spent a lot of time and money working with a consultant who does nothing but train retail florists to sell better - better service AND higher average order values. He gets more than $1,000 a day and has columns in Florists Review and another magazine in the UK.

He felt really strongly about getting the card message first because it allows you to get a sense of the occasion and tailor your sale to the situation. If for example you find out right away it is sympathy work you might be a little more formal and/or reserved in the way you handle the customer. If it is something really big (like a 25th wedding anniversary) then you know that you should really try and push the order value.

We like to think the old way was already very good but this suggestion made a lot sense. We really want the software to help you increase average order value and improve service and this seemed like a good way to do it.

As you have probably noticed the receipts & invoices that FloristWare generates when dealing with an order contain a lot of information.

There are several reasons for this. The first is that customers who want receipts tend to find this information very useful. The second is that invoices containing detailed information tend to get paid faster and with less headaches. When the customer opens a FloristWare invoice they can see exactly what the invoice is for, remember making the purchase(s) and get you paid. Invoices that are vague tend to get put to the side until the customer has time to call you and ask you for the kind of information that already appears on the FloristWare invoice.

There is one other really important benefit to our detailed receipts and invoices - they can help you reduce errors.

Every time you take an order you should encourage the customer to review it carefully. If the customer is shopping in person you can hand a hard copy right to them. If they are on the phone you can send it by e-mail. You want to stress that they go through it immediately and let you know if there are any mistakes.

This can really help! Many users have had customers catch an incorrect delivery date, mispelled name, etc. By enlisting the customers help they were able to catch these mistakes.

These means better service and happier customers!

As we continue the process of getting all FloristWare users switched over to Version 2.5 we are going to begin the process of explaining how to take advantage of some of the new features.

One of the most popular involves navigation. You can now activate onscreen buttons from the keyboard - you no longer have to use the mouse and/or touchscreen.

It is very easy to use. The next time you see a screen with several buttons on it start hitting the tab key. You will notice that one by one the buttons are highlighted. If you shift-tab the buttons are highlighted in reverse order.

Once you are on the button you want to activate you simply click the Enter key (Windows) or Return key (Mac) and it's the same as if you clicked the button with your mouse. This allows you to activate the buttons without taking your hands off of the keyboard.

This is the best of both worlds - the speed of a keyed interface without having to remember any codes, commands or keystroke combinations. This, combined with a newly streamlined order process, makes FloristWare faster and easier to use than ever. It can take a little while to get used to, but most users quickly report that they can't imagine doing it any other way.

More information on how to get the full benefit of FloristWare 2.5 will soon follow.

Too many FloristWare users are not shutting their computers off each night!

You may have been told that you do not have to but trust us - it is is very important that you shut down and restart each machine that runs FloristWare each day.

Please note that we are not just talking about shutting down FloristWare. That is of course very important (this is when FloristWare creates a back-up copy) but you also need to restart the computer.

Why? The longer your computer runs the more likely it is to run into problems. The best way to avoid such problems is by "starting fresh" and restarting each machine at least once each day.

You may never have a problem, but if your computer is left running for weeks or months at a time you almost certainly will, and you don't want to run in to a problem while you are in the process of taking an order.

Please be sure to restart each machine at least once each day!

This week you should try using the Marketing features in the FloristWare POS system to send some e-mails promoting a summer special.

Don't get crazy. Sending thousands of e-mails can be dangerous if you don't have enough products to fill the orders that you get. For this experiment we'd suggest maybe 100 e-mails.

Just enter FloristWare at the Manager level and choose "Marketing". From there you should build a list "name-by-name" and select only the people that you think will be interested in the special you have in mind.

Make sure you put some thought into your e-mail. Remember, you don't want them to think you are sending them junk mail so try and offer them something of value.

That's it! If you have any questions please give us a call.

Any business that deals with cash is susceptible to internal theft by employees. A flower shop certainly qualifies!

The FloristWare Point-Of-Sale system for flower shops has a lot of tools that can help reduce internal theft, but there are a lot of things you can do outside of (or in conjunction with) FloristWare to help combat the problem. This article discusses some of those things.

Please give it a serious look and think about following some of the suggestions. It doesn't take a lot of internal theft for you to start hurting. Curtailing this type of activity can go a long way towards making your store more profitable.

Research All New Employees
Ask prospective employees for permission to do a background check. If they don’t give their consent you should probably avoid them. If they do give their consent you can take it to the next level - check with previous employers and maybe even consider hiring a service to look into their background more thoroughly.

Use The Security Tools In FloristWare
FloristWare gives you excellent tools for monitoring suspicious activity. Not only should you use these tools, you should make it known to the staff that you use them. It is always better to deter employees before theft occurs than to try and catch them afterwards.

Treat Your Employees Well
Theft can be as much an act of anger towards an employer as anything else. If an employee doesn’t feel appreciated or respected it is easier for them to do something they know is wrong. Conversely, it is harder to steal if you do make them feel good about themselves. Ask for their opinions. Treat them well. Make them feel like the are a part of something.

Pay Good Wages
By paying better than average wages you accomplish three other things. First it allows you to attract better quality employees. Second, the employee will be more inclined to appreciate their job, and they will be aware that is will be hard to get another job that pays as well if they get fired for doing something stupid. Finally, decent pay helps your employees to feel appreciated and respected - which we have already discussed as being important.

Maintain A Tight Refund Policy
There is less internal theft in business with strict and tightly enforced refund policies. Fortunately FloristWare makes this very easy because it forces the employee to actually find the original sale and customer information before they can issue a refund. If you believe that a certain refund doesn’t look right than you should definitely call the customer. FloristWare makes this kind of theft very easy to stop.

Offer Employee Discounts
Your employees are surrounded by beautiful flowers and they’ll want to be able to enjoy them at home from time to time. Give them a good deal. Any time you make a sale to an employee you can be almost certain that you would not be making the sale at all if they were not an employee. That means that there is no real opportunity cost involved - you can offer the flowers to your employee at or slightly above your actual cost. This will help the employee fell valued and appreciated, making them less likely to steal. It will also increase their appreciation for their job.

Never Take Cash From The Drawer
Even if you are the owner and technically all the money is yours you should never, ever take cash from the register. There are several reasons. It gives the impression that controls are loose - that cash can be taken and not be missed. It also leads to hard feelings that can lead to theft. Your employees work hard to put that cash in the drawer - if they see you casually scoop it out it undermines their efforts. And while $50 might not seem like a lot to you, your employees are acutely aware that they might have to work a whole shift on their feet to make that much money. Whenever they sense the disparity in your respective incomes it becomes easier for them to rationalize theft by convincing themselves that they need the money and you don’t.

Be Very Careful About Scheduling
Keep a close eye on your scheduling and employees match-ups. Changing employee match-ups can be a great tool for diagnosing problems and narrowing down the list of suspects. Only allow your most trusted employees to ever work alone. On a similar note it’s a good idea to avoid having close friends working together on their own unless there is a lot of trust - they may very well like each other more than they like you!

Balance The Cash Mid-Day
You should periodically “cash out” one or more times during the day by printing a temporary Daily Sale Report during the day, removing the drawer and making sure that it balances. There are a couple of reasons for this. First it 'turns up the heat' on any employees who might be stealing. They will quickly realize that you know something is wrong, so this makes for a strong deterrent. More importantly it helps you figure out when things are going bad. If you are balancing the previous days cash the following morning it can be very hard to figure out what went missing and who is responsible. If you try and balance the cash two hours after opening it's much easier.

Spend Time Behind The Cash
Employees will feel more confident about stealing if you’re never around. Make sure to spend time around the cash register and safe. Make sure they know that you are keeping an eye on things. We mean that literally! You want them to see you looking at the cash register and the transactions that take place on a regular basis.

Install A Security Camera
A working security camera installed over the cash area will of course be very helpful if you are ever held up, but more importantly it will help deter employees from stealing from you.

Other Quick Rules:

Employees cannot leave bags, purses, packs, etc., near the register.

Employees cannot enter their own purchases.

Employees cannot enter purchases for family or friends.

Since customer information is so valuable for marketing purposes FloristWare encourages you to collect as much as possible. This information is like money in the bank.

It does however take time to collect. And you may find yourself in a situation where you just don't have time to collect it, or dealing with a customer who does not want to share it.

In these situations look to the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen. If it might be possible to skip certain sections you will see that option presented to you there. Just click the "Skip" button.

You should not make a habit of this. Some people get lazy and skip as much information as possible all the time. Then, when they go to do some marketing, they don't have a decent group to work with.

Always try and get as much information as you have time to collect and the customer is willing to share. If you have to, skip steps as needed.

The FloristWare Floral POS System has a lot of features that are designed to help you with future marketing efforts by collecting customer information during the sale/order process. While using these features will help increase your sales in the long run we understand that it does take time to collect this information, and that there may be situations when (for the sake of you or the customer) you want to skip over certain sections.

Here is one example. After you have made the sale and arranged for payment FloristWare starts going through several features. Depending on your settings this could include things like the Reminder Service, AdTracker, Goodbye Message, etc.

Like we said, all of these features are for your benefit. If however you or the customer is in a rush and you want to skip them you have to options. First, you can skip them section by section by using the "Skip" button. This works very well if you want to skip certain sections but take advantage of certain other.

If you are in a real hurry you can skip all of the post-sales steps by clicking the "Express Checkout" button. This will immediately end the sale.

Many of you use the "Defer Payment" feature quite often. It is a very handy tool and can make life much easier. The only trick is making sure that you get paid for all those sales!

That's the problem - it's easy to "forget" about a Deferred Payment sale and not collect payment. This is why FloristWare allows you to create a "Deferred Payment" report. It shows you all of the payments that were deferred, the date they were deferred, the customer's name and all of their phone numbers. The idea is that you take this list and start calling the customers who still owe you for deferred payment sales.

Running this report is easy - simply enter at the Manager level, go to the Reports section and choose "Deferred Payments Report". It is a good idea to print it out and keep it by the phone to work at whenever you have time - just keep calling the people that owe you money.

You should run this report at least once a month. Once every two weeks is better and every week is better still - especially if you do a lot of deferred payment sales. It is a fact that the longer you allow an invoice to sit unpaid the less chance you have of getting paid. Stay on top of these deferred payments!

Earlier in the week a user in our home town had a very interesting problem. She was trying to take an order for delivery to another city about 40 minutes away.

The name of that city (or so we thought!) was St. Catherines. She knew that searching for "St." was trouble so she just searched for "Catherines".

Nothing turned up! This was perplexing because she knew the city existed - it's a pretty good size and she had visited there just a few months ago.

When this happens it almost certainly means that the name was entered incorrectly, so she checked it and was sure she had it right ("Catherines") but it just didn't work.

That's when she called for help. In a case like this the best approach is to assume that there is a spelling mistake - even if you are sure that you have the name right. What you need to do is enter only the first few letters of one of the words in the name.

So in this case we entered "Cather". Still no luck!

We then entered "Cath", and sure enough the city we were looking for turned up. The problems was that the proper spelling for the town is "Catharines" with two A's. Even though we had both been through this city and seen the name hundreds of times we never noticed the somewhat unique spelling.

If you ever find yourself in this situation you should assume that you may have the spelling wrong, and use only a small part of the name to do the search.

Have a great weekend!

One of the new features in FloristWare Version 2.0 is an employee timeclock that automatically keeps track of the hours that your employees work and, if you like, the wages that they earn.

To take advantage of this feature you will first have to enter FloristWare at the manager level and visit your settings. Once there you need to select "Features - Employee Punchclock" and turn it on. FloristWare will be running the timeclock from then on.

Some users have called us because they are not sure about the next step - they don't understand how they get users to punch in and out. The answer is simple - they don't have to do anything! It is all automatic. All the employees have to do is sign in when they arrive in the morning and sign out when they leave at night.

Here is some more detail. When an employee arrives they first thing they should do is "punch in". This just means that they have to go to a computer running FloristWare and sign in. If another user is signed on the new user would simply click the blue User button at the top right hand corner of the screen. FloristWare then starts their "shift".

Punching out involves the same process. The user simply needs to walk over to a station and, if they are already signed in, click the blue User button to sign out. If they are not currently signed in they would have to first sign in and sign out.

Some users have asked what happens if a user gets signed out by another user five minutes after they arrive - does this end their shift? The answer is no. FloristWare starts the shift when the user first signs in and ends it the last time they sign out.

For more information please visit the Support Library.

FloristWare Version 2.0 includes a vastly improved Daily Sales Report.

One change involves the way that the data is grouped. All of the accounting information now appears on one page and all of the performance information appears on another. This makes the report easier to understand.

Another change involves the way Accounts Receivable information is presented. You know see the total value of sales charged to account, total value of payments received on account, and the net change in your total accounts receivable.

Deferred payments are now handled in a similar fashion. You know see the total value of "deferred payment" sales, total value of deferred payments received, and the net change in your total deferred payments.

There are several other enhancements. Early feedback has shown that the new and improved Daily Sales Report in FloristWare Version 2.0 makes keeping track of what is happening in your store and taking care of accounting easier and more intuitive than ever.

More and more of you are taking advantage of the feature that allows FloristWare to automatically print out the delivery slip/enclosure card for each order.

To take full advantage of this feature you will need card "blanks". There are several ways you can go about getting these.

The John Henry Company carries the cards on page 101 of their catalog. If you deal with the John Henry Company and they have your artwork on file this is probably your easiest option.

You can also have your own printer prepare the artwork. You can download the worksheets and templates they will need from the resources section of our website.

We can also direct you to other printers that are familiar with this work. Please contact us for more information if you are interested in this approach.

One of the great things about FloristWare is that it's very easy to use. All you have to do is read the question on each screen, make your selection and FloristWare will take you through the process of making a sale, taking an order, generating a report, etc.

This makes FloristWare very simple to learn but, as time goes on, you will want to become faster. The best way to do this to always be practicing.

Every time you do something with FloristWare (make a sale, take an order, etc.) try and understand the sequence and anticipate the steps. Never be passive - whatever you are doing you should always be thinking ahead, trying to figure out how you are going to answer the next question.

Soon you will no longer have to read every single screen and try to figure out what to do next. You will know the answer to the question on the next screen before you even get to it. You will be able to use the system faster than you ever thought possible.

There is one report in FloristWare that you will hopefully never have to use. If however the need does arise it will prove to be very helpful.

The Suspicious Activity report is used to make you aware of any employee activity that FloristWare considers suspicious. More specifically, it is designed to show you transactions that may indicate an employee is stealing from you.

If an employee wants to steal from you, the easiest approach is just to take cash from the drawer. While this is easy for them to accomplish, it's also easy for you to spot - when you cash out each night you will notice that cash is missing!

A more clever and determined can however use several different approaches to mask their theft. In other words they can do certain things to cover up the fact that they are stealing. This is troubling because everything will appear to balance when you cash out. You won't be immediately aware that any money is missing.

This is where the Suspicious Activity report comes in. Just generate this report for any period you wish and it will show you all of the suspicious activity that occurred during that period, as well as in-depth descriptions of each type of activity and suggestions on how you can respond.

FloristWare has many different tools all designed to help you improve your sales. Used properly they will do just that.

Unfortunately there is one Achilles heel - in most cases you need to have some customer information on file to take advantage of the marketing features.

Until you enter a customer into the system, you can't send them marketing e-mails or postcards. You can't keep track of reminders for them. You can't get them into a points based loyalty program. You can't view their spending history and ensure that you are getting the most out of them on every single sale.

Because customer information is so vital to getting the most out of FloristWare we urge you to enter customers into the system whenever possible. Don't skip the customer information section of a sale unless you are so busy you don't have the extra minute it will take, or you have a customer who simply refuses to take part.

You should also enter whatever customer information you may already have on hand. Do you have old order forms, business cards, etc? You should be taking customer information from those and entering them into FloristWare.

At this time of year I hope that FloristWare users will be doing everything they can to generate Valentines pre-orders. There are a couple of reasons for this:

It Makes Life Easier
Instead of trying to take hundreds of orders over just a few days, you can spread them over a month or more. It makes it easier to buy, plan and prepare. It just makes everything run more smoothly.

It Increases Sales
As a guy I know that on Valentines Day I better have some kind of gift for my wife, and I’m a little bit stressed about it. If a florist contacts me today with the right offer I can jump on it and forget about all that stress.

If I don’t get that offer I’m going to be looking around for other ideas. Maybe I’ll decide to get her a gift certificate, a spa day, theater tickets, chocolates, etc. Maybe I’ll even go to another florist. The bottom line is that I have number in my head that I’m prepared to spend on Valentines, and once it’s gone it’s gone. Whoever gets my money first wins.

So if you are interested in generating pre-orders the next decision is how to best go about it.

There are lots of ways. Typically you want to reach out to your customers with some kind of incentive. You want this incentive to be very appealing to the customer while costing you as little as possible.

One of the most common is a discount of some kind - something like “order before January 31 and save $5”. This is a good approach - it appeals to the customer and doesn’t cost you all that much.

I have also seen some really wild promotions. One shop had a deal that when you bought a dozen roses for VDay you would receive another dozen free later in the winter.

I love that idea for being so creative and aggressive. I also worry about a couple of things. First, unless you have huge standing orders and know that you will be throwing away roses throughout the winter you’re spending money on product. Even if you are certain you’ll have extra product you’re still paying for prep and possibly delivery. This kind of promotion costs you money!

As a consumer it also feels a little weird - it leaves me thinking something like “I must really be getting screwed on these flowers if they can afford to send me more flowers for free after Valentines.” It also leaves me thinking that outside of Valentines flowers really can’t be worth very much. This might not be the kind of thing you want rattling around in your customer’s head.

If are a running some kind of points program I suggest that you promote something like double or triple points on any orders placed during the month of January.

Why is this better? It costs you less. A typical points program rewards at between 2% to 4%, so let’s use 3% as a reference and double that (our special pre-order incentive) to bring it up to six percent.

Let’s say your average Valentines order is $70. A cash discount of $5 costs you $5 real dollars in revenue. Awarding the points at 6% means a theoretical loss of $4.20 in revenue.

Why theoretical? Because a large percentage of points will never be redeemed for a variety of reasons. So, even though awarding the points means that someday you might have to give the customer $4.20 in free product, the odds are that at least a third of the points that you generate won’t ever be redeemed. That means that the $4.20 in free product becomes about $2.75. So instead of giving up $5 in real revenue right now, you may one day be giving up $2.75 in free product.

Which brings up the next point - hopefully you make a decent margin on your product! That means that the $2.75 in free product at retail actually costs you much less - maybe less than $2 - it all depends on your shop.

This is why I’m such a big fan of these programs - instead of losing $5 in revenue right now you can get the same result by being prepared to give away about half of that in free product somewhere down the road. It can make a big difference.

The next step is promoting it.

The special should be promoted on every receipt, invoice and statement that you send out. Your staff should mention it during every phone call and face-to-face interaction with a customer.

You also need to promote it even more actively. I would say you should do at least one e-mail, a postcard and, if at all possible, a phone call. FloristWare makes all of this easy.

It really does work! Below is an e-mail that was received from a user who threw a program like this together. She was happy with the results, but I think they would have been much, much better if she had started sooner!

We tried the marketing feature in FloristWare for the first time just in time for Mother's Day. We created a mailing list of 300 names and mailed out a postcard 10 days before Mother's day. . We also did a follow up about 5 days with an email reminder. You could have knocked our socks off with the response. We had 48 orders --- not responses -- but 48 orders from the postcards.

This by no means the only thing that you should be doing, but I hope it’s something that you will consider doing.

Thanks - and good luck!

P.S. There is an article that covers much of this material in the FloristWare support library.

This week there was a call from a florist who explained that a customer had gone "missing".

The florist knew that they had taken an order from this customer and entered all of their contact information including name, phone number, address, etc. However, when they tried to look the same customer up later they couldn't find them. The florist were worried that the customer had been lost or accidentally deleted.

This is almost always the result of the customer's name being entered incorrectly - either when you first entered or on subsequent searches.

The good news is that the customer and their data are still in the FloristWare POS system - it's just a matter of finding them.

Since FloristWare lets you search for customers by last name or phone number, it's a good idea to look for customers with confusing names using their phone number instead. This way you don't have to worry about getting the spelling right.

In this case the florist did a search by telephone number and found that they had indeed spelled the customers name incorrectly when they were first entered. They then simply corrected the name and in the future they will be able to find that customer by last name or phone number.

I came across a very interesting take on the issue of "House Accounts" also called "Charge Accounts".

There is no doubt that these type of accounts are very important to some florists, and FloristWare does the best possible job of streamlining and simplifying the handling of Accounts Receivable. However, I still believe that there are too many shops that are too liberal with house accounts and create extra work and more headaches for themselves as a result.

Here is what Cheryl Bakin had to say on the subject:

Folks, get rid of your house accounts....all of them!

Happy holidays to everyone!

Cheryl credits Emily Moth Chapman and Tina Stoecker with helping form her philosophy.

There are of course times that you will need house accounts, but please don't give them away too easily. As Cheryl says your customers use their credit cards every where else - you deserve the same treatment!

FloristWare Version 2.0 includes a new feature that allows you to easily run fundraising programs on behalf of charities and other non-profit and volunteer organizations. The goal is to help these organizations out while increasing your sales.

The idea is simple. Almost every florist we know is besieged with requests for donations, free product, etc. It often feels like you get hit up every single day, and while the people making the request always say they will only buy flowers from your store, they often don't look very familiar....

The new fundraising feature is designed to help them help themselves. Here is an example of how it works.

Let's say someone from the local Little League comes in and asks you to donate $50. You tell them that you will do them one better. You will set up a special program, and every time someone participates in it by buying flowers you will set aside a portion of the total sale as a donation to Little League.

It's now up to the Little League to make it work. If they want a decent donation, they are going to have to promote this program. They will have to promote it to all the other parents and coaches and urge them to shop at your store and participate in the program. They effectively become your sales force.

Here is how it works on your end. You will use your settings to specify that you want to run programs of this type. You will then enter as many of these programs as you like and define a certain contribution percentage for each. You can also turn programs on or off as you see fit.

When a customer makes a purchase you will be prompted to ask if they are taking part in a fundraising program. If they are FloristWare will show you a list of all the possibilities. You then select the appropriate one and FloristWare calculates the donation.

Whenever you see fit you can generate a special report that shows you how much money has been generated by each program, and you can make whatever payments are required to the organizations involved.

For those of you who don't know Tim Huckabee he is a highly respected floral industry trainer. He comes into a flower shop and works with the employees, teaching them to employ a special methodology that has evolved over years in the business.

His program enables staff to provide (among other things) better service for the customer (making for more loyal customers) and substantially higher average sales figures.

Last night I met with Tim as he finished up a day of training at a local flower shop. The owner and her employees were very pleased and excited to put his program into practice.

I was very impressed with Tim. He outlined his program and it made sense. More importantly he has countless satisfied clients who all swear that his training has increased their sales dramatically and immediately.

If you are interested in increasing your sales please take a look at Tim's website and give some thought to getting him in to your shop.

Floral Strategies Website

Thank you!