FloristWare Features: Order Taking

For more information about how FloristWare can help you take orders please see the specific examples below:

How does FloristWare help me take an order from a retail customer?
How does FloristWare help me take an order from another florist?

At the end of each sale FloristWare gives you the option of not only printing the invoice or receipt (pre-formatted to go into a standard window envelope) but of faxing or e-mailing it to the customer in pdf format with just a few mouse clicks.

This is a very powerful feature, especially for shops that have a lot of house accounts. Typically these shops take an order and then have to enter it into their accounting package (such as Quickbooks) and generate the invoice at a later time. This means duplicated (wasted) effort.

Generating and printing and/or e-mailing and/or faxing the invoice/receipt at the time of sale has a lot of advantages. First, it allows the customer to review all of the order details - giving them a chance to spot any mistakes. You'd be surprised how often our users have had a customer notice a potentially embarrassing error - the wrong name in a card message, bad delivery date, etc.

It also saves you time and money - if you are used to generating an invoice by hand, (or taking a receipt from your cash register) and stuffing it into an envelope, writing the address, etc., you'll love the fact that FloristWare prints receipts and invoices already formatted to go straight into a window envelope. However - it's even faster and easier to e-mail or fax the invoice by just clicking a few buttons! It's also cheaper - you save the cost of the envelope and the stamp.

And - when it comes to Accounts Receivable - there is still one more advantage. The faster you bill, the faster you get paid.

Too many florists regard invoicing as a chore. They put it off as long as they can and, when they finally get around to it, weeks have often passed. And, since old invoices are more likely to be put to the side, these shops are almost always waiting a month or more for payment.

E-mailing or faxing the invoice at the time of sale dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes you to collect your receivables.

FloristWare allows you to keep track of two different sales taxes. It can also remember whether certain customers are exempt from one or both of these taxes. You can always override these settings, but it will start you off on the right foot and warn you if you accidentally make any changes.

FloristWare allows you to keep track of two different sales taxes. It can also remember whether certain products are exempt from one or both of these taxes. You can always override these settings, but it will start you off on the right foot and warn you if you accidentally make any changes.

This is an important feature for those of you who carry both taxable and tax-exempt products - food being a perfect example.

This feature automates the powerful (but all too often forgotten or ignored) process of trying to upsell the customer.

Here is how it works. You specify one or more of the product categories that you have created as containing high margin "upsell" products - typically things like cards, chocolates, balloons, etc. Then, each time you take and order and have selected the "core" product (usually flowers) FloristWare takes the employee to a screen where they are prompted to encourage the customer to add one or more of these high-margin items.

This is a powerful tool that can really help increase the size of your average sale.

FloristWare maintains a "recipient list" for each customer - a list of people that they have sent to along with their addresses. This makes repeat orders to these people quicker and easier than ever - all you have to do is click their name and FloristWare fills in all of their information - even special delivery instructions and intersection!

FloristWare keeps detailed information on each recipient. For example, it shows you the customer's spending patterns (average value, max value and total value) as they relate to each individual recipient. This allow you to maximize the value of each and every order.

It also allows you to keep detailed notes on each recipient about what they like, what they don't and more. This feature becomes even more powerful when you combine it with the Floral Strategies Follow-Up System.

All of this allows you to increase your sales while making the order-taking process more efficient and providing your customer with a higher level of customer service.

FloristWare also allows you to see the complete order history for each recipient. If a customer tells you that they want to send their wife the same thing they sent her last year you can find and duplicate that order in a manner of seconds - once again enhancing the order-taking experience for the customer.

FloristWare is somewhat unique in that it allows you to store multiple addresses for each customer and recipient. This is a very powerful feature that most systems don't offer. It means that you can store (for example) a home address, a work address and more for each person in your database.

Most systems make you create a new customer or recipient record for each address - a cumbersome and inefficient way of doing things.

FloristWare automates the process of providing delivery confirmations by phone or e-mail. This is a very powerful feature that very few systems offer.

It is also a feature that your customers will love and another example of how FloristWare can help set you apart from your competitors by providing a level of customer service that they just can't match.

FloristWare can show you where each delivery is on a map (and give you turn-by-turn directions) with a single click. This is a very powerful feature when it comes time to organize your deliveries.

FloristWare automatically verifies all US addresses against official records, finding the proper ZIP code and correcting minor formatting issues while alerting you to anything more serious.

This serves two purposes. The first is to reduce the number of failed deliveries that result from trying to deliver to a bad address - everyone loses on those!

It also makes your marketing campaigns more efficient. We are hoping that you will use FloristWare to print postcards and/or mailing labels that you will use when sending marketing materials to your customers. We don't want to waste money on stamps - another reason the system attempts to complete and verify all addresses that you enter.

FloristWare keeps track of your "Hot Spots" - the places (like hospitals, funeral homes, businesses, etc.) to which you deliver most frequently. You can then enter these addresses when taking an order with a single click.

This makes order-taking faster and more efficient (good for both you and the customer) while also reducing costly mistakes.

Have you ever had a situation in which a customer wanted to place multiple orders? Possibly sending several things to different people at the same time, or several things to the same person at different times?

FloristWare makes this quick and easy! You can instantly duplicate an order with a single click and then change only the information that you need to. This is a real time saver when dealing with those big orders - something that both you and the customer will appreciate!

When taking an order FloristWare encourages you to record the card message into the system. It will then print the order out on the worksheet and, if you take advantage of this option, automatically print out a beautiful Enclosure Card/Delivery Slip.

To make things easy it allows you to store up to twelve shortcuts for the messages you encounter most often - you can choose whatever messages or phrases you encounter most often when dealing with your clientele.

You can insert these phrases into the message in a couple of different ways. You can either click on the phrase or just enter the short form - in which case FloristWare will automatically expand it to the full phrase.

This is a real time saver - especially for people that don't like to type!

To make things easy when entering product descriptions FloristWare allows you to store up to twelve shortcuts for the descriptions you encounter most often when dealing with your clientele. You can even change them on a seasonal basis.

You can insert these phrases into the product description in a couple of different ways. You can either click on the phrase or just enter the short form - in which case FloristWare will automatically expand it to the full phrase.

This is a real time saver - especially for people that don't like to type!

FloristWare can automatically print beautiful, elegant Enclosure Cards/Delivery Slips if you want it to. These are real cards - not like what you see from other systems where you have to take a regular piece of 20-lb. paper, tear along multiple perforation and fold it up like origami just to get a lousy looking excuse for a card.

These cards come in three different formats and really are great. You don't purchase them from us - you can get them from the John Henry Company or we can send a template to the printer of your choosing. We just want to make sure that you get the best deal!

Some shops will always prefer to send a nice hand written card, but if you have a busy shop or employees with poor hand-writing we really encourage you to explore this option.

Whether you use FloristWare to print your enclosure cards or not it will automatically check the spelling of all card messages. This is a very valuable feature than can help you minimize stress and avoid embarrassing situations!

FloristWare can securely store multiple credit card for each customer and process them automatically when it comes time to pay for a sale. You can even assign each card a nickname like "personal", "work", etc.

The numbers are encrypted using a special key that is unique to each copy of FloristWare that ships giving you (and your customers) a good deal of security.

This makes order-taking even faster and more convenient for you and your customer.

FloristWare now allows you to store a photograph of each of your products. There are several advantages to this feature. If you are dealing with a customer over the phone you can instantly e-mail them a photograph of the item being discussed. If you have someone at the counter you can show them a photograph (even an enlarged version) of something that you might not have made up at that moment - a large sympathy piece for example. The photographs also help to remind the designers of what a finished piece should look like.

When sending delivery confirmations by e-mail FloristWare now allows you to include photographs. If a particular product already has a photograph on file it will be carried over, but you can replace it and/or include up to four more photographs (a total of five) in the delivery confirmation. This allows you to include (for example) photographs of the actual product as it went out the door, the product being prepared, the recipient receiving the flowers, etc. The possibilities are almost endless!

FloristWare now allows you to save a specific recipe for each product that you send out. If the item is a standard product FloristWare starts by copying the standard recipe for that product. If it is a custom product FloristWare starts with an empty recipe field. In either event, the designer then has the option to either edit the recipe as needed or enter it from scratch as they prepare the order so that it reflects what actually goes out the door. There are two main benefits to this. First it allows the owner/manager to have a better chance at controlling costs as they can review what actually goes out on each order. Secondly,if a customer ever complains that they did not get good value on an order you can check back and see exactly what they received.

FloristWare includes a feature that allows you to work with a customer and build a quote for an event. You can go back and revisit and edit this quote as you refine your plans for the events. Eventually the quote evolves in to the worksheet and the invoice.