To ALL our Dear FLOWERGOSS FRIENDS and ALL of OUR MANY FLORIST COLLEAGUES
Right now after being invited onto this forum 18 months ago, EFlowersAlive has followed your many stories and your dreams. Varying questions have been put forth and answers have been forth coming. Many answers have been in the context of another question. Our philosophy on life is that all the answers were formed at the beginning of creation and the right question has to be asked to come up with reality. REALITY IS THE SIMPLIEST FORM OF LIFE ...... HUMAN THOUGHTS DESTROY REALITY .
We are So, So Sorry, but, on purpose, to make every florist identify where the problem lies, we had to become the "right royal B-----". Do you really think we could survive 40 years by doing the wrong thing by our loyal customers?
Do you think that being summoned three times before a relay board or threaten by their legal action is a deterent to the right of operating your own florist shop?
Do you think that loosing 2 shops, one by ego and not identifying that ego cost $12,000 in 12 months and the other by my depression and my wife diagnosed with Leukaemia, which we believe was caused by the pressure of business is another.
Twenty-two years as a District Committee Member of a Relay Organization informs one of their motives.
Believe you me we are on the side of the REAL LIVE INDEPENDENT FLORIST. We are the most important link in the daisy chain.
Here is a "SMILE A WHILE" and a test for you. What would your response be if you were the farmer? (Another question)
There was a farmer who grew watermelons. He was doing pretty well but he was disturbed by some local kids who would sneak into his watermelon patch and eat his melons.
After some careful thought he came up with a clever idea that would scare them away for sure -- he'd make a sign and post it in the field.
The next day the kids show up and they see the sign, which reads "Warning, one of these melons in this field has been injected with cyanide" So the kids run off, make there own sign, which they post next to the farmers sign.
The farmer shows up the next day to look over his field. He notices that no watermelons are missing but there is a new sign next to his.
He drives over to the sign to take a look. It reads, "NOW THERE ARE TWO"
The moral is, " Smile now if you like but to keep poisoning will result in a complete failure of the crop". NOBODY WINS!
The farmer and the kids both missed their opportunities.
The farmer did not IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM! ......... And in NOT doing so CREATED ANOTHER PROBLEM.
Remember the saying "If it is not broken....... don’t fix it” If it is identified as broken, it cannot be fixed with inferior tools but it can be fixed by the original tools that made it successful in the first place.
So the key word is to "Identify" Identify the cause of the problem, and KILL it before it KILLS YOU. or FIX IT.
We can relate to every story, and every dream on this Forum and as they say 'been there, done that" and in numerous cases paid dearly for our experiences because we did not identify the causes that were the problem.
We cannot identify any of your personal or shop problems, because it is NOT in our realm to do so. Only YOU and YOU ALONE can do that to rectify them, you cannot pass the buck. But we can identify the problems within our precious Industry because those problems exist in every shop, being dictated to us by commands of how, what, where, when and why we are allowed to have our own local customers.
As it is a practice for us as a florist to IDENTIFY the reason for the feelings and emotions of people with respect and care for them with compassion, it does not matter to us who they are, even if they set up as a florist right next store. If this Florist Shop cannot obtain the standard of service that we give to our customers, then it is of no concern to us for it is their problem to identify why they are not successful.
This era of Floristry sees Florist shops being dogged from all angles with the advent of IT and it is necessary to weed out the Non-Florists and Ghost shops by co-operating with one another. The New Generation Florist of the last 15 years needs to LOOK, SEE, UNDERSTAND and LEARN to take ACTION on first of all how the customer perceives the MODERN FLORIST SHOP that is being promoted by the deceit of the Powers That Be.
Create a customer database and keep the customer informed of where your shop is and how to make a DIRECT personal contact with you. Make notes on there comments their likes and dislikes..
Now that we have IDENTIFIED the DOOM and GLOOM ( words not symbolic of flowers)of the Industry and the reasons for such a disaster, we will encourage each florist to co-operate with each other from the heart The Industry has only one in competition to us that is The Order-Gatherers and our CUSTOMERS ARE THE JUDGES OF OUR INDUSTRY................
Try these mottos..............You have the feelings..........We have the flowers
Selected by Hand, Arranged by Hand, Delivered by Hand Straight to the Heart
Operate you business from the Heart, the customers love it and so to the Flowers
Cheers The WISE OLD OWL defends his cause and his success and to the survival to our precious Industry ........EflowersAlive....Ron.... ( how to build a Customer Service Structure coming up next)
