Is Yelp Holding Your Flower Shop Hostage?

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We hear this type of story often these days.

A phoney review on Yelp about your flower shop, and Yelp won't do a thing to help you remove it. Unless, of course, you sign up for a $500 per month "plan." Then the salesperson seems to imply, "something can be done."

When we first started hearing this, I found it hard to believe as it is borderline extortion, but then it kept coming up over and over again from different florists in various parts of the country. It was then that I realized the salespeople may be promising a bit more than they can deliver. We can especially see this happening in a high commission sales environment.

Personally, I think unless the poster is a verified customer, these should not be allowed. 

If you have a similar story to share, please do!

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How the "On Demand" Economy is Shaping the Flower Business

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How long does it take you to deliver flowers?

Can you tell people you deliver all your orders within 90 minutes? Most florists would say that is ridiculous and not even physically possible. Really?

There are already venture-funded startups that are doing just that. Take a look at BloomThat in San Francisco.  Some investors gave them 5M to prove it. They did. Now they want to take as many orders away from tradition flower shops as possible.  

If your local customers have a choice between 90 minute delivery and six hour delivery at the same cost, which one do you think they will choose? Which one do you choose when you are shopping at Amazon? Correct, why would your customers be any different?  

Fed Ex learned long ago that speed is essential in coming out of nowhere to dominate the overnight package business, in spite of major players like UPS that were already in the market. It has taken UPS decades to catch up to Fed Ex. 

Amazon is learning the same thing with Amazon Prime, same day delivery, even same hour in some major markets now. 

If you are not offering one hour delivery to your customers, you are losing a lot of new business (especially young people that only order on smart phones). 

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