Florist News

It's getting to that time of year again - no not Christmas - the flu season. Do any of you out there have contracts with the grim reapers and if so what % do they expect from you for referred work? Am dying to know

You may not get many people disclosing specific arrangements as it could be considered quite sensitive data.
As a general rule i would say that if an undertaker actually takes the order from the client and passes it on to you, then it would be appropriate to allow a commission, just as you would a relay service. If it is a case of recommending you to a client in preference to say another florist, then it really is up to you how much you value the referrals. It is probably worth having a chat with the undertaker and coming to some sort of arrangement for both cases.

Hello Fly,

As I understand it the FD's normally have a preferred florist who they send orders to and take a % of the order. Our local one uses another florist and cannot recommend us as such, although they usually tell the client they can choose their own florist if they want. I would imagine that is the same with most of them. I am just curious to see if anyone out there has a contract and if I did try to secure one what I might expect to happen. As it is I do quite a lot of funeral work (which I love!) and it might not be worthwhile getting into a contract that I have to pay comission on. As for rewarding any referrals, there have been a few times when we have been recommended on the qt, so I do give them discount on personal flowers - just hope they give me some discount when I need them!!

Breezy

Hi Breezy,

personally, I wouldn't think that any such contract would be worth the paper it's written on. Either side could pull out at 5 mins notice and there wouldn't be any recourse without a long legal battle in the high court with QC's at £5,000 p.h.

I tend to think that if you do the job right, yes..look after the staff, and put some freebie flowers into the waiting room occasionally, then you stand a good chance of getting referrals. You would hope that the undertaker is intent on having the best arrangements at his funeral as it all reflects on their own image. Of course there will be some that are only interested in the commission earned.
And yes, it is very uplifting when you get lots of positive feedback for your funeral work!

Our local fd's don't actually recommend any florist,which I quite understand because if there were to be any probs with the flowers it would reflect on them. The nicest compliment though, is when the fd's use you as their florist for personal orders.