Organising a flower delivery in Melbourne, let alone organising a delivery of flowers in Melbourne from overseas, can traditionally be a bit hit and miss. The efforts from small, independent florists have picked up over the last 10 or so years, but it remains that the ‘florists’ you are most likely to find at the top of search engines are really relay corporations with big budgets and clever marketing tricks, but not a lot of actual love for you, the customer.
It’s us, the little guys you want to seek out for the best result, but we’re mixed bunch, pardon the pun, so here are our top three tips for choosing a Melbourne florist to organise your flower delivery when you’re a million miles away.
- What you see is rarely what you get
Can you imaging walking into a fashion boutique, trying on an item, purchasing it, and then the assistant passes you something vaguely similar to take home? No? Exactly. It also feels plain wrong to us, but it’s actually quite standard in the flower delivery industry. Amazingly, there are even businesses that revolve around this model, perhaps reflecting more about the spendthrift values of a particular market segment, rather than anything else.
For those that don’t especially like surprises, like most of our customers, a good florist that is one that will offer you the peace of mind in knowing what flowers you are getting when you buy, and what flowers you are sending when you give. Hardly revolutionary.
There’s one big problem with this for florists generally - hard work. We are all dealing with a fresh product and buying power between florist varies greatly, so too does availability. When one florist spends more than another florist with a grower or wholesaler, they’ll likely get the allocation that was scheduled for another florist down the vine if they push for it. A way around this is for some florists to put a caveat message over the order on their online store, advising that what you send will look similar to the photo you are referencing, but you really have no idea, and in reality it rarely will.
We’re proud to work really hard to make sure our product matches our photos, and if we don’t, we will always call or email you, to advise of any substitutes. It only happens a couple of times a year, but it can happen. Which leads to point 2…
- The sun is always shining, but half of us are always asleep!
Now, you’re overseas, happily ordering your flower delivery in Melbourne for that special person on a special occasion. Odds are that we’re going to have a time zone difference that can affect the flow of communication, if it becomes necessary at all. The hot tip here is to keep an eye on your email account until you receive our delivery confirmation. Email has proven the most convenient and reliable way for us to keep in touch with our overseas customers, especially if there should there be a delivery issue. (Read more of our specific tips on flower delivery).
- Check the florist's guarantee
If the guarantee is not obvious on the website you should err on the side of caution. Checking online reviews can help, but they can also be littered with comments from jealous competitors or ex staff with an axe to grind. Or in our case, an upset courier that didn’t even work for us! Sorry, we digress… more on that in another post maybe! Unlike just about any other gift you can send, flowers will have the most impact. The catch is, that unlike almost any other product they are the most perishable. But how do you know if they are not up to scratch once delivered or not what you ordered? The answer is to ask the florist for a pic if you’re at all concerned. It’s not the norm, but most florists will oblige.
This also leads back to that clearly accessible guarantee. Most recipients won’t want to mention to you that the flowers have failed within a couple of days for no reason, or that the courier tripped and threw them at the front door as he was in mid air, so they will most likely go to the florists website, where again, the guarantee should be clearly visible for them to see so they can deal directly with the florist to organise an exchange, or whatever the florist is offering to remedy such a situation.
We hope the our top 3 tips will help you when organising a flower delivery in Melbourne and you create a beautiful, long lasting relationship with a talented and reliable Melbourne florist.
Related Tag: Flower Delivery Melbourne
