No hard working honest florist shop owner likes to see this of review on Yelp or Google Places or anywhere else online.   We will talk about a few ways to fix a bad flower shop review and hopefully attract new customers at the same time.

A Bad Flower Shop Review Can Cost You…

A Good Flower Shop Review Can Drive Significant Business

Check reviews of your florist website for any negative reviews

First check the most important websites where your flower shop may be reviewed. You should do this on  a regular basis as negative reviews may impact your florist website traffic significantly. Search for your business to see your reviews – monitor these and other review sites every few months:

• Google Maps (there will be a link to your Google Plus/Business Page)
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages – yp.com
• local.yahoo.com
• Superpages.com
• foursquare.com

Example of a Bad Flower Shop Review on Yelp

Get more review activity on your florist website

Customers and search engines look at your reviews and scores on review websites. But it’s not just the review, the number of reviews matters too – Google views websites with as more important. More reviews means a more trusted brand. And if you have more reviews, one negative review will not have the same impact.

Encourage Customer Reviews in Store –  During and after every sale, ask your customers to leave you a review on Yelp or Google. Be prepared with flyers, business cards and any other creative means you can to let your customers know you want their opinion and where they can find you online. A florist shop that gets lots of reviews overall looks better to customers. Many positive reviews take the sting out of a bad review whenever it happens.

Email Friends, Family – Email trusted parties like friends, relatives, and loyal customers with a link to the page to add a review. Make sure to include the link or links so your friends can easily add their own review. Send out these emails over time rather than in one go so it spaces out the positive reviews over time.

Email Happy Customers After Orders – You can add a link to Yelp or Google Places on your confirmation email after a successful order. Email brides who you know are happy customers a few days after weddings.

First steps to fixing bad reviews on a florist website

As a florist shop owner, when you get a bad review, stay calm and read it first to see what the reviewer is really saying. The bad review shown reveals the customer felt they did not get the flowers they ordered which could be resolved. Here are a few tips:

Contact the customer privately – and politely and ask what flowers you can send them to fix the problem. You can either contact them through the website or use your shop’s florist software to pull that customer’s information up and give them a quick phone call. Listen closely to them to make sure you know what needs to be done and offer them an incentive beyond what they suggest. The customer will probably add a new glowing positive comment that gives visitors a much better impression. Reviews cannot be deleted so the next best solution is to have a second raving review from that customer.

Add a public owner’s comment – to a bad review to show everyone who looks at the reviews you care about your customers and want to improve your service. It would be very wise to make time to respond to your customer reviews. You want to have as many positive comments as possible.

Head off negative reviews with a great florist ecommerce experience

The best way to deal with a negative review is to make sure it never happens in the first place. Provide the best customer experience possible every day. Listen carefully to what the customer wants and do the best you can to give it to them. Use your flower shop software and the tools it provides to give your customers the best service possible.

• Delivery Confirmation – senders should receive an automatic delivery confirmation
• Satisfaction Guarantee –  Advertise 100% satisfaction on your florist website so customers know they can come to you with problems.
• Make Your Customers Happy – Figure out a way to make an unhappy customer happy. It could be a replacement, a gift card, or a full explanation. A great attitude and undertanding can go a long way to turn a negative experience into an overwhelmingly positive one!

________________________

Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Want to make your florist website stand out? Great slideshows showcasing your flower photos are a great way to add some splash to your website – particularly your wedding and event pages. Several new websites allow you to easily create florist slideshows for your website.

Here is an example slideshow that we built in under five minutes with one slideshow builder:

How to Create a Florist Website Slideshow

There are a lot of free slideshow software products available. Two that we can recommend are PhotoSnack and Slidely. Here’s how to create a florist website slideshow in five steps:

1. Set up a free account – use your name and email address. You can also log in directly with your Facebook account, if you prefer.

2. Upload the flower photos – you want to display from your computer. If you don’t have any of your own photos, you can borrow flower photos from Pinterest or Google Images to try out.

3. Choose your settings – For PhotoSnack you can customize your slideshow with different backgrounds, choose the time between different images. For Slidely you can customize with different music.

4. Copy the embed code – After creating a slideshow you can share the video on your Facebook page and on your website. Floranext’s florist websites allow you to add slideshows to your wedding, event and other pages. Just copy the embed code on PhotoSnack or Slidely.

5. Paste the embed code in Your Florist Website – On your website, find the page editor (on Floranext this is under Website Design > Edit Pages > Choose the Page to Edit (e.g. Weddings). Paste in the embed code into your page editor and save. Check the website to see how it looks. So easy!

Top Slideshow Tips for Floral Websites

Slideshows, image sliders, or whatever term you prefer to use have recently become a popular way to gain the attention of website visitors. Done well, they are the most effective means of presenting your floral designs. Here are a few things to look for in a professional slideshow to stimulate florist eCommerce:

1. Above all, the images must be captivating. Poor lighting, shadows, and weak backgrounds can be problem areas.
2. Descriptions should be short, enticing, and grammatically perfect. Do not try to jam too much content into them. Rather, provide a “More Info” link to direct visitors to the details.
3. Consider embedding the slideshow lower on the page as a way to enhance specific offerings, such as wedding and event packages.
4. Be sure the user is in control of the activity.
5. Use keywords and phrases as parts of the slides to enhance search engine optimization (SEO).

The fourth one deserves some explanation. Many people leave websites any time they sense that they have no control over the content. If you have ever clicked onto floral websites that begin blaring the site builder’s favorite music, you understand. The visitor should be able to stop the slide rotation any time, freezing the current image. The rotation speed must not rush the reader and the controls should be easy to recognize and implement.

Conversions Are King

There is an old saying among professional website builders – “Content is king.” That applies especially to floral websites, even more today than ever in the past. If someone lands on your optimized website page and does not receive your message within about eight seconds, they are likely gone for good. Good content, including an attractive and user-friendly slideshow generates conversions.

How do you keep their attention? A large part of any website content is the headline. If your slideshow will be at the top of the page, the header that introduces it will largely determine whether the visitor continues reading or hits the back button. Be creative, but stay consistent with the voice of your website.

Floranext Slideshows Produce Results

Unlike the Adobe Flash player for example, Google, Yahoo, and Bing all index Floranext slideshows. This means that the slideshow itself can bring traffic to floral websites. In addition, unlike some other platforms, all Floranext products are supported over a complete range of smartphones and tablets, including Android and Apple’s iOS devices.

Particularly for weddings and special events, a slideshow can be a great way to display several images within a short time frame to generate demand for your proposals. If your photos are captivating and your content is imaginative, you will notice improved results immediately.

We invite you to get in touch with us for any questions about adding slideshows to your florist website – we can answer your questions and help create a beautiful new website that is current with recent search engine algorithm updates.

________________________

Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Floranext is introducing some beautiful new florist website designs for our flower shops. We have a variety of website themes that fit any flower shop – from boutique shops to everyday florists. We are always launching new florist website designs – and we can even do custom designs for your flower shop.

Floranext lets you design your own florist website – choose a theme for your website, add your logo (or we can design one for you), choose the front page banners or images, change categories, and more. Your florist website, your way.

Celluloid – Florist Website Theme

 Sublime – Florist Website Theme

Topside – Florist Website Theme

Signature – Florist Website Theme

Design Your Own Florist Website 

With Floranext’s florist websites you have as much control over your website as you want. Change themes, change banners for holidays/seasons, add custom pages, change website backgrounds and much more.

Why Switch to a Floranext Florist Website?

• Choose your own beautiful florist website design
• Upload your own products (or use ours!)
• Save money compared with wire services (no per order charges, lower monthly)
• Increase sales with a better designed website
• Built in Search Engine Optimization
• Optional florist Point of Sale
• Built by florists, for florists

Click here to Contact Us for a free demo!

________________________

Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Floranext is excited to announce a partnership with Flower Shop Network. We are happy to be able to offer another great tool to independent florists.

Floranext florist Point of Sale customers can now send and receive florist to florist orders through Flower Shop Network.

Floranext POS customers can access  FSN’s thousands of member florists across the US and Canada.

FSN’s Florist to Florist Orders

• No monthly fees.
• Pay only when you send.
• Receiving florist gets 80%, not 70% or 73% like wire services.
• Receiving florist gets paid weekly for orders filled.
• Send orders electronically at $3.99 per order.

How Floranext POS Works with FSN

Sending Orders – Send orders right in Floranext POS- no double entry, saving time and margin of error.

Receiving Orders – The Floranext florist POS automatically pulls FSN florist to florist orders. You get notified about an order by FSN by email and text message – you can then go to your Floranext POS orders list and either Accept or Reject the incoming order.

Floranext and Flower Shop Network – Try Free

Want to try out Floranext’s florist Point of Sale with FSN integration? Contact us for a free demo or free trial.

____________

Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Marketing ideas for your flower shop. Online marketing, Google Adwords, partner with restaurants and schools – a recipe for your florist to make Mother’s Day more profitable for your flower shop.

Origami (from ori which means “folding”, and Japanese deity which means “paper” is that the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, that started within the seventeenth century AD at the most recent and was popularized outside of Japan within the mid-1900s. it’s since then evolved into a contemporary form.

Here is a collection of great origami flower designs that embody the best of the art form.

Floranext is excited to announce rotating banners for website customers and a selection of new banners! The new scrolling banners (available on our Advanced package and for all POS + Website customers) add dynamism to your florist website.

First here are some of our new banners:

See how they look on a Floranext florist website:

Floranext’s florist website builder allows store owners to change banners on their front page for different seasons and holidays. In addition, you can add banners for content pages like your weddings, events, testimonials, about us pages and any others you want to create.

Floranext also allows you to upload your own banners. Create custom banners and give your website a unique look and feel.

Here’s is a how-to guide showing how easy it is to upload scrolling banners to your florist website!  Want to try Floranext’s florist website – click here to try free!

Want to try out a Floranext florist website – click here to try it free!

Instagram, the photo sharing web app now owned by Facebook, is making a move that is great for florists. Get ready for a new way to start sharing your flower shop’s beautiful creations.

Instagram can help drive more orders to your florist website and get you more wedding and event business.

What is Instagram? It’s an app for your iPhone or Android phone that allows you to share beautiful photos with friends or other followers. Until now, Instagram was only available on phones. The company now lets you showcase the photos you take on your phone on the web as well.

Instagram iPhone App – Great for Florists!

Instagram lets you combine beautiful photos

Instagram lets you adjust lighting to take better photos.

Instagram lets you use filters and effects to create beautiful photos

Like Facebook, Instagram lets you get social with your photos – enabling you to gather followers who get updated every time you post a photo. Instagram has filters that let you make your photos look amazing. Best of all, Instagram is integrated with Facebook so you can instantly upload photos to your Facebook page.

Some big brands like Nike are getting into the action with a dedicated page for shoe-lovers. Smaller brands are also using it to keep followers engaged.

Nike Instagram Page

Cooking Page on Instagram

So how to get started with Instagram? It’s easy!

1. Get an Instagram account – Go to the Instagram website and download an app for your iPhone or Android phone.

2. Link to Facebook – On the Instagram app, sign up with your business Facebook account to post images directly to your Facebook page.

3. Start taking pictures – Instagram makes it super-easy to start sharing your photos. Use filters to add the right shading and lighting to your images.

4. Showcase your flower images on your website – Put a link to your Instagram page on your website. It’s a great way to showcase wedding, event, and everyday photos to prospective customers.

Make sure your florist website enables you to add a link to your Instagram page! If you’re looking for an alternative provider that gives you more control to showcase your great flower designs, check out Floranext’s florist websites.

How many of these essential technology tools are you using for your flower shop?

Are you thinking about how you can use the Internet and technology to grow your flower shop and save money? These tools may be the easiest way for you to make more money and increase your bottom line:

1. Online Advertising – Google Advertising lets you find customers who are about to make a purchase. Online shoppers looking for “birthday flowers”, “mother’s day flowers” are about to spend money. Best of all, local florist ecommerce website can out-perform big brands with Google Ads. Facebook ads are great also – you can target adds for wedding business right at women with status “Engaged”. Advertising on The Knot is also worth trying!

2. Free Links to your Florist website – Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and so many other directory sites let you list your florist website for free. Get more traffic and raise your search engine ranking this way.

3. Unique, Affordable Website – Get an independent florist website, without the big fees or per-order charges. Customers shop around online. Having a unique florist website that shows off your brand will make customers more likely to buy from you.

4. Online Wedding Portfolio – Showcase your wedding pictures a video with your wedding work on your website to get brides to contact you for a consultation.

5. Point of Sale – Your florist Point of Sale is the technology that run your business and the tool that speeds up your order taking and so much more. Make sure you’re getting the features you want to make your business run more smoothly and getting good value for money.

Need help with your florist website, florist POS or florist software? Floranext can help. Contact us for more info!