Member Article

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Valentine’s flowers don’t turn up, so we tweet bad reviews

Tweets reveal that almost a quarter of consumers did not receive their flowers at all last Valentine’s Day.

New research has shown that Valentine’s Day flower deliveries could be leading to more break-ups than romantic evenings: more than half (54%) of the Twitter reviews of floral delivery services last February were negative.

Same-day courier company Gophr analysed more than 1,000 tweets from customers that mentioned any of the 15 largest floral delivery services* in the UK.

The data showed that the number one reason for customer complaints to florists is due to the delivery not appearing at all: in almost a quarter (23%) of the tweets, customers mentioned their flowers never arriving.

Meanwhile, around one in ten (11%) of the negative tweets were from customers who were unhappy about the poor service they had received.

Another 5% described the poor quality of their bouquets, with one tweet stating, “You supplied my wife with 12 dead red roses” and another noting “Dying roses…other flowers wilted…Valentine’s Day ruined”. A further 2% of customers said their delivery arrived much later than expected.

Seb Robert, CEO at Gophr, said: “Valentine’s Day is florists’ biggest day of the year, with people in the UK collectively spending £261 billion on flowers in 2019. In some cases, February 14th accounts for a third of their annual sales.

“When sending and receiving flowers, it’s important for them to arrive in prime condition, but it’s no secret that online deliveries don’t always go to plan. Social media - and specifically Twitter - has become the go-to place to air delivery complaints after shopping online.

“Of course, the particular logistical issues of flower deliveries don’t help. Drivers can’t stack bouquets, shouldn’t transport them in buckets and can’t keep perishable flowers in their van too long - not to mention that finding a safe place to leave them is a real issue when recipients aren’t at home.

“Flowers, like cakes, are among the hardest items to deliver well. Days like Valentine’s Day when customer expectations are at their highest but florists are stretched to the limit means things can easily go wrong.”

He concludes: “Although the industry is constantly looking for ways to improve the delivery process, such as mini water bulbs to keep bouquets fresh, there’s still scope to make things better.”

Although the larger percentage of the tweets aimed at the retail outlets were negative, just over a quarter (27%) of the posts were positive.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Sampson .