Flower order form: what to ask, and how to keep every order straight

A bouquet is usually bought by one person and received by another, so a flower order needs more fields than most. Florists tend to ask for the same things:

• The buyer's name, phone number and email, so you can reach them about the order.
• The recipient's name and phone number, and the delivery address, with a gate code or a note for the building if there is one.
• The delivery date and a time window, or pickup time if they collect.
• The occasion, the colors they like and their budget.
• The card message, typed by the buyer, word for word.
• Whether you may substitute a flower if one is out of season or arrives in poor shape.

Keep it short for a standard bouquet from your shop and ask more only when the order is custom. A buyer who gives up halfway through the form never becomes an order.

A card is printed exactly as written, so a message taken down over the phone or retyped from a chat is where mistakes get in. Put it on the form as its own field and let the buyer type it. If it is wrong, the wording is theirs, and you have a record of what they sent.

Flowers vary by season and by what your supplier has that week, and buyers are most upset when a swap comes as a surprise. Ask up front, with a plain default such as "same colors and similar value", and give them room to say no. Note the answer on the order so whoever builds the arrangement sees it.

"We deliver during the day" is easy for you and unhelpful for the recipient. Offer set windows, ask who will be there to receive the flowers, and say what you do if nobody answers. A wrong address or an unreachable recipient is the most common reason a delivery fails, so ask for a phone number for the recipient too.

Event work is bought weeks ahead and the stems are ordered for you specifically, so many florists treat the date as booked only once a deposit is paid. Write the deposit, the date the balance is due, how far ahead changes are allowed and what happens on cancellation next to the quote. Custom stems that have already been ordered are usually carved out of refunds, and the rules differ by place, so check your terms locally.

Keep a clear line between asked to pay and paid. Mark a deposit as received when you have seen the money in your account, not when a customer says they sent it.

Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and the weeks around weddings bring more orders than one person can build. Set a last day to order on the form, say how many deliveries you can take per window, and stop accepting orders for a day once it is full. A cutoff you stated beforehand is easier to hold than an apology afterwards.

Orders by phone, direct message and walk-in work for a handful a week. They strain when two buyers want the same slot, when a card message has to be copied across, or when you cannot say which deposits have arrived. At that point the form, the list of orders and a page where buyers check their own order are worth having in one place.