Thinking of starting your own lawn service business? Here is a shortcut to help you identify where customers can really cost you and if not managed properly could possibly cause you great liability or maybe even put you out of business.
HOUSTON, July 1, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Owning a lawn service business is a tough enough job in the first place. The industry is very competitive and the customers expect exceptional service for an exceptionally low price. With over a decade of lawn service experience, Houston based Fresh Lawn has put together a list of the most common lawn service customer demands that have truly been outrageous!
1. Customers regularly call to cancel their service for the day after we have already serviced their yard. They then will demand we not charge them or they will do a chargeback dispute with their debit or credit card company. We are usually able to get the chargeback reversed with good record keeping and photos.
2. Customers who sign up and pay for a regular mow, edge and blow service will follow the crews around in their yards and ask them to preform extra services that they think they should get without paying for them. These services include bed weeding, leaf pickup and shrub trimming. Lawn maintenance service prices are based on the time it takes to complete them so asking for more of the crew's time is basically asking them to work for free.
3. Customers will make claims for damages to their home, vehicles or other things in their yard without any proof whatsoever. They say just because the lawn service was there it had to be them. Over the years we have learned to spot the fake claims and also have policies and procedures in place to prevent this from happening.
4. If a customer is unable to pay their bill they will often make up a complaint about their service and use it as a reason not to pay. Before and after photos and documentation of all communication is important to refute any false complaints.
5. Customers will call in a week after the service and say a specific area was missed and ask if we can come back and redo the whole yard. After a week the grass has grown so that there is no way to tell if they had a legitimate issue or just want a free mow. A 24 hour complaint policy goes a long way towards preventing this.
6. Sometimes customers call in for service on their yard and the yard is overgrown so they may be facing city or HOA fines. If for some reason we have to delay the service for 1 day they blame that delay for the overgrowth. They then demand that we pay the fee for the overgrowth as well as any fines they get. There is no way a yard gets overgrown in 1 day. They should have taken responsibility for their lawn and done something about it sooner.
7. If a customer has a bad day it seems that the lawn people are the first ones they want to take it out on. Some clients look for any and everything they can to complain about whether it is reasonable or not. Seems they think of the lawn service as the low man on the totem pole who just deserves to be screamed at. Too bad that you get used to it!
There are more but these are some of the highlights. Just be sure if you have a lawn service business to have systems and policies in place that can prevent these issues from happening and save yourself a lot of time, money and wasted energy.
Media Contact
Jan Taylor, Fresh Lawn, 1 7135986436, [email protected]
SOURCE Fresh Lawn
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