First off i need to vent a bit.
I run a turf and landscape business. fyi
so i get this phone call the other day and this lady tell me this, and i quote" i have this tree in my yard and its been there all my life. i just want to know if its going to quit growing.
sp i tell her that it all depends on what kind it is and where its at but i really want to say is that .......well i just check my sourses and it should stop next thursday at noon.

Then i get a call from another client
she tells me that they yard has just been plugged and seeded and that i need to stay off of it for 2 weeks. no prob. so when the term is up i ride by and what do i see? the yard has been mowed. so i call and she had the yard bagged by some neighborhood kid! i said ok thats all i needed to know and dropped the account right on the spot. boy i was pissed!

 

why can't people just tell you how it is. why must they lie?

 

i have no idea. its so hard to get any respect in the landscaping business. most of the general public thinks your just some lawn boy or some no educated bafoon. i have 9 years exp and a degree in horticulture. the truth is that most homeowners dont think that you know what your doing or that they know best. when its the exact opposite. i have had people argue about mowing heights, some want me to cut down past the crown and i wont do it. i know what is best. it is my company and my reputation on the line and i am going to do my work they way i want to do it. i have had clients tell me that it is unhealthy to cut the grass every weeks and to mow every other week.
i have had some argue about water in the everning hours and at night. they claim it is better for the lawn then. and then they want to know why they lawn has fungus problems. man it just riles me up to have to hear this sometimes.

 

I'm not gonna even start...

My son works for an arboreal outfit. Their typical call involves a $5000 emergency tree removal instead of a $1500 thinning. Or the guy that decided to do it himself, and called after he landed a huge branch on top of his power line...

 

and then the biggest is tht they want you to work for pennies. i quoted a pruning job a while back. any landscape job starts at 250 bucks bar none. she had several foster hollies that were very tall and tons of shrubbery around the house. this would have been a huge job. you could have sworn that i kicked her dog. i got the...thats to high and why is it so much crap. the bottom line is that if you want good work your going to pay for it.

I dont get ugly with my clients on the phone i just have to vent and tell it like i want to tell em sometimes.

 

how about the guys who claim they are tree trimmers but they make a giant hat rack out of the tree. it seems that i see alot of shoddy work more than i do of top notch work.

 

Our homeowners assocation just went through this with some blackberry bush removal. Low bidder whacked a 10 ft swath from the sidewalk- but it looks like heck, and guaranteed they'll be back taller than ever next year.

These are the folks the kid works for. Big outfit for a family run biz- about 20 trucks, roughly 50 employees. They focus on commercial accounts, but in Oregon big trees turn into big hazards without too much time and trouble.

 

> most of the general public thinks your just some lawn boy or
> some no educated bafoon

> i just want to know if its going to quit growing.

You should have said it just might without proper care and should have charged $25 to come out and look at it. Get a signed service order before even looking at the tree. Then give proper tree advice for its care. Leave a copy of your degree (anyone can say they have one) on the back of the service order.

If you sell cars, most people think you are one step below an ambulance chasing lawyer on the food chain which is a few steps lower then a shark. Though there are a few good guys selling cars and trucks.

Someone that cuts grass is viewed about the same as a sanitation engineer dumping barrels for a living. Practically anyone can dump trash or cut grass without a degree and without killing themselves or someone else.

If someone wanted to cut my grass and it cost more then someone else, I really would not care about any degree they had, I just want my grass cut cheap and if it was too much I would go buy a $300 mower at Home Depot and butcher it myself.

Plus, many people could care less about their lawn condition if it was not enforced because of local zoning and a HOA.

So, all people care about is price and they lie to avoid a confrontation when they think they are paying too much for your services or can get it cheaper somewhere else. The only solution is to be competitive on prices, sell yourself by making sure they know how nice fo a job they got, and not to care how people treat you. Just by how much is in your checking account.

fwiw Sometimes someone does not cancel an appointment to get their car fixed, gets it done some place else, then calls me because the other place messed it up. My solution is simple. Come by, pay me $15-$25 for the missed appointment, then we will talk. Some come by and pay, some do not. Someone objects, "oh well, not my problem my car runs. Have a nice day.".

Maybe you should view lawn service the same way.

 

you cant view it in that way. my company gears itself to the client who wants top notch service. we dont want anything to do with the client that nickels and dimes you over anything and everything. they waste valuable time and tkae money away from you. the bottom line is that if i have a agreement with a client and w have a scheduled day that we take care of the property, we make a trip out there, they are getting charged regardless. we are a businees and we have contracts for anything we do. this is why i got so mad the other day. it tkaes money off my table and food away from my children. i support my family with it and you cant just look at the business like its a car mechanics service.

 

Anyone can cut grass but there is a right way and the wrong way to do it. the main lifeline of the business isnt cutting grass. that just keeps you busy. gets you into the publics eye. we also do walls and landscape renovations etc etc. there is alot more to turf care and landscaping then what the gp thinks.

 

I've come across this sort of thing being a computer consultant. A client will lie to you, apparently to save your feelings, but in the long run, it would have been better to come clean so you can get on with other jobs.

The woman who lied about the grass plugs and having some kid bag the leaves? You should have kept the account instead of dropping it in a hissy fit. Chances are she won't lie to you anymore after getting caught at it, and you'd still have the account.

The other option for you is to raise your prices until the only clients left are people with expensive trees, lawn art, you name it, and realize they need a PRO for the job. On the other hand, you might price yourself right out of business.

The lady with the tree growth question sounds like she just needed a few minutes of information or "salesmanship"... You could have told her, "NO it won't stop growing but there are things we can do to keep it from impacting your house, wires, whatever is the problem"... I don't get the sarcastic "sources" thing ...

 

WEll i had talked with teh lady about the tree for just a few short mins but she quickly said that she couldnt talk about it right now. she stated that she had a family emergency and for me to call back this wednesday.

the other lady had the grass bagged because it was to tall. and she alos had it bagged right after the yard was seeded and fertilized. she asked me to stay off the yard for 2 weeks to let the seed grow. i did just that. but i had sold her on not bagging scince it pulls alot of nutrients away from the lawn and that mulching the clippings would yeild a better result. plus she had not paid the last bill in full. we made 3 visits to the yard and she claims we had only mowed twice. which is soimewhat true but on the third visit the yard didnt need a mowing but we pulled weeds and edged the driveway along with weedeating several areas. which is the same charge as a full mowing. heck she is on the min charge anyway.

 

Sorry guthrie, for flaming you a little bit... but I know what you mean.

We're all *****s... whether we work on very large computer systems, or mow grass

 

I had one former customers mother (the customer was in his 30s) call up informed that did had done business with me for years. (I was only open 45 days at the time) told they were done with me. Okay fine... I don't care for a dishonest customer. I try to treat my customers respect and am honest with them.

About 8 month later the son some in and ask if I want to buy some fish, that he evidently raised. I kindley declined. And giggled to myself.

Two years later.

He comes in to buy some medicine from me. Once again good for a laugh. Angry customers are sometimes are funny, especially when you listen to them, and their reasoning. If you can call it that.

 

Sounds like you need to toss a few penny ante clients. Some people want a professional job done on their lawn and can and are willing to pay for it. Others can't afford or aren't willing to pay for a professional job and they should get the neighbors son to cut the grass. Landscaping is a tough business. Try screening you clients on the phone. The lady with the tree she wanted to stop growing obviously would have wasted your time, if you had gone to her house. My advice would that if a client flinches at an over the phone price range estimate, then get them to think it over and call you back, when they have decided. It will same you a wasted time/trip, especially with the price of gas as high as it is now.