Spring is a chaotic time for landscape maintenance businesses, and it can also be a time when clients are dissatisfied with the service they receive. Typically, this isn’t because your crews are providing subpar work, but rather clients’ expectations are misaligned.
When you take the time to communicate early and often with your customers, you can mitigate this by making sure you’re on the same page from the start. Setting the tone for the season can help improve your overall retention and client satisfaction.
Getting Off on the Right Foot
While how your business operates and certain seasonal issues are commonplace to you, you can’t assume that your client knows or understands what all goes into landscape maintenance. This is why you should have a preset communication strategy in place that outlines everything from your service timelines, what customers can expect during certain periods of the year and what can cause common delays.
Providing a welcome packet and sending out onboarding emails can standardize your first touchpoint with clients.
It’s also critical that your client’s point of contact walk through with them the scope of the work and have them acknowledge this, so later down the line, you can refer to it if they are upset about a certain service not being included.
Having a layered communication approach is ideal. Don’t just rely on emailing a client. Texts, phone calls, and in-person property walks can all help ensure your messaging makes it through to the customer and shows the level of your care. Sending out both pre- and post-visit notifications shows that you’re proactive and can build stronger relationships with clients.
It’s not just on your account managers to ensure customer satisfaction. You should also train your frontline employees so they are equipped with simple talking points so they can provide brief, consistent interactions with clients.
Managing Clients Who Have Recently Switched Providers
One risky subset of customers is those who have recently sought your services after being dissatisfied with another landscape company. These clients can often carry over expectations from the previous provider and may be more likely to express displeasure.
For instance, when an HOA fires a landscape company, it often has less to do with the quality of their work and more to do with the company lacking the level of responsiveness they want. Customers like this are looking for an ally who has strong communication and follow-up skills.
When talking to a client who’s transitioning from providers in the middle of the spring season, discuss with them the exact reasons they were unhappy with their previous landscaper. This can help you determine if they’ve worked with a poor company or if the complaints are over something beyond the contractor’s control.
Once you know where things fell apart with their past provider, then you can address their wants and needs properly. In some cases, you may need to educate them on why certain requests or expectations are unreasonable.
“Education is one of our main ways to differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” says Loriena Harrington, owner of Beautiful Blooms LLC, based in Menomonee Falls. “A lot of times when somebody requests something that seems a little off the wall or inappropriate, we will go out of our way to educate them to let them know why we don’t do it in that way or why we don’t offer that service.”
One of the quickest ways to establish trust with clients who have been burned in the past is to identify areas where you can make immediate, visible improvements.
Addressing Common Misunderstandings
Anticipating common customer complaints in the spring also provides you with the opportunity to have messaging prepared.
For instance, if you typically deal with new clients calling about why their lawn isn’t green yet, sending a series of emails in advance about dormancy, soil temperature, and timing can help educate them and let them know when it’s reasonable to be concerned about a brown lawn.
Another possible complaint you may encounter is ‘You didn’t show up.’ Depending on the situation, there may have been weather conditions that prevented technicians from servicing the property, or the camera system may not have captured them on site. Sending out automated notifications when a service day is changed or providing a site service report after every job can remedy these sorts of claims.
In some cases, clients can feel aggravated when they realize something they assumed was included in the contract isn’t. This comes down to reinforcing boundaries early and often. Having an open conversation about how their additional requests aren’t without costs can help them temper their expectations or be willing to invest further funds into these services.
When you take the time to lead new client relationships with transparency, it helps reduce disagreements and builds long-term loyalty.
