Consumer Communication: When The Call Comes In

Following are some hypothetical situations that are likely to sound familiar to most lawn care contractors. Three industry veterans have offered their tips for diffusing these potentially explosive customer complaint situations.

THE DAY AFTER. Mr. Jones, the customer: “I have a question — I pay you to kill all of the weeds in my lawn, and you were supposed to start yesterday. I saw the sign in my front yard and the bill in my mailbox, but I still see weeds! Why should I pay you for apparently not doing anything?”

David Harris, vice president, Liqui-Green Lawn and Tree Care of Central Illinois, Bloomington, Ill., responds: First off, Mr. Jones, I want to assure you that we want to take care of your weed problem as much as you do, and we will solve it.

It’s important, though, that you understand that a weed treatment program does not provide total control overnight. We know that’s your ultimate goal, but it’s not reasonable to expect that right away. Weeds don’t just turn brown and go away in one day — they wither and die. And slower growing viny weeds are more difficult to control.

Your property has a combination of some spring and summer weeds. Our treatment should provide 99 percent control of the dandelions in the turf, but the creeping charlie and wild strawberries are much more difficult to control. Those weeds take two or three applications to control, and there still might not be 100 percent control because we can’t treat the area around the shrubs and in the flower beds where these weeds are growing. To treat back there would jeopardize the health of the plants in the beds.

As part of our service, we promise we’ll reinspect your property within the next 24 hours to look for any problems, and we’ll provide another treatment within the next 48 hours if you’d like. But let me ask you a couple of questions first to see if we can figure out why the treatment may not have worked. The more we understand the conditions on your specific property, the better chance we have of correcting the problem.

What happened yesterday after we made the treatment? Did it rain or did anyone irrigate the yard? How soon after we treated the lawn was it mow-ed? These can be reasons why the treatment hasn’t been as successful as you’d like.

HOLD THE PHONE. Mrs. Smith, the customer. “Mr. Wierichs, I’m calling to tell you that we’re not going to use your service anymore. We’ve been happy with your work the past few years, but your competition is offering us a lower price for the same fertilization work.”

Lou Wierichs, president, Pro-X Systems Inc., Appleton, Wis., responds: I appreciate you calling, Mrs. Smith, and I understand your situation. I’m glad to hear that you’ve been happy with our work, and I want to make sure you understand the reason we charge what we do and the value we feel we’re offering you.

We use granular fertilizer products, and this is generally expensive than the liquid products, but we personally think it’s the best product to use. Also, when we’re making the granular applications, we’re walking your property twice every time we’re there. On the first trip, we apply the fertilizer. Then we go over the property again looking for any problem areas that may need a specific spot treatment.

I certainly understand that you’re looking to save money, but I want you to know that we believe we’re offering our service at the lowest price we can afford to offer our customers. I would be happy to match the price being offered to you by the competition, but I really can’t do that and stay in business. Plus, I feel that would undermine my reputation and credibility with my other customers.

It’s important to me that we charge the rates we do so that we can provide such quality service. We take a lot of pride in our professional training, quality equipment, uniformed personnel and licensing programs, and, unfortunately, this all costs our company money.

The author is Associate Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.