Product Profile – Getting Attached

Contending with seasonal revenue fluctuations has long been a challenge for lawn care professionals. “When I started my company back in the early 1990s, I was like everybody else – I was out mowing grass, trying to make a living,” said Garrett Betts, owner, Cut Above Landscaping, Desoto, Ill. “At the end of that first growing season, it didn’t take long to realize that if I wanted to continue generating revenue year-round, I needed to offer more than just grass-cutting.”

Betts realized that expanding services also meant adding equipment. He calculated that if he were to buy separate pieces of equipment for leaf removal, snow removal, aeration and other year-round operations, maintenance on each piece would be far more time-consuming and costly than practical. Instead, Betts said he chose two Grasshopper 928D zero-turn out-front mowers that accept a wide variety of attachments. “I own just about every attachment that Grasshopper makes,” he remarked. “We have PTO-driven snowblowers, large capacity collection systems, AERA-vators™, dozer blades and remote wand-vac systems. Purchasing attachments for my mowers is definitely the better option – it keeps my equipment and maintenance costs at a minimum and performs just as well or better.”

Betts also uses a stand-up ride-on mower and a walk-behind mower. Recently, the company has added a flatbed dump truck to hold a large leaf receptacle and to serve as a platform for three spray rigs. Several snowplows augment snow removal operations.

In addition to generating off-season revenues, reinforcing his relationships with preferred high-end clients throughout all seasons is also key to customer retention, Betts said. “If you can’t provide a service a customer needs, you are basically forcing that customer into the arms of someone who can,” he pointed out. “Once a competitor forms a relationship with your customer, it’s harder to recapture that customer’s loyalty.”

Therefore, Cut Above Landscaping offers a complete year-round, five-application program that provides the customer with a comprehensive array of lawn care services that promotes the optimum health of a customer’s lawn, trees and shrubbery.

Two years ago, when Cut Above Landscaping transitioned into fall, it could complete its schedule of leaf removal contracts before the first snow, Betts explained. “Our leaf removal business has grown so much that even with the use of both Grasshoppers, our remote-vac leaf removal attachments and the turbine blower attachment, we usually end up completing some leaf removal work later in the year in between snows,” he said.

The powerful vacuuming action of the mowers allows the company to tackle leaves and debris even after they become wet from melting snow, Betts added. “The Buffalo Blower also helps a lot to force out wet debris,” he said. “We do such a complete and thorough job of leaf and debris removal, I tell my customers that I’ll pay them a dollar for every stick, leaf or gumball they find on their lawn when we are finished.”

Thanks to these services, August to January is the company’s busiest and most profitable time of year, with the workload and list of new customers constantly growing.

Betts said there is nothing magic about his marketing techniques that have allowed him to continue to expand his current customer base, in spite of being in the midst of a national recession. “Though we put an ad in the Yellow Pages, most of our customers come from word-of-mouth recommendations,” he explained. “People see a neighbor’s lawn we have taken care of and ask the owner who does the work. Then we get a call. As in any business – recession or not – satisfied customers are still the best way to attract new customers.” – Carl Williams

The author is senior public relations writer, Associated Advertising, Wichita, Kan.