Customer connections

The biggest thing to tell customers is that they can't "set it and forget it," says John Day, owner of Johnny's Turf Management. “It’s automatic, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting enough water down, or too much.”

Many customers in Florida run their systems before the sun rises.

“They never turn them on and look at them. They just assume it’s doing what it’s supposed to do,” Day says.

Customers should turn the system on and view it in operation at least once a month.

“Down here we have water restrictions that are in place all the time. That’s two days a week. Because they’re watering for the restrictions, they think that’s supposed to be enough,” Day says. “We get a lot of rain in the afternoons so it usually works, but again, in a drought situation, two days a week just doesn’t work.”

Customers need to be involved in the programming, whether it’s a drought or a season with above-average rainfall.

“Rain sensors can be set up to an inch and a half of rainfall before they kick in. And if that’s the case, we’re getting a ton of water and the system is still running. Or it could be set at an eighth of an inch and it sprinkles and it shuts it down,” Day says.

Do you have any other tips for communicating with the customer?

“Be careful not to make the customer too knowledgeable, or curious, about the system,” Day says. “You can have them too informed to where they start messing with it. They start asking for tools to adjust rotors and then I can’t tell you how many times people do that and then they strip them and they’re doing full circles and watering the road or the house.”

Keep customer knowledge to the basics, he says.

“If you notice something is not right, then give us a call,” Day tells customers.