Learn How To Say NO! ...Your Business Is Counting On You

When To Say No To A Lawn Care Customer

In June of 2007 it was reported that Sprint Nextel sent out letters to just over 1,000 people to inform them that they had been dismissed.

You may be surprised to find out that these were not employees! But customers!

Sprint had been tracking support calls and determined that it was not profitable to keep customers that fell into the “high frequency” of support calls.

A Sprint spokeswoman told Reuters in July, “In some cases, they were calling customer care hundreds of times a month…on the same issues, even after we felt those issues had been resolved.” Ultimately, the company determined it could not meet the billing and service needs of this tiny subset of subscribers and, therefore, waived their termination fees and cut off their service.”

So what is the lesson learned and how do we apply it to building your Lawn Care Empire?

As you start to rapidly grow your business, your time is going to start getting stretched. What are some situations that may arise that you should consider “firing” a customer?

Missing Payments...

I always recommend that you have a policy if an account is unpaid 30+ days since the due date that you suspend performing any work for that customer until their account has been paid.

If they are unresponsive and still unable to pay their bill after 90+ days you need to decide if it is really worth your time continuing to follow up and just cut your losses.

Think of it this way, time is money. So is the money you are going to lose from the bad customer going to exceed the money you could make utilizing your time focusing on growing your business?

If any customer is keeping you awake at night or causing you to lose focus on your true job (growing your company) then you need to consider firing them.

Unfortunately most small lawn care services can’t afford an accounting department so how do you track customer payment data in the most cost effective way?

I always recommend Quickbooks for any small business entrepreneur. It is super affordable and very user friendly.

Constant Calls

Do you have that one customer who calls you after every service to complain and nitpick about your work?

Similar to the Sprint situation, if you have a customer who is constantly complaining or asking for a discount because of some small nit-picky thing that you or your team didn’t do then you need to make the managerial decision and let the customer go.

This happened to me.

There was this elderly lady in our neighborhood, Mrs. Smith, and I thought I was doing her a favor by mowing her lawn for a great rate. Instead of being grateful for my services, she ended up pushing me around for an entire year, before I came to the realization that she was taking advantage of my niceness and wasting my time.

In the time it was taking me to finish one job I could have completed two, so it was the obvious choice to let her go the following year.

She ended up hiring my brother who was just starting his own business and she continued to pull the same shenanigans!

Best part was that she still waved and smiled at me whenever I would walk by her house.

No hurt feelings!

My Suggestion

Some companies forget the difference between revenue and profit. Just because a bad customer is bringing money into your company does not mean that they are helping you grow.

You know your business and customers better than anyone else, but identifying the customers that are costing you money instead of helping your bottom line can be very difficult to determine.

At the very least you need to calculate your average expense per hour (mileage, man hours, average equipment wear and tear) vs what you typically charge per hour and determine the profit margin by customer.

Based on this rough estimate hopefully you can determine which customers are the least profitable, and once you have narrowed that list down determine if they are truly worth your time.

Once your decision has been made I suggest you do the following.

As you know the lawn care industry is a small world, so it is crucial that you do not burn any bridges.

A personal phone call or a written letter notifying the customer something similar to the following:

Dear Bad Customer,
We regret to inform you that due to {increased growth in our business} or {a new commercial account} ect...  we are unable to continue servicing your lawn. We appreciate your business and are very glad that you chose {your Lawn Care Empire} for the past 6 months.

We work closely with another reputable lawn care service who we would love to recommend to you.
[INSERT COMPETITOR HERE]

Regards
Your Name Here

Your competitors will love you for the extra business!

Some of you who prefer not to be confrontational may be thinking an easier way to get rid of a trouble customer is to just raise their rates to a point where they would surely look elsewhere.

The danger of this method is that there is a chance that they will accept the price hike! This is not an ideal situation because they will still keep you from being as productive as you should be and they will still be living rent free in your head as you lay awake at night worrying about how to handle them.

To me there is no price that can be paid to keep a bad customer.

You’re Fired!