Customer picking the day its cut??

[jdjoe_97]

I have had this happen to me before. You get a call from a potential customer. You return the call and everything sounds great then they add, oh yeah and I would like it mowed on either thursday or fridays. I am sick of this!! i realize that if we all only had ten accounts ya, no prob, but I am running 45 by my self. Even if I tried my best, one rain day and they are off by at least a day.

Question is how do you handle these customers who think they are the only person you serve?? Do you charge a premium and them mow it when they want. I thought about bidding it at say $40 for at my convience and $50 for thurs. and frid. cuts?? Am I being harsh, or maybe I have just been up to long. Thanks for any help, Joe

[accuratelawn]

This is a hard one. Everybody wants service on Thursday and Friday. I tell them this is the day I will be in your area.(.)

[mowerman90]

I do 70 accounts solo and don't have a bit of a problem. Why? Because every one of my customers is under contract and in that contract it states the day of the week that they will be serviced. I ask them what day they would like it done at the time of drawing up the contract. I try to accomidate their wishes as best I can but hey, I can only do so many lawns in any given day. If it comes to the point of them saying either it gets cut on this or that day or they'll go with someone else, then let them go. You can't please everybody, nobody can. Of coarse down here in central Fl 75% of my customers are retired senior citizens and some don't even know WHAT day it is nor do they care. LOL

[joshua]

i simply tell my customers i cut it when it needs cut whether it be sunday of friday. i don't know the exact day because of rain, and how fast the yard grows, but hey if it doesn't grow sure i would cut it on friday but that only happens in the summer it slows down. sometimes the yard needs cut 4 days after i cut it last sometimes 5 days. you have to tell your customers you will be there when it needs cut.do a search on this alot of guys just had a thread on it about less than a week ago.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I have Both commercial and residetial so on Monday, Tues, I do commercial accounts. Then on Thurs. & fri. I do residential. Usually my wed is for odd jobs. unless i am behind or if it is supposed to rain at the end of the week. This way everyone is happy. I guess that could be a good benifit of having both. The commercial want to be done at the beginning of the week and the res. of course want to be done at the end.

[kutnkru]

Heres a recent thread on this topic:
http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=11623

Hope this helps some.
Kris

[Acute Cut]

I tell them the short story following:

"I used to try and do lawns whenever customers wanted me too. Last year (Two years ago now) I was driving 200 to 250 miles per day to make the customers happy. This year i have had to allocate certain days to certain parts of the city to try and alleviate some of them miles. The gas prices these days would put me out of business pretty quickly if i kept going at that rate."

Most customers understand at this time and say that "X" day would be fine and that they understood.

Hope this helps.
Acute Cut

[1MajorTom]

Quote: ...retired senior citizens and some don't even know WHAT day it is nor do they care. LOL

This isn't to talk bad about the elderly, but mowerman is right. We always ask our customers what day they would prefer, and if we can get it in our route, we will. When we ask our elderly customers this, they look at us like we are crazy. They don't seem to care just as long as it gets cut.

Joe, don't worry about accomodating everyone. Do the best you can. You tell them what day you can service their lawn.

[Skookum]

I wish the ederly I have mowed for in the past would have lost track of days. I had several side by side for several years. They would call me if they seen someone else mowing another yard. They wanted theirs done also.

Worst thing about ederly, other than wanting to visit, is they are very regular scheduled. If I mowed on Wednesday for 16 weeks in a row, then needed to mow on a Thursday, they would call by Wednesday afternoon, to make sure I had not forgotten them because the grass was so tall and gone to seed and just looked so bad, all in 7 1/2 days!

I have found that most people will come to realize, after you have mowed for them a while, that as long as you mow it regularly and do a good job, it will look good all the time!

[LScom Addict]

If you can appease them for $40 up to Wednesday then I would increase the cost of services for the other two days. I would explain it to them in terms of arena seating. If they want good seats they have to pay more the closer to stage they get. If they want premium scheduling, then they should have to pay for that too.

[Twotoros]

I mow according to route. I try to do all commercial on monday and apartments on tues. Otherwise if you are in the friday area then you are lucky. If you are in the thurs. area you are just as lucky. Wed. area? How sad I am for you.
Luckily for all here the city is small and most areas are easy to get to in 15 minutes. Still I schedule everything as close to 5 minutes apart as I can. Prices are too cheap here to waste my time. I know some guys are running around helter skelter and that is dumb.
What floors me is when a sr. wants friday so it 'looks good for the weekend'. Every day is the weekend when I retire.

[kutnkru]

I also agree with Gary. We determined where the money was. That area is targeted for Friday cuts. Everyone else gets cut according to when we are in their neigborhood.

Originally posted by Twotoros
... What floors me is when a sr. wants friday so it 'looks good for the weekend'. Every day is the weekend when I retire.

Repeat after me guys n gals:

BEER ...

THIRTY!!

Nuff said I think :)


I was talking to a friend of mine and he said that he has two clients who get the Friday cuts at their house regardless. Those are his two largest clients. They gave him their businesses grounds contracts and other family members lawns to boot. All pay quite a bit more than average and it makes it worth his time.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[65hoss]

If I had an opening and its in the area for those days then fine. If not, either go up on the price or move on to the next person.

[brandy]

We service over a hundred lawns a week and there is no way they will all get done on thursday and friday, in fact friday is my rain day incase we don't get them done in three days!!!

[bob]

Some of the lawns that I cut are on a 10 day schedule. That usually works out to cuts on Mondays then on Fridays. Don't let your customers run your business.

[Jason Pallas]

I sympathize - with 450 weekly accounts, almost 90% of our accounts want Thur/Fri. And, of course the ones that don't get it, complain like hell.

[AVRECON]

I tell my customers that I mow residential accounts between wed. and fri. and that I can't give them a specific day because of the unseen, such as rain, equipment failure, etc.

[jimsny]

Days of the week have never been an issue for my customers. I ask that they tell me in advance if they are having a party or some event at the house so I can get it looking good for them.

I cut when it needs it: more in the spring and fall and I go on vacation in the dead of summer.

I guess I got it easy.