Don't cry me a river

[Ground Pounder]

This is my first season and I have already fired a customer.

I went to cut her yard the other day. The turf was about 4" tall. I make a turn and see her standing in my path about 20 yards ahead of me. I stop, shut the machine off and she starts out with "It's only April 9th. Don't you think you jumped the gun?" "I am a retired school teacher and I didn't budget for any lawn care this month. I don't think it needs mowed yet."

I am fuming at this point. She continues... "The last service cut it for me every 10-14 days."

I explain to her that it is hard on the turf and the equipment to let it go that long. I told her my service operates on a weekly schedule. She says that she will check with the neighbor boy to see if he will do it.

I reply with "That sounds like a good idea." The professional I am, I finished the job. When I was done I went to her door, told her that I would not be able to meet her schedule demand and that was that.

[cajuncutter]

been there done that!! they think cause you have a big commercial mower it is om to cut 8 to 10 inch tall grass cause they can however they do not realize how much stress and wear and tear that is involved..i did not spend over 7 grand only to flush it down a toilet...if they want every 10 to 14 days then they can find someone else..oh yeah i hate it when a customer stops me in my tracks be it to just converate or tell me to do something..i hate interuptions but it is part of the game

[cajuncutter]

P.S.
When they say they are on a budget..I simply tell them I am on one to :D

[Charles]

Welcome to the insanity of the lawncare biz and the constant battle with the customers over anything and everything. Even when you work for them for years there personalities can change from year to year. Sometimes you are dayumed if you do and dayumed if you dont.

[mowerman90]

I love it when customers tell me they're on a "budget" and especially when they say they're "on a fixed income". I always reply with " Gee, you're sooo lucky, I don't know what's coming in every month" They usually pause for a moment for it to sink in LOL

[George777]

I had to fire a customer because she was all stressed out about moving. My partner and I show up and the place was a mess. We did an outstanding job and she freaked out over a weed.I thought she was smoking some. Her back yard was to high to cut so we used our string trimmers . Than her next door neibour threated to call the police on us because we were blowing out the gutter after we swept all the leaves up first.
I went to my customer and told her this is the last time we will service this lawn. Just don't need the hassle.

Lesson learned be weary of a single lady in the process of placing her home for sale.

[joshua]

well boys i tell my new customers before they become on my list that i will cut the yard when i feel it needs it or if they think it does sooner than me to just call and i will take care of it. whether it maybe 4 days or 2 weeks in the summer, but i try and wait for the kind of people they will say do what ever you have to to make my yard look the best and just bill me for it, or the kind that say that they want this done now and in june mulch and so on and so on, man i love those kind of people.

hey ground pounder, i'm outside of youngstown, ohio and this will be my 3rd week of cutting coming up on the 15, i thought i was getting a late start this year. good luck to you, you need any advice make a new thread or just email me i'll help you out as much as i can.

[eggy]

Hmm my commercial accounts dont do this...I have seen the light......

[geogunn]

Originally posted by Ground Pounder
She says that she will check with the neighbor boy to see if he will do it.

uhhh...GP, uhhhh...reading the above quote, I think it was the school teacher that fired you!

GEO

[David Gretzmier]

I love the Fixed vs I don't know what's coming in , That's great. I'd LOVE for all mine to be weeklies. Dave g

[Richard Martin]

This is my first season

And you have already learned a valuable lesson or have you?

I am not trying to jumb in your case but this was your fault. You should work out basic items such as cutting frequency, method of payments, when the season begins and ends etc. <i> before</i> you cut the first blade of grass.

[65hoss]

I had a similar thing happen once. Don't feel bad, you needed to have the experience.

[Skookum]

You cannot be in this business and not ever have this happen, even if you had only one customer!

[1MajorTom]

Quote: Hmm my commercial accounts dont do this...I have seen the light......

Commercials have their downside too.

[Eric ELM]

Originally posted by Ground Pounder
This is my first season and I have already fired a customer.

You are not the first one to say this, two of you said it in this thread and others have said it on this forum.

Where I come from, an employer can fire an employee. An employee can only quit, not fire his boss. When you work for a customer, the customer is the employer, you are the employee, but you could fire your employees if you have some working for you. In other words, You Quit!!

[Charles]

Well if you want to get techinical about it Eric LOL he did quit. Just feels better to say you fired the customer. This year is so strange. people seem to be very stressed out. A widow lady I been cutting for 10 years(and just dropping in on and doing it which has been fine with her) Well I show up for the first cut(I went up on her last year and it was long overdue) Blew me out for interrupting her getting ready for church. I had rang the doorbell just to make sure she wanted it cut and when she didnt come out I figured she was out of town and because of out good repore in the past and the norm I went to cutting. She finally come out and looks crazed lol and said something about me just showiong up out of the blue and interrupting he getting ready and ask what I was going to charge again. Just a huffing and puffing so much I almost didnt recognize her. She said hold on she get the check and stomped off(I said she could just mail it if she didnt have time). I apoligized for doing what I have always done for years and wrote her a note explaining the price increase.... Alot of the customers will be very nice to you and talkative just to keep that price down. But go for the price increase and BOOM you are a dirtbag!!!! I know commercials have drawbacks but i am going to seek out more of those and get away from these residential loonies. Not much money in them anyway.

[grassyfras]

explain the fixed income and i dont know what comming in every month thing im a litle slow and it does seem to hold true the thing about when u raise someone

[cos]

I had a lady say, you got done too quickly and felt the price was not right for the amount of time spent.

Tell these people that you are having problems with your vision, and you can't see cutting their lawn every 2 weeks on your budget. :D

[Grateful11]

I came close to quitting one yesterday. I got completely done and she comes out the door while I'm loading and yells, "Have you cut the grass yet". So I stop and ask her what's wrong. She says "unless you're coming back in 4 or 5 days it's just not short enough". I said "let me cut over it again, that I'd rather satisfy you today". So I dropped it down to 3" instead of 3.5", my normal height for tall fescue, cut back over it and it looks like crap with two sets of fresh tracks. At least she's only got about 5k in grass. She had just told me 3 weeks ago that she didn't want it scalped like her husband does and she agreed to let me cut it at the optimum height for what she had. She's an every week account and she means too much money to me in bedding and landscape renovations too lose. She paid me for 2 hours this past week and the mowing and I left. She's on some new medication for a liver problem or something so I try to overlook it when she seems a little out of it. You never know what side effects medicine might have. She seems like a nice person and I don't really blame for wanting to get her moneys worth. I just need to find a happy median where she's happy and I'm satisfied.

[Ground Pounder]

I am a full-time firefighter/paramedic. I deal with people in crisis all the time. I see people when they are at their worst.

If they are going to get on my case over something as minuscule as grass, I will move onto the next. Don't get me wrong...I do know about customer service, but after I explain to them proper turf maintenance and they still think they're the professional I have to think, why did they hire me?

p.s. you "part-time" bashers can save your keystrokes and shove your "holier than thou" attitudes.

[smburgess]

Ground Pounder...

Your first season, part-time, and now you're a professional? I think most of us would have a hard time buying that. Customer service? To you the turf may not be very important, but from the clients' position you are the connection to their turf, what else would you expect them to talk to you about?

[Ground Pounder]

True, this is my first season in "business" and I do it on my days off. You don't know the first thing about me or my education in turfgrass science.

Granted my statement of grass being minuscule may have been off. It was just a comparison of contrasts between life and death situations and turf maintenance.

As for, "Your first season, part-time, and now you're a professional?" I see on your web site you use the term "professional" seven times. Just what is you definition of that term?

"I think most of us would have a hard time buying that."

Ah...ignorance is bliss, isn't it? I could care less what you buy.

[Edited by Ground Pounder on 04-15-2001 at 02:33 PM]

[Charles]

It may not be life or death with it comes to grass. But the majority of my customers are obsessed with their yards to the point that it may be my life ending if I mess it up. I swear it seems that thats all they think about and thats great by me

[smburgess]

Ground Pounder...

Easy guy, you'll pop a vein. I know I may have made some misguided assumptions, I based them on your posts.

[summitgroundskeeping]

I have a family who lives behind me, and they call me only when the grass is over a foot tall and has about 5" side shot grass on top of that. They expect me to bag it, and then only change what I charge her neighbor($30).
"After all, you use big mowers. It won't take more than a few hours" (that is my favorite quote from her)

[cleancut]

I had a bad day yesterday...I ended up quitting 7 customers...A neighborhood guy had quit mowing and gave me over 20 of his yards....He always mowed them with a riding mower or a pushmower and usually spent 2-3 hours per yard...Well I go in and mow each one in about 20 minutes and one guy told me that I didn't even mow when I had just took about 4" off of his turf...He was being a real a**hole and said that the other guy did a much better job...I then explained to him that the other guy went out of business because of customers like him....I then proceeded to tell him to kiss my petooty..Six of the other customers also complained that I wasn't mowing low enough and I explained that I "Would Not" scalp their yard...Told them they could get some snotty nosed kid to do it....After 7 years in this business, my patience is thin and I do not put up with bitchy customers..There's too many other good, educated customers out there...I don't care if a customer complains about something, it's stupidity that I can't stand...As of today, I've already replaced the 7 customers....Just remember, you run your business, not the customer....Derrick