Dusting cars

[LiVe2]

I dont know if this has ever been posted but I allways have someone come up to me and say I got grass on there car. Most of time I just blow it off with the blower. Does anyone else have this happen to them?

[HOMER]

Yes, but whats worse is the guy I had to pass yesterday that was sitting in the grass being so nice as to let people pass.....................with the chute pointed toward the road and the blades wide open with no deflector or nothing! He should have gotten the hint when all the cars were heading for the other lane trying to escape his debris field.

Had his hat turned around looking all cool and shick.............made me madder than hello!

OHHhhhhhhwwweeeeeWWWWWWEEEEEEEEE.............if he'd a hit my truck with a rock I'd a hurt him!:eek:

Some folks don't need to wake up in the morning.............

[Fine Lines Lawn]

Blowing off of vehicles is possibly even more important than blowing of walks and drives. Also, be mindful of neighboring properties, when houses and drives are close together. We work in neighborhoods where some homes can be as little as eight feet apart, so even window sills become an issue. If the neighbors of your customers see that you're concerned about their property during clean-up, I think they may call you when they need someone :)

[Davis TLC]

That's why I'm glad I have a Dixie Chopper with the OCDC. Even before I bought my DC I was always careful when mowing around cars. If I do happen to get some dust or grass on a car I make sure I blow it off good.

Can't say the same for some of the other guys here, most don't care. One LCO owner here was heard to say when one of his commercials asked him to be careful around the parking lot, he told them, "they know I come to mow on Mondays, they can park somewhere else", his crew has peppered cars with grass and gravel, no class :mad: . They mow with deflectors up at all times. I don't think he will be renewed when his current contract runs out, but he is known to be a lowballer.

[MikeLT1Z28]

we blow off all the cars we come near while working. standard policy.

[Lawnshark]

At our apartment complex we trim the walkways right next to cars and ALWAYS make sure every car looks just like it did when we got there. It keeps the complaints from tennants down.

[joshua]

you should never blow grass on the road, at people, and should try to get as little as possible on the drive and side walks. thats why you take 2 laps around the lawn blowing the grass in, some guys around here only take one but that just isn't enough to make a proper trangle turn and being able to avoid blowing grass where it shouldn't be.

[Fantasy Lawns]

gotta blow the dust off the cars ....window sills ....screen pools areas ...play ground stuff ....anything you got debris on ;->

weed whacking around opens pools sometimes one guy needs to use a blower keep the stuff out of the pool when the weed whacker is near ....or dip it out

it's the details which will get you word of mouth referrals

[CSRA Landscaping]

I'd like to jump in here with a question. First, I definitely make sure that I blow off everything that I got dirty. Sorta like putting my toys up. :)

My question is this. How do you get your new guys to pick up on the details? I want ANYone that works with me to be as or more professional as I am.

[HOMER]

Good luck!:D

Part of the "details" you tend to pay close attention to comes from being the owner, employees are not or don't have the stake in the business you do and most could really care less about your reputation. Not all of them but most.

[CSRA Landscaping]

Tell ya what Homer, I've got a guy working with me now that wants to go a long way, I think. He knows that if he does a good job, as the company grows, he'll progress as far (almost) as he wants to. I have set up a bonus system for any new work that he bids on and gets, to try to give him a little 'ownership' of the business, give him some pride in it. His heart is in the right place, I just don't think he's used to the hardness of the work! Makes him miss a 'few little things.' I love it, he's just like I was, got a reason for everything. What he isn't thinking of is the fact that the owners aren't going to know there was a flower-delivery car parked there and that's why he didn't blow there. GET IT SPARKY!!

Anyway, I've done all that I know to do for now, so do I just wait on him? Push him harder?

[Mowin4cash]

Thought I'd throw in a "grass problem" I have a commercial site that one of the "important" or at least she thinks she's important employees refused to park her Lexus in the parking lot with everyone else. She chose to park it on the lawn next to an entrance. I left a nice note on her windshield one day to please not park or drive on the turf, that it was creating compaction plus we could not mow under her car. The next week, the car was back in almost the same place. You could really see where she had been driving due to the impressions in the grass. Left another firm but nice note. Needless to say, the third week, the car was back there again. I mowded all around it, reached into the ground and turned on the valve to that particular irrigation zone, got everything wet around the car, then mowed again blowing as many clippings as I could on those sparkly chrome wheels and jungle juiced tires. Even the windows had grass on them. What a site! She hasn't parked there since. See what I mean Charles about not putting up with crap! It does work. I bet she even voted for Bore. I mean Gore.

Mike

[65hoss]

As most of you know, I don't side discharge. I have the mulching kits on all mowers. We never have to worry about grass on cars, but you always have dust. It is stardard policy as MikeLT1Z28 said to blow off the cars. This is probably one of the best customer relations thing you can do. Most people are real picky about their cars. This doesn't give them anything to complain about and makes them happy you cared enough about their property to blow it off.

[Fantasy Lawns]

Mike .....you found the exception to the rule .....we maintain a Doctor's office n' this one nurse had her Car parked up front with the nose poking over the curb so there was always a spot of tall grass .....I wasn't as crafty with the irrigation deal ;-> ....but we just left it dusty couple times .....she got a car cover and parked in the employees area

[Premo Services]

I have this customer that is on a street that if I park on his side there is not enough room for a car to get through the other side,so I park down and across the street. The bitty that owns this home obviously didn`t like to have my truck in front of her house and took her 21 in lawn boy and cut her whole front lawn right into my truck,and was just finishing when I was ready to load up my blower. she didn`t seem to care that I seen her throwing all the grass,dust,rocks onto my truck. If you could see my truck you would appreciate what was going through my head, at first I thought I would lift her by her neck and shake some sense into her, but I thought that it would not look good for my customer and his family to see this happening, so I took my back pack blower and cleaned off my truck back into her yard. she stood there watching me do this and then i moved my truck up and took the blower and went into the street and started blowing all the stuff back onto her lawn. I didn`t stop there though, I started to blow all the rocks and anything that I could see as far as I could into her lawn( gotta love the power thses blowers have).the lady came up to me and said with an attitude that she was going to call the police, I lost it, I said that she better call the cops and tell them to send an ambulance and doctors for her also because I couldn`t hold off messing her up for what she had done.She huffed and walked away, and I told her to go in her house and kneel down and thank the lord that she was not a man because I would not have even thought I would have done something.This happened 4 years ago and I still have that customer and I STILL park in front of her house and when he sees me he tells me that I have a nice truck and looks at the neighbors house and makes a big grin on his face.

[Paradise Yard Service]

I used to detail cars for awhile to take a break from Lawns, so I can sympathize. Dust is the greatest pet peeve for car lovers esp black paint. So any consideration shown by the LCO is greatly appreciated. People understand we have a job to do, but not cleaning up is inconsiderate and create ill will towards the LCO.

Yesterday the owner of a new BMW was totally pouring over it at the townhouse I care for. He was at it for hours. I arrive, and I could see that I would have created a problem with my standard proceedure of blowing off the carport area he was working in. So I just worked around the sitution and changed my approach a little so as to create as little dust as possible. In fact I did'nt even need to care for the lot as it gets regular weekly attention so that all I did was pick up a little trash.

As he was leaving for the evening, he hands me a cold beer! He never did that B-4.

If I had dusted his car, I'm sure things would have turned out differant.

Aloha,
P.Y.S.

[lawnboy82]

this is why i try to do my commercial work after the places close. you dont have to worry about cars being there when you blow when the place is closed. you can do a better job, and do it faster because there is nobody, or at least shouldnt be anybody driving around that you have to avoid. so what if you are workin at 10 oclock at night. or 9 oclock or whatever.

[Mike (MLC)]

We mow a big apartment complex. If dust or clippings get on the cars,we make sure we blow them off. We don't want anyone to complain. We also stated it in our contract.:blob3: