Letter to Customers to educate during drought ...

[horselady]

Does anyone have a flyer or letter they send to their customers to educate them during the drought? Fert will activate when we get some rain, mow higher, watering info etc. Most of the areas in Indiana are on some sort of watering restriction.

We have recently had customers request suspension of their service until we get rain. They cannot see putting down fert when their grass is brown. Our goal for lawn service is to improve the quality of the lawn not hurt it. We have put down 2nd round on properties with fertilizer only and some weed control depending on the condition of their lawn.

The one advantage we have is the owner applies the apps and doesn't have to meet quota like technicians for the big companies.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

[ampeg76]

here in houston we usually get enough moisture to keep things going, if i was in a area that had a bad drought, it would be a very professional move to send something out to your customers showing you care about their lawn, like you said, applying on brown turf is just bad business!

cheers

[rcreech]

I just sent out a my monthly newsletter out to my customers and added a piece on "How to maintain you lawn during dry conditions". I used a piece from Ohio State that was very well put together discussing, mowing, traffic, irriagition etc. I am sure Purdue has something also. Just go in and google Purdue or Ohio State,Turf, Drought and I am sure you will get more info then you are looking for.

[sprayboy]

Horselady,

I am just SE of indy and in the same position. I haven't sent letters and probably won't but I have stopped treatments for now. From my experience most people think the turf is dead, not dormant. Hopefully we will start getting some rain soon. In the past with dry spells I leave good notes and info with the invoices after we get rain as to what's going on with there lawn.

Zac Reicher has some good info on the latest Turf Tips.


http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/tips/

[mrkosar]

here in houston we usually get enough moisture to keep things going, if i was in a area that had a bad drought, it would be a very professional move to send something out to your customers showing you care about their lawn, like you said, applying on brown turf is just bad business!

cheers

i agree to a certain extent. putting down applications on dormant turf is sometimes slightly wrong, but we are applying assuming they will irrigate or it will rain soon. we are also still controlling summer weeds, which people hate to look at especially when the only green part of there lawn is the weeds.

the point is we are running a business, and need that cash flow to operate. so, calling all our customers and telling them we won't be out until it starts raining again (maybe not til august) is ignorant and business suicide. yes, it would be good to tell every customer that isn't irrigating that we will just wait and apply when the rain comes, but that is unrealistic. maybe if you are doing this on the side and have 10 accounts you can do this because you are not depending on that revenue, but companies would never survive if they applied this logic under stress conditions.

it is not bad business, but SMART business to continue to apply under these uncontrollable conditions. we can't control mother nature.

[kbrashears]

This thread is just more reason for you to bill monthly and not when you app.

12, 4, 1... anything but just billing right after you apply.

[ThreeWide]

This thread is just more reason for you to bill monthly and not when you app.

12, 4, 1... anything but just billing right after you apply.

It is probably true that most do not use that business model, myself included. But it is a good point to consider.

Are we being paid to just do applications or are we managing our clients' turf according to the environmental conditions. In our minds it is the latter, but what does the client really think? My guess is the client has no idea how dynamic this business is in determining what is best for the turf at any given time.

If a customer calls and wants to be put on hold, 9 times out of 10 there will be some sort of problem later on with that lawn directly related to the skipped applications. Happens just about every time. If that customer does not trust you to do the right thing, then HE should be fired.

[Rob.C]

hERE U GO TRY THESE SEE ATTACHMENTS

[horselady]

Thanks Rob.C and to others who have replied. I will be working on it today as I have been under the weather.

I think it's real important to educate our customers when concerns have come up.

[Rob.C]

Educating your costumers is very important, saves service calls, time product, make sure to have a good web-site.

[americanlawn]

According to Iowa State University, a lawn that is mowed short during hot/dry conditions can be 20 or 30 degrees hotter at the crown of the plant than a lawn that is mowed high.


1) Try putting a thermometer in direct sunlight and another one in shade. It's usually about a 30 degree difference.
2) Compare lawns that are mowed short right now versus lawns that are tall. Short ones are brown & taller one's are green > including my lawn at home (2 acres) which is very tall right now. Our office lawn (one acre) is brown cuz it was mowed recently at 3 inches.

The short-mowed lawns here (Kentucky bluegrass) were the first ones to turn brown.

Cool season grasses are called "cool season" for a reason, so mowing short during drought does not make sense to me. My 2 cents worth.

[lawnservice]

This thread is just more reason for you to bill monthly and not when you app.

12, 4, 1... anything but just billing right after you apply.

Man, we been tryin for years to get customers on a monthly billing (well, i suppose we could just do it...but we give customers a choice)
About 1/3 of our customer base will prepay (which of course is good winter cash flow....but we are losing on the discount)

We have been offering a 10 month payment plan. 1st payment due in Feb and last due in Nov. Only a small % of customers jumped on board with that. Not sure why? We figured folks could just set up a monthy payment to us with their on-line banking.

So now we're thinking of monthy charges to a customers credit card?

[garydale]

Hope these will help:

[lawnservice]

According to Iowa State University, a lawn that is mowed short during hot/dry conditions can be 20 or 30 degrees hotter at the crown of the plant than a lawn that is mowed high.


1) Try putting a thermometer in direct sunlight and another one in shade. It's usually about a 30 degree difference.
2) Compare lawns that are mowed short right now versus lawns that are tall. Short ones are brown & taller one's are green > including my lawn at home (2 acres) which is very tall right now. Our office lawn (one acre) is brown cuz it was mowed recently at 3 inches.

The short-mowed lawns here (Kentucky bluegrass) were the first ones to turn brown.

Cool season grasses are called "cool season" for a reason, so mowing short during drought does not make sense to me. My 2 cents worth.

a dormant blue grass lawn will require less watering to have its color return if it is mowed at 2" compared to one mowed at 3"
my home lawn is still green (somewhat) and is standing around 4-4.5 inches right now
my neighbor mows his at 2"...he is pretty brown right about now (definately moreso than my lawn).....but to recover color...his will green first simply because of less blade height means less water

we do recomend a tall mowing height throught the growing season

[americanlawn]

Nuther thing: Kentucky bluegrass can only survive dormancy for 5 to 7 weeks at best. After that, you're gunna loose grass. Recent service calls regarding brown lawns are averaging a mowing height of 2 1/4 inches. These customers have a brown lawn when they don't water & mow short (especially on clay soils). I do not feel sorry for them whatsoever. I always leave a "fact sheet" from ISU regarding proper mowing of Kentucky bluegrass during summer months. I'm guessing the hubby mows short so he has more time to play golf or ??? LOL