Bed maintenance

[AndyL]

Hey folks,

This has to be my most hated topic of conversation. I can't stand bed maintenance... I swore up and down, when I started my own company I'd never do it.

Now I've received a request from what so far is a GOOD customer, to give them a quote for the summer on doing it. (They're already booked in for mowing) This customer 'started' the ball rolling with me getting going on my own landscaping company, its an apartment complex, (only about 6k sf of turf, another 3.5-4k sf of beds) I started by providing snow removal for them, just actually walked in the door from getting rid of a big patch of ice.

Anyway, they've got I'm pretty sure about 3500 square feet of beds. Hard to know exactly, everything is still covered with about 2' of snow :) Most is shrub beds (dogwood/cottoneaster), a couple tree wells, and one BIG annuals/perennials bed.

I tried to get away with my preference, of 'time/materials' but they want a fixed price per month.

My other headache, is they're not being very clear about exactly what they want. In the landlords words she wants them to be "kept up" doesn't help much. So I'd go by my assumption that I'd spent at least 45 minutes a week doing it... But even that is at best a guess, not knowing how well the beds have been maintained. I don't want to get into what I had last year, of going in, getting paid for an hours work a month, and finding quakc grass EVERYWHERE... I can think of one place in particular I spent 4 hours a week, for 8 weeks, and still didn't have the beds looking good.

Suggestions/Insight?

Andy

[stslawncare]

wow this is hard. i personally wouldnt do it the way they want, cant have a set price, what if for some odd reason one week or month or whatever there are tons of weeds? or what about mulching? and so on and so on

[trimmer]

If somebody wants thier beds cleaned up and they have not been done in a while I charge by the hour. There is no other way I will do it because there is no way that you can tell how long it will take you to do it. If they want mulch and other things done then I will charge accordling. I have found bed maintenance to be a good profitable service. I try to get as many as these as possible.

[BRIAN GALLO]

I've got a similar problem and dislike for bed maintenance. I have some customers that insist on bed maintenance with their lawns, and I always get burned on those. I end up spending way more time than they pay for, and the beds are still never up to snuff. This year I am asking for more $$$, and going to put down a good pre-emergent in hopes of keeping the weeds down. You still have all of the plant maintenance to up keep though. Price it good or you'll be mad every time you go out there.

[Southern Lawns]

I hear ya! To me it's a red flag when a customer says a general statement like "I want them kept up". It happend to me today!
First thing I do is (if i'm not already in front of them) I request a meeting to walk the prop. and I ask them to define "kept up" to me. What do YOU mean by kept up, I force them (in a nice way) to be specific so I can be specific. With that you will better understand their desire as to what it needs to look like, you can meet their needs much more effectively. I shudder when I get someone who will under all situations avoid being specific.
From my experience it always pays to spend that extra time "grilling " the customer so as to know what their expectations are. You will both be happier. After trying to get them to be specific and they can't or won't I pad the bid in anticipation of more problems. On very rare instances I will explain that I can't help them.

[Southern Lawns]

Also........When you get a situation with a lack of specifics you can for the most part refer to their Landscape education or lack of. If you spend a few minutes to educate them on what they NEED you will most likely get the specifics once they understand.
Don't know if my experiences will help, good luck.
Raymond

[Ssouth]

Andy, I feel the same way you do about bed maintenance. I don't mention this service, but if someone ask I'll do it. What I normally do is:
1.) Charge an initial clean-up fee; which includes everthing needed to gets the beds up to an initial standard. ( weeding, tilling, fert., mulching, and etc...)
2.) Estimate how long it will take to keep the beds clean/visit. And add this to your mowing time and charge accordingly. For weekly weeding I charge $20/hr and I pay some one $10 an hour cash. ( I never have over 5 hrs of weeding a week )
3.)Estimate trimming/pruning time. Trimming intervals are determined by planted materials. This could vary from monthly, quarterly, annual, or even by request. If know how many times you will pruning, just average that cost in with the mowing and weeding. If you are doing it by request, I would bill that seperatly and bid it on how long they wait.
4.) Estimate for mulch touch-ups and average this into the bid.

After you have all the above bases covered ask the manager if there is any other services that she would like such as seasonal plantings or anything else that you are willing to provide.

Hope this makes since to ya'.

Ssouth
Hope this makes since to you.

Ssouth

[bridges]

I have done some bed maintenance for condo complex. The bed areas I would guess total 4,000sq or more. Thet are all shrubs

They wanted the beds to be pretty much weed free. they paid $300 for 5 months. I quoted $500 , I came down to 300 to keep the client happy.
Shrub prunning was more.

All I did was spray the weeds with roundup It took only 15mins.

I did that on the mowing day when i was there. and sprayed every other week.

I would charge a first time clean up fee and then so much a month after that.(just for weeding)

Then so much to mulch and so much to trim the shrubs once or twice a year.

[Premo Services]

This is a little different situation. I offered contracts to my customers this year. On the proposals this year, I included xxx hours a month(at my price per hour). I will spend at least that much time. Sometimes there will be more time spent, and then I will be invoicing for the extra time. I think it will work out well. I have a hard time estimating how long the maint. will take on some jobs, so at least I will be geting paid no matter how long it takes. ;)

[Turfdude]

Andy,

Once snow melts, you'll see what kind of mess your up against. Bid job for initial cleaning of beds, weeding,mulching and add in time and mats for a good weed pre-M (snapshot, gallery, etc). These do help.

See if you can be able to use round-up, scythe, or finale each week when mowing to keep weeds at bay (quicker and cheaper than weeding). Try to factor in at least one more pre-M application mid season.
Let client know this is the most cost effective way so its a win-win situation for both of you!

Good luck

Bob

[LawnLad]

Bed maintenance can be a beatiful thing. But a pain in the $ss too. I like BMTC (the abbreviation I use) because it answers the customer's needs and many people don't like to do it. As well, it makes you full service.

Pricing by the job - flat rate for BMTC is not something we'll do. All the BMTC jobs are T&M, regardless.

Figuring out a level of service is the tough part. You have to understand the customer's expectations and communicate with them to make sure you're meeting their needs. Explain that you can't give them a flat rate unless you know exactly what they want, which you won't know until after you've done the job. You're not willing to risk the job/relationship on unknown quantities. So rather than them freak out over price, tell 'em your hourly rate, give 'em estimate of 10 to 14 hours (or whatever) and if it's too much, tell 'em to give you a budget to stay under. When they ask for more, remind them it'll be outside their budget. Ask them if this is okay. Let them set their own price, and let them know what you can do for their budget.

[AndyL]

Wow, I'm somewhat surprised... Lots of people do lots of different things for bed maintenance. Suddenly I'm getting clearer about why some customers over the last few years have been tickled pink, or royally pissed at me...

Just out of curiosity, just what exactly do you guys include in bed maintenance? Is there a happy medium? I know the customers want the world for their $.02, but...

In my world, Bed maintenance, was something I spent a few minutes on per job each week... With my previous employer, it was mostly just weeding/turning/scratching. I worked it out to a 2 week cycle, first week I'd run the mantis or echo with the tiller through the beds to turn them nicely and make sure they had a pristine edge, pulling out rhyzomes as I found them. Second week, would be a weeding and application of round up or 24D, as needed. Shrub care was seperate, same with fertilizing... Mulching is a foreign concept to me, just what is it?

Just got off the phone with the manager, had a long chat. Turns out this is actually her resposibility, that she doesn't want to do. And she's going to pay out of pocket, she wants planting of annuals, pruning, shearing, weeding, and her budget is pretty small (she said her budget was 100$/month; hmmm, my crew rate is 75/hr...) Going to have to sit down with her tomorow, I don't see much I can do for her at that budget. At best throw down one of those "wild flower seed" mixes and try to keep things more-or less weeded.

We wont even get into the request for watering services! :)

But at the same time these are great customers, every other week, I get a call from either the manager or the owner, asking what they currently owe for snow removal. And its been dropped off the next day! How sweet is that?! They've already pre-paid for spring cleanup, and first months mowing (gave them a 5% discount for pre-paying, that cheque arrived within hours of the quote) Did I mention there's still 2' of snow on their turf?!

I might just have to find some room in my heart (um wallet) to give these people a break...

Andy