Free leaf cleanups?

[jay albers]

I feel like i'm cleaning my customers leaves up for free.I have a bagger on my zero turn so I use it now. I don't want to go over the leaves and look like crap on the lawn, so I bag them. Problem is the bagger gets full real quick. It's not to bad cause they usually live near woods so I dump them there.

I feel like I'm doing fall clean ups for free. How do you guys handle it?

[extremerc76]

i feel like im kinda in the same position, not really sure what to do. i have been just considering the extra work of bagging when i do the final clean up and give the price for that, but lost a customer last season because of this.

[clean_cut]

How much trouble is it for you to bag? If all you have to do is empty it every 5 or 10 min, then maybe you could just ask for $5 more for the trouble, but if you have to spend 30 min getting the leaves out of the beds, yard, driveway, etc, then putting them in a pile, then on a tarp, then in the woods, I would ask for a little more money.

Just charge depending on the amount of trouble and time the cleanup is.

[extremerc76]

well i have to haul away the extra debris then have to get rid of it

[Runner]

Our fallcleanups are done on two different levels or packages. Some customers get nothing picked up until they are abou all down. we go in, blow off th drive, patio areas, and maybe out of some corners, nooks, and crannies. We then go in at the end and pick them up. One advantage to us in thispackage, is that by the time we do the final haul, we are taking much less total material out because of the shredding factor.
The other package; we go in upon every visit, blow off the drives, walks, patios, corners, etc., then vacuum up the leaves with the cut. This costs the customr more for two reasons...First, obviously, we are spending more time doing it (many areas are blown off/out more tha once), and second, thy are paying for having a neater yard more time out of the fall. Now,...when we do this method, we do NOT get the lawn real clean...there's just no sense in it. This is explained to the customer ahead of time on this package. the reason being, is because in to days, many times you can never even tell we were in there in the first place. More trees drop, stuff blows in from neighbors' yards, etc.. You have GOT to arrange a plan of action and have it confirmed with the customer ahead of time.