This post may be a bit longer than the answer you are looking for, but I made some mistakes and hope that maybe I can save someone else from making the same ones.
I have gotten myself into trouble more than once trying to offer something for everyone. examples:
A) Customer goes out of town frequently and asks if I can "fill in" mowing when he is out of town. I quote the price to him, then, every time he goes out of town, he conveniently "forgets" to call me until he has been out of town for 2 or 3 weeks so I wind up mowing 12" high grass. Since I mow his neighbor's lawn, I also notice twice that he has not left town, because his truck is in the driveway and his front door is open, but he still calls me and says he is out of town.
B) Customer wants mowing only, no trimming, blowing or edging because she wants a lower price. I quote a price for cut rate work and get the job. A few weeks later, I am putting out flyers in the neighborhood and a neighbor tells me she would never consider hiring someone who does such crappy work. Luckily she allowed me a chance to explain, but that only clarified the story with one single neighbor. Eventually, the neighbors start complaining to the homeowner's association about the customer's less than great lawn. To save face the customer tells the homeowner's association that she had hired a crappy LCO and hadn't fired me because she didn't want it on her conscience that I could have financial hardship if she fired me. I nearly got picketed by the neighbors before the neighbor I had spoken to told me what had happened. I had a flyer printed out with photos of my lawns and testimonials from customers complete with telephone numbers & email addresses, but still have only 2 customers in that subdivision which is probably the 2nd or 3rd nicest and 2nd largest in the city.
I could name a few more examples, but you get the idea.
Now I offer 4 lawn care packages, 2 mowing packages (both include trimming, edging & blowing; the difference is that 1 has scheduled visits and the other mows as needed making sure to never cut off more than 30% of the grass blade in a single cut), 2 tree/shrub packages, and 1 "everything" package.
Both mowing packages have a minimum of 2 mowings per month March - November, because even during a drought some areas of the lawn will continue growing and if those areas are left to grow just because most of the lawn doesn't need to be cut it makes me look bad and is bad for the lawn. Typically, for "spot mowings" during droughts I use 21" push mowers to mow only the area where it is needed and discount the invoice by 20 - 30%. When I switched to the twice monthly minimum, I lost a total of 2 customers and 1 of those 2 returned the following spring.
The only things that I offer "a la carte" are mulching & tree/shrub trimming. If I mow on an "on call" basis, the price quoted goes up by 20% if the grass is less than 7" tall. If the grass is over 7" the price increases by another 20% for every inch over 7" tall. I don't surprise them with the increased price, as it is printed on my bid sheet in bold red print With so many different packages, I typically have something for everyone & have very few misunderstandings.
