Hey it’s Dave at Green Meadow Lawn Care and today I would like to talk to you a little bit about pricing. I’ve been in the business now for 31 years, I’ve worked for six different lawn care companies and, no I’m not a job jumper, but early on i did have a couple different jobs that had two/three years..most recently I left a job after 17 years and I’ve been with Green Meadow now for three years. So I’ve come to understand that there’s some things that companies include and some of the things they don’t include.
It can be confusing, you know, we want to get the best deal but we also want to get the best value and it’s not always the same. Not all products are created equal. If you’ve ever gone out to a steakhouse and gotten a burger, you know that you’re going to expect a difference in the quality. And usually the difference in the price is going to go hand in hand.
That’s the same thing for the lawn care industry – in our industry we see people that are coming in with the low prices and you can expect they’re going to come in with a low quality product.
Things that you could buy off the shelf and then there’s companies you see the prices are a little bit higher and you can expect to pay a higher price but you’re going to get a better result. The next thing I want to talk to you a little bit about are the lawn care specialists. In my 31 years in the business to me this is the critical value point – if you’ve got somebody that knows what they’re doing, cares for what they’re doing, has the experience, and builds a relationship with you – that’s when you get true value.
Make sure you know who’s going to come to your lawn – if a company is not telling you who’s going to come to your lawn, it’s probably going to be somebody different if not every other year, every year, maybe every month. If he gets to know your lawn he’s going to know how it behaves, he’s going to know how it reacts, he’s going to know what you’re looking for – that relationship between the specialist and the customer is critical to making sure you get the best value from your lawn care company.
The next thing I want to talk to you about when it comes to pricing is a la carte services. A lot of companies like Green Meadow will include everything and you’ll see the price is fair but usually a little bit higher than that discount lawn care company. You need to know what’s in each one of the services. If a company is telling you what’s inside of the services you have a much better idea of what’s going in to make up that cost. Some of the things you want to be careful and watch out for if you’re getting an estimate and it seems ridiculously low and you count six services and you’re like okay – one, two, three, four, where’s my fifth service?
? Some companies will actually leave off that winter fertilizer and you’re going to get a call in the fall and they’re going to say “hey you want to have this” and you didn’t expect it – there’s a hidden cost right there.
Another thing you want to look out for is that surface insect control – it’s kind of become a little bit of a thing that companies are doing lately where they’re talking about giving you a free surface insect control. Well I started in 1990 in the lawn care industry and everybody included it – now some people are giving it to you for “free” when it’s always been there! Nutsedge Control – if you’ve ever had that lime green grass in the middle of summer that grows three times as fast as everything else- that’s nutsedge and it’s real difficult to get under control.
The product that you need to control it is really expensive so some lawn care companies have taken advantage of that and said “all right, we’re gonna start charging you say past a thousand square feet” or if you need to treat it at all see if there’s an extra charge that can really drive the price up. Special weed controls – this one blew me away a couple years ago when somebody said you know I spent $400 getting rid of my ground ivy I’m like what?! that’s included in a program! Not with this company that they were telling me about.
So know what’s going into those programs. The last thing I want to talk to you about is additives – biostimulants, humic acid, organic fertilizer these are all things that boost up your fertility in your lawn care program. There’s regular fertilizer and then there’s that extra fun stuff – see if there’s some fun stuff in those applications and if there’s not, ask about it say “hey you know what what would a humic acid application cost” and most people look at you like “huh”? If they’re not familiar with these little things that are going to boost up your program they’re probably just a basic lawn care company. The last thing you want to consider when you are pricing out your lawn care program is the square footage of your lawn.
Ask the company how big is my lawn? If they’ve under-measured your lawn, they’re gonna under-price it and you’re thinking “that’s great” It’s not. If the service person shows up to do your half-price lawn care, guess what? You’re getting half-price lawn care. That’s the way it works, it’s just the reality of the business.
Check out how they’re measuring your lawn, there’s a lot of different ways to do it but at the end of the day, if you’ve talked to three people and two people are telling you it’s just one square footage and the other guy’s saying it’s half, throw that one away, it’s no good.