Reconnect With Customers Mid-Summer

The communication is flowing between your lawn care company and your customers early in the season. Folks want you to green up their lawns and keep crabgrass at bay. This momentum keeps up until the hazy days of summer.

But, how do you stay top of mind with your lawn care or landscaping customers in July?

Strategy is Key

Six lawn care and landscaping companies were interviewed to share how they touch base with their clients in mid-summer. Overall, these companies educate their clients, whether it’s about turf disease or upcoming fall services.

All companies were purposeful in their outreach approach and some have specific strategies to reach out to their customers about their summer landscaping. For example, Jay Worth of Tomlinson and Bomberger in Lancaster, PA, says, “We strategically send out email blasts. Since turf diseases were rampant last summer in Pennsylvania because of all of the rain, we also posted blogs raising awareness of turf diseases.”

Stacie Callaghan of Gachina Landscape Management located in Menlo Park, CA, shares: “(I) do my best to schedule regular social media posts highlighting seasonal tasks. It’s important to schedule more than one (social media post), so it sticks. (I) space them out far enough that it doesn’t seem repetitive.”

Photo: Tomlinson and Bomberger

Becoming Customer-Centric

Many lawn care operators educate their clients based on what the customers see in their lawns. For example, Mike Sisti of FMC Global Solutions in Philadelphia, PA, has 25 years in the green industry, including 13 years as an lawn care operator. So, he’s an expert on mid-season communication with customers.

Sisti would send educational newsletters out to his customers. For example, using the Northeast’s rainy summers over the past few years, Sisti would send out newsletters focusing on turf diseases, such as red thread and dollar spot.

And he would teach his customers about smart cultural practices they could use right away, such as sharp mowing blades, cut at 3″, and good irrigation practices.

“These tips, along with images of the diseases, help the homeowner more readily identify the issue, but also help establish your business as a resource,” Sisti says.

Mark Kelbacher of Stay Green Lawn Services of Chicopee, MA, offers these three tips for communicating with your clients mid-season:

1. Proactively reach out via phone or personal email asking your clients how their lawn is doing.
   “The goal here is to open up the lines of communication with your customers and address any potential concerns sooner than later.”
2. Keep communicating through information and educational emails.
   “Keep a close eye on the weather patterns in your market and send an email talking about potential issues the customer may see in their lawns.”
3. Send an email the month before an important service, such as core aeration and seeding.
   “One step further would be to break (down) this email into a couple of groups — those without aeration and overseeding, and those with aeration to upsell the seed(ing),” Sisti states.

Photo: McCoy Horticultural Services, Inc.

Other Ways to Communicate Your Services

Richard A. McCoy, owner and president of McCoy Horticultural Services, Inc., in Ringoes, NJ, educates his clients on his organic lawn and landscape services.

“We’re in continuous contact with our clients via the nature of our frequent services to their properties, and with that, we speak directly to our clients. Additionally, we encourage them to contact us whenever they have questions or concerns.”

Instead of using blogs, social media, or print marketing, McCoy relies on word-of-mouth referrals, which works perfectly for him.

“Due to the success of our programs and our broad range of environmental services, most of our business has been secured by word-of-mouth referrals. We have a detailed website, but we currently don’t have a blog or social media.”

Photo: Spring Green Lawn Care

Direct mail is another way to stay in touch with your customers. Spring Green Lawn Care, a green industry franchise with headquarters located in Naperville, IL, uses it as part of reconnecting with their customers.

“We send out mail to current and potential customers,” says Rachel Gawel, marketing coordinator at Spring Green.

“Potential customers are sent mail that advertise(s) our lawn care programs, whereas current customers receive information on our additional services, such as Total Home Pest Control, Mosquito Control, etc.

“”We leave these to encourage customers to sign up for additional services. A message is also left on the customer’s invoice,” Gawel says.

Stay connected this summer with your clients by educating and reminding them of your services, whether it’s through face-to-face contact, newsletters, social media, or door hangers. You’ll be glad you did this fall.

Komancheck has a passion for helping small- to medium-sized companies succeed. She writes blogs, website content, and other digital marketing pieces for the lawn care and landscape industries. You can learn more about her at www.landscapewriter.com.

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