What Every Landscaping Customer Really Wants
Are you sure you're meeting all of the needs of your current customers? There are some things your landscaping clients wish you knew. However, they might not ever get the opportunity to share these things with you. The truth is that knowing how to anticipate and meet the needs of your clients is the secret to creating loyalty and cultivating long-term business relationships. What do your clients wish you knew? Take a look at the seven things landscaping clients wish their landscapers knew.
Consistency Is Appreciated
Your clients appreciate consistency when it comes to the level of service they can expect. One of the best ways to deliver consistent service is to make sure the same people show up to do the job time after time. Clients really appreciate seeing familiar faces showing up at their homes. This helps a client to feel safe because they have the opportunity to cultivate a relationship with the person who is cutting their grass or tending to their shrubbery. The truth is that nobody wants a stranger showing up every time they make a landscaping appointment. How can you deliver on this? Make sure your scheduling methods can be used to assign the same staff members to the same client addresses over and over again.
Easy Scheduling Can Save the Day
People are busy. Your clients don't have a lot of time to try to track you down to book appointments. Even something as simple as placing a phone call can be tough for people who are trying to juggle tons of responsibilities and obligations. Your clients would like the process of booking appointments with your company to be as simple as possible. Do you have a streamlined option for booking appointments? It might be time to consider upgrading your booking process. It's important for clients to be able to reach out to you online and over the phone.
Everyone Likes to Be Asked for Feedback
You don't always have direct contact with your clients if you own a landscaping business. You are often sending other people to complete jobs on your behalf. That's simply the way business works. However, this can cause your clients to feel out of touch when it comes to communicating about their experiences. Most people don't feel compelled to reach out to provide feedback unless something catastrophic happens. That means that your clients could have small complaints or suggestions for improvement that are going ignored. Those little things may not seem major to you. However, they could ultimately cause clients to go elsewhere with their business over time. That's why it's so important to reach out for feedback without being prompted. Provide short surveys a few times a year to get true feedback from the people who use your services. This will make your clients feel like you care about their opinions and give you a chance to correct any minor issues that you may not be aware of.
Your Suggestions Can Be Helpful
Most homeowners are happy to learn about little tips and tricks for keeping their properties looking attractive and healthy. This can range from tips for choosing the best kinds of trees for privacy to strategies for arranging a backyard fire pit in the best way. Are you providing your clients with tips for optimizing their lawns all year long? You should be. This can easily be done by delivering a seasonal newsletter four times a year. You can choose to distribute the newsletter in paper form or simply send it off as an email. The good thing about offering tips is that everyone wins. Your clients will get information that can help them to reach their lawn goals. You will have an opportunity to get more business by inspiring your clients to introduce some new ideas at their properties.
Loyalty Should Be Rewarded
Your long-term clients want to feel appreciated. That's why you should be keeping track of loyalty and rewarding it. This can be done by setting up a loyalty club for frequent customers. Discounts can be given whenever your clients reach milestones based on how many appointments they've booked or how long they've been working with you. A solid plan for rewarding and cultivating loyalty could be the thing that stops your clients from going to the other landscaper in town just to try out something new.
Sending Reminders About All of Your Services Is Important
A client could get so used to you delivering one service that they forget what else you offer. That's why it's important to remind clients about the vast assortment of services you offer every once in a while. Clients appreciate these reminders because they can help them to avoid the task of trying to track down a contractor or some other company when they need projects done. For instance, a client may not realize that you also build water features or fire pits even though they've been using your company for mowing services for years. Be proactive about capturing new projects from existing clients by sending out little catalogs regarding your services a few times a year. Of course, you should also be posting about some of your larger or unconventional projects on social media to show off what you're capable of doing.
Good Communication Is Everything
Clients don't want to feel like everything comes down to a guessing game when it comes to what they'll get. They want to know exactly what their lawn will look like once the job is done, how much everything will cost and how long the process will take. That's why being as specific as possible regarding timelines, budgets and other project details is so important. What's more, visuals can be especially helpful when it comes to making sure everyone is on the same page before any work actually begins. Good communication at the starting point can ensure a better experience for everyone involved and reduce the risk of disappointment on the client's end.
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