Potential new customers that are cheapos

[jymie]

I had two instances where I got calls for one time cuts. The first lady, we went to the house on the day we said we would be there, told her $30 to do the cut. She him-ed and hawed and came back with "I usually only pay $25 to get it cut..." (Prior to the day of the cut she told me her normal lawn guy stopped coming, Must be she owes him money I would guess, so I already had a bad feeling about her) I said no $30 was the cost to cut it. Then she said well you need to move all the stuff on the lawn then put it back after its done, and you have to weed whack all the beds too. I went to my truck and just left. She wanted $75 worth of work for $30. No Thank You. Another lady we did a cut for her for $40, it was pretty high, the next week she had us cut her bushes, then the next week we did her beds in the front of the house. I told her if she wanted us to cut it again, $30 would be OK, she comes back with $20 to cut it, I said no, so she said she will make her son cut it then so we left and left it at that. That was three weeks ago and the lawn is still not been cut since we did it 5 weeks ago. She will need to pay $40 is she calls us to cut it again. Anyone else have customers that try to cheapen you on your price? How would you have handled these two situations?

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[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Lawn care business tips

It sounds like you did the right thing. There will always be customers who constantly attempt to make you lower your price. I've always found it best to walk away and let them become someone else's headache.

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[Steve]

Jymie,

Do you ever get a feel that this is going to happen as you are walking up to their front door? Or maybe can you tell when you are talking with them on the phone?

Or do they simply surprise you?

[jymie]

All three ways. I got a feeling on the phone with that first one, then the face to face went poorly, the last one was a surprise as we did work for her 1st as a cut, then next week we trimmed her bushes and lastly the next week we did her beds. So I figured she may want the continued cut at $30. To each their own I guess, She has a very lazy son it looks like .

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

Jymie,

Do you ever get a feel that this is going to happen as you are walking up to their front door? Or maybe can you tell when you are talking with them on the phone?

Or do they simply surprise you?

Not to cut in they surprise you, I can sometimes tell on the phone but......stick to your guns

[jklawncare]

I had a customer that tried and do this to me every week with the excuse that her previous company did it for 10 cheaper than me.

Her lawn before me was TORN apart. tires carved ruts when they turned in her yard, parts were dying, and trimming was missed in spots and burned out in others.

I explained to her that the people before her didnt know what they were doing and if she wants my service it will cost her the asked price.

her response: my husband has been mowing the lawn for quite some time i think he knows what hes doing.

me: im sorry?

her: uhh....my husband owns a lawn company.

i went home and typed up a letter dropping her as a customer after collecting my last payments. i had her for a little over a month.

[Steve]

Why would she hire another lawn care business when her husband owns his own lawn care business himself? Did that make any sense to you?

[mcscapes]

Stick to your pricing and contracts takes all the surprise out for both of you all my customers pay monthly or bi weekly in advance. No questions asked even family.

[Steve]

all my customers pay monthly or bi weekly in advance.

What made you go with having the bi-weekly customers pay in advance?

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by jymie

I had two instances where I got calls for one time cuts. The first lady, we went to the house on the day we said we would be there, told her $30 to do the cut. She him-ed and hawed and came back with "I usually only pay $25 to get it cut..." (Prior to the day of the cut she told me her normal lawn guy stopped coming, Must be she owes him money I would guess, so I already had a bad feeling about her) I said no $30 was the cost to cut it. Then she said well you need to move all the stuff on the lawn then put it back after its done, and you have to weed whack all the beds too. I went to my truck and just left. She wanted $75 worth of work for $30. No Thank You.

Another lady we did a cut for her for $40, it was pretty high, the next week she had us cut her bushes, then the next week we did her beds in the front of the house. I told her if she wanted us to cut it again, $30 would be OK, she comes back with $20 to cut it, I said no, so she said she will make her son cut it then so we left and left it at that. That was three weeks ago and the lawn is still not been cut since we did it 5 weeks ago. She will need to pay $40 is she calls us to cut it again.

Anyone else have customers that try to cheapen you on your price? How would you have handled these two situations?

oh man that happed to me 3 months ago, i got a call from a guy asking if we could give him an estimate i came to see the property and told him i would come biweekly mowing, weeding, edging, trimming and debris clearing and a fertilizing program was included in the price we would trim as needed he had the right side of his property full of bushes, the fertilizing is done twice a year i told him it would be $120 a month he told me it was fine so i started to work.
The previous gardener did a horrible job so i had to trim weed and edge more then usual but i had already told him a price so i stuck to it and i left it at that on tuesday i went back and droped off the bill and started to work on the property i finished weeding when he came out and said what i had charged was too expensive... i told him we had already talked about it n he said his other gardener charged him $75 a month, but oviously did not weed edge or even trim the bushes, i explained that to him and he asked me if we would drop the price, i told him i would drop one of his services either trimming or weeding for $10-$20 off the price, he has lots of weeds in all his flower beds and lots of bushes, he said he would pay me every time he needed the trimming service but i told him it would cost $30 unless he did it monthly and he agreed to it. so both me and him are happy till now


but i also had other call me saying their previous gardeners charged them $20 and wanted to know if i could do the same, which i just say here is my bid let me know if you are interested give them my card and leave :P