Competition take away?

[Liberty Landscaping LLC]

I am with hedge. If you go in and knock or leave material on every house and then one customer starts a bandwagon effect like he had that is not at all you fault. They like your quality and your attitude towards your work and them thats what sells. Sometimes your less, even, and sometimes I am more but in the end people sometimes like the way I address them, sir maam, yada yada. I look a lot younger then I am and a lot are shocked when I tell them my age (after they muster up the courage to ask) but I use it to my advantage and work my butt of to make people happy giving me more referals. I say don't target these people but attack a street if I get multiple people on a block I knock a few bucks off of everyone for the less travel time/fuel to get to the next job. It makes it easier on me all around. In the end like Ducky said all is fair in love and war. I do recomend friends in the business for things I don't do but if one of their customers isnt happy and they call me I will take the work. I had one go well Johnny's does it for 10 dollars less a cut....do you know johnny? I say nope but there must be a reason why you called me if you would rather pay 10 dollars less and deal with him not showing up, poor work ethic, not making you happy or whatever prompted you to call me then go ahead and call Johnny back and have a good day. He said when can you start.

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Liberty Landscaping LLC
www.libertylndscpng.com
Woodbridge, NJ

[Sea Lancer]

Lawn care business tips

Thats exactly what im thinking.I know that some customers of other mowing co.are not 100% satisfied and i may get lucky and land a few of those clients but i wont know unless i let them know i exist and can do the job.My conscience tells me dont tread on your fellow mowing brothers but heck if they are going to be replaced any way.....why not find out

[Steve]

Oh I just remembered there is a flyer in the lawn care flyer template section that is designed for this.

[lxarth]

This topic really makes me cringe. The idea of "how can I steal customers" is very...icky.

I've had people ask me to take a look at their property (neighbors of clients), and ask about certain areas, namely moss. They somewhat complain to me that the company doing the work hasn't taken care of the moss.

I tell them that I'm not in the business of stealing customers, and that I would hope other companies do that same for me, and that they should talk to their current company about when they had planned to treat it. I mention that they might have a certain day or week they are plan to put chemicals down.

I don't really know what else to say...

[mark123]

Originally Posted by lxarth

This topic really makes me cringe. The idea of "how can I steal customers" is very...icky. ...

What makes you think the customers belong to you? It's the same failed philosophy of selling a customer list along with equipment as if they somehow belong to the new business owner.

If the customer calls you, I say give them an estimate. If one of my customers call you and you offer better quality, better reliability or a better price then they have every right to hire you.

I do have 3 friends that I try not to compete against and if it happens I give them a courtesy call to explain the issue and ask them to try to correct it before I make a bid on the job. Otherwise capitalism works for the betterment of all involved.

I personally don't go around starting wars by purposely targeting other companies customers but if they call me I'll take the job. I'm not a hypocrite about it though, if they take all my work and shut me down, I'll put in an application with them the next day.

Originally Posted by mark123

What makes you think the customers belong to you? It's the same failed philosophy of selling a customer list along with equipment as if they somehow belong to the new business owner.

If the customer calls you, I say give them an estimate. If one of my customers call you and you offer better quality, better reliability or a better price then they have every right to hire you.

I do have 3 friends that I try not to compete against and if it happens I give them a courtesy call to explain the issue and ask them to try to correct it before I make a bid on the job. Otherwise capitalism works for the betterment of all involved.

I personally don't go around starting wars by purposely targeting other companies customers but if they call me I'll take the job. I'm not a hypocrite about it though, if they take all my work and shut me down, I'll put in an application with them the next day.

You said it better than I did.

[JamesB]

I would personally Not go knocking on the doors of competitors customers, unless you know the customer personally. Yes, go talk with the other guys and pick their brain. Find out what works and doesn't work to get customers. Ask if they have any customers they would like to give you to get started. Yes, it is competitive out here, but we do have an image that we need to adhere to and if someone wants to go to one of my customers and try to under bid me, I tell that customer of their intentions and remind them of my work ethics and that I have been and always will be there for them. If you price yourself and 'our' business low, then one day everyone will be low and no one can make a decent living doing what we do. That is to make someones yard look better than they can and act like we can't.

[lxarth]

The OP posted the question on what we thought about stealing customers by going directly to the known customers houses in an attempt to steal the business away.

If he wanted to go throughout a neighborhood and promote his business, good for him, but that's just not how I read it.

The customers belong to me, just as I belong to them. I don't say "This is Mr. Anderson, a customer to a lawn care business"...no. I say: "This is Mr. Anderson, my customer". Just as the customer doesn't refer to me as "that guy who mows the lawns in the neighborhood"...they are more apt to say: "That's my landscaper". I've heard a customer say to a neighbor who wanted to speak with me "hey, don't steal him, he's mine".

We put possession to a lot of things. It's not weird to put possession on our customers.

Anyways, I digress.

[CHEESE2009]

Take all the lawns.

[Ducke]

I have no problem going to a customer that is not happy with the service they are getting, I had a guy call me last year as he saw me drive by. He was not happy with the guy doing his lawn . I gave him a quote and he hired me there on the lawn. He is now a regular customer for 2012 I had no problem taking that customer away from the other guy. He is lazy and inconsistent dose poor work and has no respect for his customers. He had split gas on this guys lawn while working on his broke lawn mower. But I will not go and knock on doors and shoot someone's work down. not even this guys work but I will canvases a neighborhood that I know is serviced by someone that is giving poor service, That's just business. I get 10 or so fliers in my door every spring and I am a lawn care operator.

I tell them that I'm not in the business of stealing customers, and that I would hope other companies do that same for me, and that they should talk to their current company about when they had planned to treat it. I mention that they might have a certain day or week they are plan to put chemicals down.

I don't really know what else to say...

I would have taken this customer in a flash, if the customer is not happy with ABC lawn Care I will take care of him better. Its money in your pocket if you keep giving out free advice and walking away you won't be in business very long.

I would personally Not go knocking on the doors of competitors customers, unless you know the customer personally.

When canvasing a neighborhood how am I to know who gets service and don't I go to every door and talk to who ever will talk to me, A sale is a sale.
As I said above I would not bad mouth any competitor I leave that to the customer.