What is the farthest you have drove for one customer?

What is the farthest you have driven out of your local route for one customer? I have a customer that would also like for me to take care of her mother lawn. Her mother's property is about 20min. off my route. The property would take me about 45min to mow. Also there is potential to pick up customers in neighboring developments.

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Last edited by mruiz; 01-25-2009 at 12:20 PM.

[CloseCuts]

Lawn care business tips

If i were to go that far I would charge a little more because its only her. Just let her know that sh'e the only one in this area. If she could get a few people to join up you wouldn't have to charge so much. Also you could do some flyers in those local areas around her.

[musician/lawnman]

Ehhhh, Depends on how bad you NEED the business man. Think about it. You could flyer there & pick up a few more, but you could do the same in your back yard & pick up a few more close to home. Even if you get 10-15 properties out there, it's always gonna be out of the way. Then what if you get a call from a potential client 5 miles further out than them? Do you go since your almost there anyway? At some point you should draw a line in the sand & say THIS IS AS FAR AS I GO. A one time landscape job might be different but for a trip you'll be making weekly.... drive time kills lco's daily.

[Steve]

Depends on how bad you NEED the business man. Think about it. You could flyer there & pick up a few more, but you could do the same in your back yard & pick up a few more close to home.

This is really well put.

Survival is survival. If you need the extra work, then do it. But I think this point really brings up what your competitive advantage is and part of what it should be is you service a specific service area that allows you to keep your prices within a competitive range. The further you go out the more you have to charge to cover your costs.

If you focus within your immediate area, you can build up the illusion of your image more. You can appear to be all over town all day long and people will think your company is bigger than it may be. The more times they see you out and about, the more impressions you will make upon them. At a certain point you will reach that magical number where you could potentially hit the top of mind awareness point and people will call you first when they need lawn care.

You can charge more for that customer and hopefully get it! on the other hand, mom could locate a local guy that also services the same area as the the original account and possibly loose both. The fact that you were referred hopefully means you made an impression on the client. If the referral is based on your lower price per square foot marketing than only you can figure your cost's and decide.

Scope the referral area and check income levels between point A and B. You might find an over priced market by a competitor that's prime for you to step in and handle.

Good luck!

Tom

Originally Posted by CloseCuts

If i were to go that far I would charge a little more because its only her. Just let her know that sh'e the only one in this area. If she could get a few people to join up you wouldn't have to charge so much. Also you could do some flyers in those local areas around her.

Closecut, funny that you said this cause when I called the woman, I let her know it was out of my area. But I will see if I can pick up a customer here and there to justify my travel time

Originally Posted by musician/lawnman

Ehhhh, Depends on how bad you NEED the business man. Think about it. You could flyer there & pick up a few more, but you could do the same in your back yard & pick up a few more close to home. Even if you get 10-15 properties out there, it's always gonna be out of the way. Then what if you get a call from a potential client 5 miles further out than them? Do you go since your almost there anyway? At some point you should draw a line in the sand & say THIS IS AS FAR AS I GO. A one time landscape job might be different but for a trip you'll be making weekly.... drive time kills lco's daily.

We all need the business if not we won’t be on here trying to find ways in marketing. Websites, flyer and etc… But I totally agree with (its’ always out of the way) well put.

Our drive time radius was 30mins...if we cannot get from out home base to the customers home within 30mins then we cannot do the job. I found that with people that are out of the way I always was able to pick up more clients along the route. And I always charge a premium for distance. Fridays were my most profitable day and I drove the most on that day too.

Originally Posted by Steve

This is really well put.

Survival is survival. If you need the extra work, then do it. But I think this point really brings up what your competitive advantage is and part of what it should be is you service a specific service area that allows you to keep your prices within a competitive range. The further you go out the more you have to charge to cover your costs.

If you focus within your immediate area, you can build up the illusion of your image more. You can appear to be all over town all day long and people will think your company is bigger than it may be. The more times they see you out and about, the more impressions you will make upon them. At a certain point you will reach that magical number where you could potentially hit the top of mind awareness point and people will call you first when they need lawn care.

Steve, If I could drive out of my driveway with my Ztr and setup it up to carry my blower and line trimmer ( I’m working on this ) and service all my customers I would be in heaven. My radius right now is about 3 mile for mowing.
But you make sense, in staying close by and making your imagine bigger.

Originally Posted by grounded

You can charge more for that customer and hopefully get it! on the other hand, mom could locate a local guy that also services the same area as the the original account and possibly loose both. The fact that you were referred hopefully means you made an impression on the client. If the referral is based on your lower price per square foot marketing than only you can figure your cost's and decide.

Scope the referral area and check income levels between point A and B. You might find an over priced market by a competitor that's prime for you to step in and handle.

Good luck!

Tom

Tom, You have brought up some views that I didnt think about.

Thanks to everyone for some great ideas!