Nothing but headaches

Man, the last 10 days have been nothing but a headache for me with the application side of the business, while the lawn maintenance side is picking up and I am actually taking on more lawn maintenance customers (even though I am trying to get out of it...I think). I specifically tell all of my application customers up front that I can not 100% take care of their weeds. *They all know that I use granular products. *There are two customers that are becoming a pain in my side, one in particular. * She called around the 28th of April, complaining about all the dandelions in her lawn. *I informed her that i was going to be at her place on the 2nd, for her next round of application, but if she wanted me too I would stop over and check up on her lawn. *I went over there, and there was 5 dandelions there. *The funny thing I looked over her entire lawn, and it looked the best that it had ever looked...ever. *But to please her, I spot sprayed for those five dandelions, and then on the 2nd of May, I did the actual application. *Well, 2 days later I get a phone call from her complaining about the dandelions. *I just sat there listening to the answering machine and shaking my head telling my wife, "Heck, I just did the application 48hrs ago, she expects results that fast?" I am not evening bothering calling back. *I have been going out of my way for her the last 2 years, and I am done. * Her lawn looks amazing compared to when I took it over. * The second customer calls up questioning whether I actually did an application on the lawn because of how fast it took me. *It was an approx 12,000 sq ft lawn, and my broadcast spearder spreads approx 10 feet across. *The lawn took me like 8 mins and she is complaining that I wasn't there enough. *The way she talked she even questioned whether I applied something on her lawn since she still has weeds. *I just applied her product on the 2nd as well. *It's funny of how fast these people think results will happen. *And with this customer in particular I remember I made a point up front to her that it would take multiple applications to see any great results. *The reason that I made this point is because two years ago she only had me do one application for dandelions (which believe it or not, did an amazing job) and she wasn't happy with it. One other thing, I give this lady a $4 discount off from the price. I was talking with my wife and telling her, "Maybe going into strictly application is not a great idea."

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Troy, Don't let them get you down. 10% of your customers will eat up 90% of your time if they are able to. If they get to be too much of a hassle, it might be better to just let them go. You can't make everyone happy. What do you think you might do to overcome this?

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Well, the one customer in particular I have gone way out of my way to accomidate her. If she hadn't already pre-paid for the entire season I would cut her. I even gave her a 5% discount on the pre-pay.

The other lady I feel is just going to keep on being a pain no matter what. I am just going to hopefully bite me lip with her.

So far this year I have had only 3 people complain about weeds. The two above and one other lady. The other lady is another example of where I applied an application, and like 3 days later she was wondering why there still was weeds there. This lawn was horrible though. She is a brand new customer that I just picked up 3 weeks and I have a really bad feeling about her. I just feel that she is going to not only stiff me on the application side, but also approx $150.00 in black dirt that I had delivered to her house. Even if she doesn't stiff me, I feel that she will pay late. Just a gut feeling

[Steve]

Isn't it amazing how just a few bad apples can really ruin the joy of owning your business?