Welcome to the annual egg hunt

 

I have always believed there are enough lawns out there for everyone, but that was before Covid and the hottest/driest summer in 70 years.

Now, it seems all companies are scrambling for the almighty dollar to feed their bottom lines, and willing to get down and dirty to make it happen.

Sure, we've lost our fair-share of customers (mostly new from 2020) who decided it was our fault for the weather, and what it did to the lawns last year. Yet, we've also gained a shit-ton as homeowners play Swing-your-partner in hope of a better alternative.

Still, the dark and devious behavior of some of our competitors has been  just short of abhorrent. 

We've had our service calls removed from a potential customer's mailbox and replaced by one from the offending company. We've had companies cold-call our customers pretending to be us and getting them to sign up for service with their lawn care instead. And we've had lawns poached by cancelled companies who went ahead and did the spring fertilizer on the property anyway.

This last trick has been going on for years, and you should be made aware of it. It is called negative billing.

In fine print on the invoice, the bigger lawn care providers have a statement declaring,  in one form or another "This is a continuous service." Unless you cancel by a designated date---usually sometime in October---you are automatically renewed for another season.

Sometimes they will show and do an application even when you have cancelled. This taking the money of the street is very effective as they know most people would rather pay the invoice instead of being threatened with legal action.

This is also something we have to be keenly aware of when we arrive at a new property in case it has already been fertilized.

I don't need to call these companies out by name for the way they conduct business because I suspect you are smart enough to figure out who they are.

I realize, as a business owner, you need to make money in order to keep your company afloat, but you also need to maintain a reasonable level of integrity---a lesson sadly lost on some of the big guys in the industry.

In my opinion it is the only way you are going to keep finding enough eggs and the chocolate within.