What is lawn care customer slippage anyway?

Customer Slippage is my term for customers you lose over time when you operate your landscape or lawn care business. Some customers stick around, and some leave. This is about finding out way these customers slip away and then doing the kind of things that make them want to stay.

How does this customer slippage affect your business?

The recurring income is one of the best things about running a lawn-mowing business. This can also be an Achilles heel. In other words, a point of weakness in your business.

No matter how good your marketing is and how many customers you are taking onboard, it is of no help if they are dropping off at the other end.

A profitable lawn mowing business requires a lot of customers, and like a juggler, you need to keep your eye on the ball and know where your customers are.

It’s all about customer retention.

In fact, studies suggest that, depending on your industry, acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an old one. Specifically, I’ve seen that in SaaS, on average, it can cost four to five times more to acquire new customers versus retaining current ones.

Forbs Magazine

Customer Retention Versus Customer Acquisition

I am going to provide you with strategies for keeping those customers happy and reducing customer slippage that can damage the growth of your lawn care business.

The three main reasons for customer slippage.

There are a lot of reasons why people would cancel your lawn mowing service. A change of circumstances or shifting are two of the main reasons.

You cannot do much about people who cancel for these reasons, so I will focus on the reasons that are under your control.

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1. Lack of perceived value

The customer needs to feel like they are getting value for their money. If they feel that they are overpaying for the service, they are not going to stick around for long.

If you promise something, then you need to deliver.

End of story.

2. Inconsistent service quality

Inconsistency can be a detrimental factor for any lawn mowing business, particularly in the highly competitive lawn care industry. Customers seeking reliable and consistent service from lawn care companies often rely on referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations. When a lawn care service business fails to maintain a consistent level of quality and reliability, it jeopardizes its reputation and customer satisfaction.

In this context, consistency extends beyond simply showing up on time; it encompasses the quality of the mowing, the thoroughness of additional services such as pest control or fertilization, and the overall experience a customer has with the company

For example, one cut looks great, and the next one looks unfinished. The path wasn’t blown off because you were running late, or the edges were done on one visit and not the next time.

Inconsistency is incredibly annoying for the customer because they never know what they are coming home to.

I know consistency is much easier to achieve if just one person visits the property. But what happens when you have a few people who mow the lawn, and it’s different every time?

We will talk about that a bit later.

3. Lack of communication

We get a lot of calls from people looking for a quote because their lawn guy hasn’t turned up or they can’t get ahold of them. If you are running a business, this should not be happening.

If you say that you say that you are going to turn up on a certain day, then do it. Tell the customer if you are running late due to a breakdown or the weather.

They don’t say “communication is king” for nothing.

If your customer feels that they have been forgotten, of course, they are going to look elsewhere.

Lack of communication can inflict substantial damage on your lawn care business, especially when you aim to offer additional services beyond the basics. In the world of home service businesses, clear and consistent communication is the key to a successful lawn care operation.

Without effective communication, you risk missing crucial opportunities for upselling services like tree care or landscaping. Each lawn is unique, and by understanding the specific needs of an existing customer through regular communication, you can tailor your services accordingly, making them more satisfied and more likely to recommend your business to others. 

You can read more about customer communication here

Now that we have discussed why customers leave, we can discuss how we keep them.

Strategies to Prevent Customer Slippage.

In our thirty-plus years of building and selling lawn mowing businesses, these are the best techniques we have used to retain our customers.

1. Delivering Exceptional Service.

It’s a sad reflection of the world today, but I have found that “exceptional service” is actually what I used to call “Good Old Fashioned Service.”

No longer do you have to go above and beyond these days; if you simply hold the principles that every good business had a few decades ago, you are now offering exceptional service.

Sad but true.

This includes simple things like

• A smile and a wave when you see your customers
• Turning up on time, every time.
• Letting your customers know when you are running late.
• Having pride in your work and feeling like you have delivered your best EVERY time you visit the property.
• Apologise if you get something wrong or damage anything and put it right ASAP.

2. Consistently providing high-quality work

We found that when we were in this position, things ran better when we had a few simple rules.

• Everybody was shown the same method to mow a lawn. (We called it the McDonald’s approach)
• Everyone used the same machines, and the cut height was stated on the job sheet.
• If the customer asked for anything and a change was made, it was clearly marked on the job sheet so everyone knew.

3. Pay attention to detail and exceed customer expectations.

Do the small things that make the customer feel good.

If there is a garden next to the door of a house and it’s full of grass and no longer used. Why not weed eat it when you visit? We build the cost of doing things like this into our quote.

I’m not saying that you need to weed-eat all gardens, but if there is a narrow garden next to the house and you leave it, it is always going to look like you missed a bit to the customer.

Do the occasional random act of kindness.

Such as, if a small branch touches our vehicle on a driveway, we will trim it. We limit this to a few branches at most (less than a minute). If the job is bigger, they will need to book and pay.

Using the blower to clean out the street drain in autumn when it clogs up.

Video – Driveway Etiquette For a Lawn Care Business

4. Regularly inspect work to ensure quality standards are maintained.

If you have workers, you need to ensure they are doing things correctly. We used to occasionally touch base with the customers to ensure everything was going okay.

If you get a complaint about one of your workers, then after you have addressed the issue, you will need to keep an eye on them and make sure that they have taken what you said on board.

Conclusion

Preventing customer slippage is no real secret.

All you need to do is keep your standards high and consistently deliver top-quality service. This needs to be a habit, not a one-time thing. It needs to be second nature. If you are reversing out of a customer drive and you see lawn clippings that were blown under your vehicle, then stop and clean them up. It’s the small things that matter. 

Before you know it, you will start getting a good reputation, and your business will start growing like wildfire.