Americans take their yards very seriously. We want our homes, lawns, and gardens to have amazing curb appeal, and many of us would like to have the best yard on the block. Our quest for the best yard can get pretty competitive, too. A study conducted last year found that almost half (48 percent) of Americans say their neighborhoods get competitive about lawn care and yard improvements.
This study also found the average person would spend nearly $1,000 if it meant their yard could be the best in the neighborhood. The only problem? Most of us don’t have the free time to spend making our yards stand-out like that. Also, not everyone enjoys outdoor work. Maintaining a yard, and making sure it outshines the neighbors, can quickly become more than we want to deal with on our own.
Here’s where you come in as a yard care professional. Having one of the best yards in the neighborhood without needing to spend their own time on lawn mowing and other maintenance tasks is an idea that appeals to many busy homeowners.
While a fairly high percentage of homeowners enjoy working in their yards, others don’t enjoy it at all. Even the people who do enjoy yard work often don’t have time to do everything they want to. This allows your company to fill in that gap between what people have time to do and what they want their yard to look like with a help of quality lawn equipment.
Understanding what homeowners are looking for and what concerns them the most about their yards will give your lawn and yard care service an advantage. Keep reading to learn more about Americans’ views on yard care and how your company can help customers get the best yard on the block.
Help With Competitive Yards
The Yard Force survey we mentioned in the introduction found that 38 percent of homeowners want to make their yard the best one on the block. That competition isn’t something everyone enjoys, though. 77 percent of the 2,000 people who responded to this survey said they feel pressured to keep their yard looking good enough to compete.
Worrying about how their yards compare to others in the neighborhood often drives homeowners to make changes and improvement. More than half (58 percent) of people said they made an improvement in their yard after a neighbor made one. Also, a full 41 percent said they improved their yards for the sole purpose of one-upping a neighbor.
This competition – and the stress it can cause homeowners – is something your lawn care service can benefit from. Your company can help take a load off customers’ minds by maintaining their yard’s curb appeal without them having to worry about anything. Also, if you offer lawn improvement services such as planting flowers or installing hardscaping elements, make sure your customers know. If you’re already taking care of their yard and they know you offer other services, you’ll be the first person that comes to mind when they want to update their yard to keep up with the neighbors.
Take The Load Off
Homeowners are super competitive about having the best lawn, the best flower displays, the tidiest driveway, and the cleanest patio. Most homeowners report that they enjoy planting flowers and watering the lawn and garden. However, they don’t enjoy other chores like pulling weeds, trimming around the lawn and garden, or raking leaves. Most also dislike upkeep chores like fixing fences and cleaning patio furniture.
Your lawn care company can take the least enjoyable tasks off homeowner’s hands while assuring them you’ll keep the yard looking nice. Ideally, you want to get competitive homeowners to see your services as the way for them to stay ahead of (or at least on par with) their neighbors.
If you deliver on your promises of top-notch yard care that takes the burden off homeowners, then there’s a very good chance you’ll end up with a loyal customers. It’s a win-win situation. The customers supply you with work, and you supply them with an easy way to keep up with the neighbors.
Show Environmental Friendliness
This survey we’ve been talking about also revealed homeowners worry about the effect their lawn care routine might have on the environment. 42 percent of homeowners report they worry about how much water they’re using on their yards. Another 41 percent worry about emissions from lawn equipment.
On top of that, more and more people are starting to question the safety of common chemicals used in herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. All this means that an increasing number of homeowners are looking for environmentally friendly options for lawn care. They want to see battery-powered or low-emission quality lawn equipment, water conservation, and organic alternatives to lawn care chemicals.
If you can offer these sorts of services in your business, then you’ll be catering to a large, rapidly growing group of potential customers. For more information on environmentally friendly lawn care, check out these articles:
- Learn About 4 Great Advantages To Offering Organic Lawn Care In your Business
- 5 Steps Toward Making Your Landscape Business Green
Offer Long-Term Improvement Services
One thing homeowners can easily overlook is the value of thinking long-term when trying to get the best yard on the block. It’s easy to recognize a yard seems drab and solve that by adding some flowing plants, or to notice the lawn is turning brown and take the time to water it. But what about improving soil health, planing landscapes with year-round interest, adding hardscape elements, or keeping the lawn healthy?
Here’s another area where lawn and landscaping companies can help customers get the best yard on the block. If you’re a lawn mowing company, you can offer expert lawn care that monitors grass health. You’ll feed, water, mow, and aerate as-needed without the customers having to worry about keeping track of all those tasks.
Or perhaps you offer professional landscaping services to help customers design a landscape that fits their site’s needs and looks good every season. This can include everything from planting annual flowers each year to re-doing the landscape with low-maintenance native plants.
Customers can also benefit from services like installing hardscaping elements like pathways, fences, lighting, etc. Hardscaping is one of the most low-maintenance ways to enhance curb appeal and make a yard stand out, which is an idea that will appeal to many customers.
Listen To Their Needs
One of the keys to encouraging customer loyalty is to develop a relationship with your clients. This involves treating clients with respect, really listening to their needs, and delivering service customized for their yard. When you meet and exceed client expectations for their yard and make them feel respected and understood, that turns into customer loyalty.
Good listening isn’t a skill that comes easy to most people, but it’s essential if you want loyal customers. Your customers won’t think they have the best yard on the block if you don’t listen to what they want from their yard. Taking the time to ask questions, listen to their answers, and offer expert feedback and advice goes a long way toward keeping customers happy.
Conducting surveys, talking with clients in-person, and having a responsive customer service team will all help with this. And don’t forget to communicate as well as listen. Make sure clients know about seasonal offers and extra services your company offers.
Use The Best Tools
As a lawn care professional, you are uniquely situated to fill homeowners’ desire for the best yard on the block. As an added incentive for them, you do this while also taking the burden to care for this yard off their shoulders. The stress and competition of keeping up with the neighbors is something your customers shouldn’t have to worry about.
To get all this done, you need reliable tools. They have to be able to work just as hard as you do and keep working reliably for years. You can’t afford to rely on tools with shoddy craftsmanship that break after a few months of use. You need the sort of tools we carry here at Richardson Saw & Lawnmower.
We carry a wide range of the highest quality lawn equipment from top professional brands such as Stihl, Scag, Echo, and Toro. Here you’ll find more efficient gasoline-powered equipment powerful enough to tackle the most demanding tasks, as well as the latest in quiet, dependable battery-powered technology. We also service everything we sell. From purchase to maintenance to repair, we’ve got you covered for all your commercial equipment needs.
