Summary: http://www.gopherforum.com - When a lawn care customer decides mid-season they want to save money and only have you mow their property every other week, how should you handle this or even bill this? This was a dilemma that was presented to the members of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum. The member wrote â??Iâ??ve had this weekly mowed lawn care customer since I started my business and now they want me to cut the grass every 2 weeks because they are â??seniorsâ?? and they are getting low on â??moneyâ?? (thatâ??s an excuse I think) This yard I do, takes me 2 hrs with my tractor and another 15 to 20 minutes to trim all his stuff all over the yard. I donâ??t want to lose this customer. I was talking to him about my possibly getting a ZTR and he was like, oh yeah that means you can lower your price. Why do old folks think this way ??? That when itâ??s mowed faster, you can charge less ??? He complains all the time my bill is too high and stuff.. and things like that Not sure what to doâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?? One lawn care business owner wrote â??my bi-weekly lawn care customers get charged a premium. I usually charge them 1 1/2 times the price of a weekly mowing. So if a lawn costs $40.00 per cut weekly, Iâ??ll charge them$60.00 per cut bi-weekly. That way it allows me to clean up any extra mess or bag the lawn. People need to understand that it is not a cost saving alternative. Weekly lawn mowing is best. Bi-weekly cuts usually take too much off the blade and can be detrimental for the turf. If you are going past the customerâ??s home every week I would contact the client and let them know of the length of their lawn and let them know of concerns for their turf. If they care about how the lawn looks they should understand.â?? Another lawn care business owner agreed and shared â??cutting every other week makes it necessary to raise the price. I suppose it depends on how much you are making on the property but itâ??s always a bad idea to let the customer dictate when you can and canâ??t cut the lawn. It always turns out that they call you when itâ??s 28 inches high, takes 4 hours instead of 2 hours to mow. I was put in the same situation last week. A customer of mine decided they wanted their yard mowed every 2 weeks instead of weekly. Well I explained to them that the clippings will be left on the lawn and itâ??s gonna look terrible. The only thing worse is sharing the job with the home owner. Theyâ??ll cut the lawn when itâ??s easy and call you when itâ??s 4 feet high. I have an interesting technique when someone complains about my prices. I tell them that they can get someone else to come in and give them bid on cutting their lawn. Theyâ??ve never taken me up on the offer yet.â?? Lastly donâ??t forget cutting higher grass puts added wear on your lawn mower. You will be adding more wear and tear to your machine. This can lead to a shortened mower life which then will raise your operational costs. So keep all these things in mind the next time a weekly lawn care customer is looking to get you to cut their lawn every other week. If you are in need of free lawn care marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at http://www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts, estimate and proposal forms. Download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. Check out my lawn care business blog at http://www.lawnchat.com and my lawn care business forum at http://www.gopherforum.com
