It’s summer and the busiest time of the year in the lawncare service industry. Don’t let the hazy days of summer lull you into lazy business practices — take full advantage of the busy season with these hot trends in lawncare.
Getting Back Outside
With the pandemic fading and businesses’ relaxing restrictions, everyone wants to get outdoors again. That translates into more landscaping needs for both businesses and personal homeowners. There is a renewed interest not only in gardening but in enhancing outdoor spaces with trees and flowers as well as other landscaping accents. Private homeowners may want to build an outdoor lounging area and your lawncare business can help create a sanctuary for the whole family.
Younger Homeowners Translate Into More Landscaping Needs
Newer generations of homeowners show a trend in lawncare toward creating more environmentally conscious yard space, including things like wildlife gardening. Outdoor recreational spaces are more important to the younger generation and they want to create an environment where they can enjoy spending more time outdoors without causing any environmental damage.
If you market your business as being on the cutting edge of going green and conserving environmental resources, you can appeal to millennials and Gen Z homeowners and businesses. That makes a very strong impression on young adults and families.
Green Can Mean More Profit
Homeowners and commercial businesses alike want to lighten their carbon footprint. Whether to meet government regulations or simply be more environmentally conscious. The lawncare business is no exception.
Gas prices play a huge factor in contributing to the expense of your lawncare business. As gas prices skyrocket, the cost of operating your equipment starts eating into your profit margin. Use and maintain the most fuel-efficient equipment to minimize costs, particularly now with the gas crisis.
Another way to save on gas costs is transportation to and from appointments. Careful scheduling can also help save money by ensuring that the schedule for each employee keeps them in one area of the city each day instead of running from one end of your city to the other wasting gas.
ServiceWorks offers software that can help you schedule appointments more efficiently. Not only to save gas but for your employees to work more efficiently and give better service. The time saved means getting to customers faster, and that can make them much happier with your landscaping and lawncare service.
Lawncare Trends Include Targeting Future Employees
Turnover in employment and having to spend money on training new employees can drain budgets. Not to mention the time involved. You don’t want to spend your busiest season training employees. Yet if you don’t have enough employees to keep up with the high volume of lawncare demands, the growth of your company will be stunted. And so will its profits.
it’s important to always be reaching out to potential employees and trying to encourage more people to enter your business, particularly in early spring to prepare for the summer ahead. Many of your employees might be younger workers, who have fully embraced and love technology.
Make Peace with Ever-Changing Technology
Technology such as mobile phone apps will appeal to younger workers and make your lawncare business more efficient. You can use these apps for things such as employee tracking and communication between you and your workers.
New technology also applies to the actual lawncare equipment. Just as robotic vacuums revolutionized cleaning, now there are robotic lawnmowers. You might consider implementing some of this technology into your business, as work for clients who want expanded lawncare services can be done more efficiently — while the robot is mowing the yard, the employee can be trimming shrubbery or planting flowers. (Just be careful not to let your tech-savvy clients see too much trendy lawncare technology or they may decide to buy one for themselves!)
It’s Not Business, It’s Personal
When planning out your summer lawncare business strategy, you should also think about adding personal touches to your service whenever you’re called out for landscaping or lawncare services. Whether personal or business clients, everyone wants to feel they have a special connection with their service providers.
Simple things like picking up a newspaper and handing it to the client or leaving a thank you note after a job is completed can make a world of difference in how customers feel about your business.
Make Field Service Software Your Business Partner
A State of Global Customer Service survey found that 78% of younger adults don’t want to go through their contact information or remind employees what work was done on their last visit – they expect you to have and remember that information. To meet that expectation, you’ll need some kind of digital solution and the technology to access that information immediately for customer service inquiries.
Because your clients expect you to know their information and history already, investing in some digital management software can boost your business. ServiceWorks offers software that can manage things like customer information, scheduling service visits, collecting payments, and managing leads for new customers. They also provide mobile phone applications to help employees communicate with the office and keep business flowing smoothly. Get a free trial and you don’t even need a credit card to get started.
