Saying NO to One Time Customers
That title seems harsh and looks like, as a business owner, that you are leaving money on the table…but are you really?
Let’s look at this type of customer for a moment. One timers are just that. They come up to you while your servicing a client or get a call to schedule service for one time, only to call back weeks later to schedule another mowing? Why is that. Maybe they don’t want to deal with mowing the lawn or just need it mowed for a birthday party.
Never a Good Time to schedule these calls
Whatever the reason the call never comes in at the right moment. As business owners we have the week planned out with our regular customers, and calls like these just throws a monkey wrench in the plans. As a business owner I like things to go as smooth as possible. No surprises please!
The Pros and Cons of Scheduling these Calls
Pro:
- We get to service one lawn and make X amount for doing so.
- You stay busy.
- There is a chance that they may become a regular customer.
Con:
- Need to schedule client in the system.
- If they call on the weekend would you load up the truck(if applicable) for that one service? Maybe you wait till the weekday so that you’ll do that mowing plus some other work in the same area. What if your week is full. Do you postpone some other work to make room for this one call or do you rush yourself in the process. Your call.
- Mow the lawn…hope its not to big since the last time it’s been mowed. Charge more if its big. May get turned down based on price thus making the trip a waste of time, energy, and money.
- Since it has not been serviced recently your going to put your equipment through more work than usual shortening its life. Pray that you don’t hit a buried steel rod or over looked rock. Your going to spend at least twice the amount of time and labor to get it looking nice. Since this is going to take more time its going to cost you in labor. Lastly, expect to spend more in fuel since running the equipment longer will cost more.
- Mowing is complete. Great, now they pay you if they are home, we hope on that and that they have the correct amount your asking for. Don’t want to make another trip to get the rest.
- Get back at the office and unload the equipment from the truck(if applicable).
- Log in to your CRM(customer relationship management) and complete the service.
If you had a recurring customer then you would not have to deal with step 1, 2, and 4. You wouldn’t have to deal with making your other clients wait for you to service these one timers. It’s not fair to them, you, and your employees. More often than not these one timers always call at the worst times and want service ASAP(As soon as possible). In addition, the lawns will not be the type that have been serviced on a regular basis and will likely have your work cut out for you when you get there. This will for sure reduce the life of your equipment because they will need to work twice as hard to clean the area up.
Don’t get me wrong about one time customers. With other businesses, a one time customer is welcomed because they are setup up for one time transactions. But in the lawn service industry, it’s counterproductive to service properties only when a customer wants it since servicing these properties is very labor intensive i.e. they have not been done on a regular basis.
So that’s my take on ONE TIMERS. I hope this information helps you make a good decision in your business. What are your thoughts?