A yard is the welcome mat of the home. It makes the first impression for anyone who visits a house. While homeowners are likely to agree that they want lush, beautiful, green grass, most don’t understand what makes the most impact when it comes to making truly healthy lawns. Common misconceptions, such as bright green equaling healthy, can lead to overuse of chemicals, unrealistic expectations, and ultimately, customer churn.
A one-size-fits-all chemical program is not the best or safest approach when it comes to lawn care. Take the opportunity to educate your customers. You're there not just to sell services and products, but to help homeowners make their yards a beautiful and safe place to spend time in nature.
Whether your specialty is in lawn care, mowing and maintenance, tree care, design or irrigation, customer education ultimately creates better customer relationships, which leads to longer-lasting engagements, easier upsells, and customer advocates. And, of course, beautiful yards.
Customer Education Starts from the First Touchpoint
To create happy customers, education must start early. From your quote to first treatment, this helps it to feel like an explanation rather than an excuse if things take longer than anticipated or look a bit different than originally expected down the road.
In lawn care, explaining why lawns need time to improve, how seasons impact warm-season and cool-season grasses differently and the importance of consistent care from the beginning of a client relationship will create a better understanding of the process.
This guidance leads to fewer complaints, callbacks, and cancellations. Again, because it isn’t being communicated as an excuse when results aren’t as expected, but rather as education, when shared in advance.
Each Technician Should be an Educator
The best tools when it comes to customer education? Your employees.
Well-trained technicians who can offer short, in-the-moment explanations are far more likely to find success when signing renewals or selling additional services, because they’re able to sell the outcome, rather than the product, during their in-person interactions.
With a simple knock on the door before beginning treatments or services, these technicians are also able to answer questions, address concerns in the moment, or point out problems that they can help solve during their visit. These face-to-face interactions will leave customers with a positive impression, which can go a long way in establishing rapport and lasting relationships. Further, delivering this education during a service, instead of through marketing materials, feels more authentic to your customer.
If a customer is not home, this education can also be imparted through your leave behinds and service reports. Avoid filling these materials with industry jargon and buzzwords, and personalize them wherever possible.
Customer Education as Retention & Acquisition Driver
Ultimately, customer education helps you to create and maintain relationships. Offering expert insights and explanations helps your customers see more value in the services you provide through your results and expertise.
Knowledgeable customers are less likely to cancel during droughts, intense heat or slow-growth seasons. Further, these customers are more likely to see the value in your results because of this guidance. Making them advocates for the services you provide and the experience you can offer sets you apart from other competitors in the industry and area.
Neighbor referrals also typically generate high-quality leads with higher conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs, so there’s infinite value in creating loyal customer advocates. There’s also the added benefit of their close proximity to one another, which increases operational efficiency by minimizing downtime caused by travel between customers.
Building Trust & Better Lawns
Customer education isn’t just extra work, it’s a process that allows your business to establish itself as a trusted voice and partner as homeowners create and maintain beautiful outdoor spaces.
No matter your specialty, lasting results take time to create, and education should start early to keep customers patient, loyal and believing in the process. Ultimately, its impact goes beyond the lawn — helping with your business’s risk management, customer retention and brand building.
Through your team of technicians and ongoing customer engagement, both in-person and through leave-behinds, education can take your business to the next level.
