NEWS
MAKING TURF MATTER
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Considering a move into domestic lawn care? Thinking of diversifying into lawncare and think it’s easy? Here are a few do’s and don’ts regarding offering lawn care as a service to domestic lawn owners.
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here around 20 million lawns in the UK of which no more than 1.5 million of these receive a regular a treatment from a professional lawn care company. This means that if the USA market is anything to go by, this sector is set to expand further. Lawn care is very often the forgotten turf care sector, sitting somewhere between greenkeeping and ground care and yet it is so similar in its objective, producing fine turf to its maximum potential. The main differences within lawn care versus other turf care are: • You are dealing with 10 | TURF MATTERS | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021
the general public, who don’t fully understand what is required to achieve a great lawn • The root zone is often far from ideal for producing a good surface. New builds are the worst, predominantly clay and rubble hidden under poorly laid turf • The customer is relatively uneducated when it comes to mowing regimes. They often aren’t mowing weekly and when they do mow are prone to cutting it too short • They rarely get irrigated, and when they go brown in summer, often point an accusing finger at the lawn care provider, claiming “it never went brown before you started treating it”. This all said, here are a few tips to help you, if you are considering offering lawn care as a service to the domestic market.
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Top tips from Richard Salmon • Professional image – you get one chance to make first impression – Clean and clear sign written van A website dedicated to lawn care and not all the other services you offer Be knowledgeable about your subject – if they trust in your knowledge price is less of an issue Don’t under-sell yourself, as it’s generally not a price led decision by the homeowner, on what is relatively low spend per year on their lawn. Sell on service not on price. Educate the customer as to lawns and what they have to endure. You may only visit the lawn five or six times each year, and the customer must play their part in looking after it in your absence.
• Send regular newsletters by email, advising on mowing height, and when it is time to water the lawn and how to. Wandering out with watering can is not good enough to re hydrate it. You and I know that, but most customers who own lawns don’t think like us. • Under promise and over achieve. We can, with just a few treatments, transform a lawn if conditions are favourable. At certain times of year they are not and if they aren’t mowing correctly or watering sufficiently, it will soon decline. They’ll be super impressed at how you can transform their lawn versus the DIY method of scorched lawn and patchy results. With continuous communication and education, you can get them thinking like a turf pro. n www.prolawncareuk.com
