Category: Business

So you’ve worked hard to build up a base of customers who trust you to service their lawns and gardens every week. Or maybe you’re just starting out, and are trying to find ways to distinguish your business in an ever-growing competitive market.

Whether you’re doing basic lawn mowing or a providing a full suite of home maintenance services, there are always opportunities to provide more value to your customers and at the same time, generate more income 💵 💰 .

You may find that your customers are willing to pay extra for additional services, and will be extremely pleased when you provide them with a full yard makeover, not just shorter grass 😁 .

Not only will this make you more money but it can also make you more valuable in the eyes of your customers so they are more likely to keep using your services in the future.

At SortScape, we we’ve hosted thousands of lawn and garden maintenance businesses on our platform and have observed the kind of services they offer. Based on our experience, we put together the following list of 12 value-adding services that leading lawn care businesses are performing on top of regular mowing to maximise their profits. 🤑

1. Lawn fertilizing 🌱 – This service can be typically performed at the beginning and end of each growing season. Consider offering this to your regular customers as an add-on service for keeping their lawn healthy and green. Depending on the lawn size, you can charge tens or hundreds of dollars to apply a few dollars worth of fertilizer.
2. Weed control ☘️ – You may spot clover or other excessive weeds growing in the yard which your client might not otherwise notice. Point it out to them and advise on how they can address the problem or how much you would charge to handle it. Even if they don’t buy the service, they’ll appreciate you for the advice.
3. Lawn aeration 💨 – Once a year you can offer to aerate your customers’ lawns. This alleviates compaction, improves air circulation, and promotes nutrient absorption by the grassroots. This requires special equipment but it’s a fairly modest investment that pays for itself quickly.
4. Scarifying and de-thatching – These processes also require special equipment which can also be purchased at a modest price. Thatch buildup prevents water, air, and nutrients from reaching the roots, leading to poor lawn health 🤒. De-thatching or scarifying every couple years can improve the health of your customer’s lawn and generate additional income for your business.
5. Leaf removal 🍂 – If you see excessive leaf build up on the lawn or other areas of the property during autumn, consider charging a little more for the collection and removal of the leaves.
6. Pet waste removal 💩 – It’s an unpleasant job but, if your customer doesn’t want to bother cleaning up their dog’s poo before you arrive, consider charging them for that “value-added” service if it must be done for you to mow the lawn.
7. Winterization ❄️ – Depending on your location and climate, different steps will be required to protect your customer’s lawn and plants from the cold. This might entail a final clean up, mowing, aeration, fertilization, weed control, irrigation adjustments and overseeing. You can sell all of these as part of a “winterization” package.
8. Sod / Turf installation – If there are areas of lawn beyond repair, offer to replace the damaged area with replacement turf/sod. Not only can you charge more for your time, but you can also charge extra for the materials.
9. Lawn levelling – An uneven lawn can be a dangerous tripping hazard for young children and elderly adults. If the customer has bumpy or uneven areas of the lawn, make sure the customer knows about this and offer to level it (for a small fee of course 😉 ) using a combination of sand and topsoil.
10. Waste removal 🗑️ – People sometimes accumulate materials that won’t be picked up by normal government waste removal services. If a customer has piles of this in their yard (such as green waste, extra dirt etc.), consider offering to remove it while you are onsite. They might not have the vehicle size and energy needed to remove it themselves so they might be happy to pay for its removal. You can charge for your time and a small markup on the disposal fees.
11. Anti-fungal spray 🦠 – Brown patches on a customer’s lawn can be a sign of fungus or other diseases. Be on the look out for common lawn diseases and offer to take action at the first sign of trouble. It could be as simple as an anti-fungal spray. Early treatment is a money-making opportunity for you and potentially saves the customer a headache in the future, which you can use as a good selling point.
12. Irrigation maintenance 💧 – If you’re confident in what you’re doing, offer to maintain your customer’s irrigation system. This could be as simple as replacing a broken sprinkler head, updating the timer or troubleshooting basic issues.

So there you have it! Think about how you can incorporate a few of these services into your business operation, and spend some time looking into how other businesses are delivering these services in your local area.

There are other plenty of other property maintenance services you can offer outside of regular lawn maintenance that we’ll discuss in future blogs. In the meantime, be on the lookout for opportunities to upsell customers with these services!

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If you struggle to manage your schedule and keep up with different customers, try our software called SortScape! It’s completely free for 14 days 😃.

I recently spent a week with my parents who live overseas. They were scheduled to have a new concrete patio and driveway poured and were eagerly awaiting a call from the concreter to say when the work would begin. They were a frustrated with the process of choosing a concreter and talked about the troubles they had just getting someone to call them back.

Like any trade or profession, I’m sure there are high quality concreters, low-quality concreters and many in the middle. The funny thing is, most homeowners probably wouldn’t know the difference in work quality (as long as the concrete slab doesn’t crack of course). What they do notice is the quality of your service…how quickly you return their call, whether you remember their specific needs, and whether you show up when you say you will. This goes for any trade whether it’s concreting or garden maintenance.

As the owner of a garden maintenance business you might hire the best horticulturalists in the world, but the quality of their work doesn’t matter if they don’t show up when the customer expects or forget to do work the customer specifically requested. The customer will eventually stop calling you when they find someone who can show up on time and do the work requested.

Many business owners invest heavily in equipment and training that their employees need for delivering quality work. That’s extremely important. But if the scheduling process you use for your garden maintenance business is leading to missed customer visits and forgotten customer requests, it’s time to invest in a scheduling system like SortScape.