Home

Export thread

Lost a customer last week.

Jul 11, 2013#1

jekjr

Had a customer with a small yard we had been cutting most of this summer. She only wanted us to cut it once every two weeks. She commented the week before we cut it last that it was growing incredibly fast and I told her we could cut it at closer intervals. She said leave it at two weeks. We cut her grass on a Tuesday. It had been raining almost every day before we cut it. She was out of town. It rained that afternoon and heavy the next couple of days. Temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's.

She called m the following Monday and left me a message saying when she got home on Thursday that her grass was considerably higher than her neighbor's and she was dis-satisfied with my service and she no longer needs my service. I tried to call her back but she let it go to voice mail. I left her a voice mail and offered to cut her grass again free since she was unhappy and would set the mower deck height at what ever she chose for me to set it at. She did not reply back.

When we cut her yard it was like cutting hay. The deck was down to 2 1/2". I ran over the mess several times to cut it up so that I did not look so bad.

I have run into some weird situations but that was a unique experience for me.

Jul 12, 2013#2

lawn mower fanatic

jekjr said:
Had a customer with a small yard we had been cutting most of this summer. She only wanted us to cut it once every two weeks. She commented the week before we cut it last that it was growing incredibly fast and I told her we could cut it at closer intervals. She said leave it at two weeks. We cut her grass on a Tuesday. It had been raining almost every day before we cut it. She was out of town. It rained that afternoon and heavy the next couple of days. Temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's.

She called m the following Monday and left me a message saying when she got home on Thursday that her grass was considerably higher than her neighbor's and she was dis-satisfied with my service and she no longer needs my service. I tried to call her back but she let it go to voice mail. I left her a voice mail and offered to cut her grass again free since she was unhappy and would set the mower deck height at what ever she chose for me to set it at. She did not reply back.

When we cut her yard it was like cutting hay. The deck was down to 2 1/2". I ran over the mess several times to cut it up so that I did not look so bad.

I have run into some weird situations but that was a unique experience for me.

Sometimes it's good to lose a customer if it seems they can't be satisfied. They can weigh you down!

Jul 12, 2013#3

jekjr

lawn mower fanatic said:
Sometimes it's good to lose a customer if it seems they can't be satisfied. They can weigh you down!

Like so many people say. One door closes another opens. We picked up two more small yards this afternoon.

Jul 12, 2013#4

lawn mower fanatic

jekjr said:
Like so many people say. One door closes another opens. We picked up two more small yards this afternoon.

Great! :thumbsup:

Jul 13, 2013#5

exotion

lawn mower fanatic said:
Sometimes it's good to lose a customer if it seems they can't be satisfied. They can weigh you down!

I agree. I had a customer a while back she would want me to weed eat mow and edge and blow her front yard. Then I had to knock on the door where she being old would eventually get to the door and open it for me then she would spend way to muchtime looking for her key to the back gate only unlocks from inside so I would have to go thru the house open gate and go back in house give her key. Then procede to weed eat mow edge and blow back yard put everything away lock gate knock on back door as I am now locked in wait for her to waddle to door and let me in. Wait for her to write a check then leave. It would only be a 20ish min mow if not for all that but it usually ended up taking almost an hour but I still only charged her the original quote.

Did this for 4 weeks she called me and said she didn't like that I was always in a hurry and will look for someone else. With anyone else I would offer discounts free mows or whatever I can to keep the customer but I just said ok sorry to hear that. Replaced her with 3 mows making triple in that same hour. Sorry it didn't work out for either of us.

I have noticed that not only do we need to work for the customer but sometimes the customer is incapatable with the company not the other way around it is a 2 way street both employee and employer need to be happy or the work relationship cannot work.

Jul 13, 2013#6

lawn mower fanatic

exotion said:
...

Did this for 4 weeks she called me and said she didn't like that I was always in a hurry and will look for someone else. With anyone else I would offer discounts free mows or whatever I can to keep the customer but I just said ok sorry to hear that. Replaced her with 3 mows making triple in that same hour. Sorry it didn't work out for either of us.

...

I wouldn't want to be the company taking your place!

Jul 13, 2013#7

jekjr

lawn mower fanatic said:
I wouldn't want to be the company taking your place!

I had two ladies I started cutting for last Summer. I cut their yard which is a pretty good sized yard two times. Ten when I went to get paid after the second cutting I was informed they didn't need me any more. Then this year they called me back and I went by and they wanted me to do the grass but in several places instead of weed eating they wanted me to pull grass up and haul it off around certain bushes. FOR THE SAME PRICE. It was too wet to work that day and they told me they Would call me when it got dry enough to cut their grass. I passed by in a few days and somebody else had cut it.

Last week they called me back once again to cut it and we did.

Going to be interesting to see if we get fired again. If they don't work on schedule this time I am to going to have time to try again.

Jul 13, 2013#8

lawn mower fanatic

jekjr said:
I had two ladies I started cutting for last Summer. I cut their yard which is a pretty good sized yard two times. Ten when I went to get paid after the second cutting I was informed they didn't need me any more. Then this year they called me back and I went by and they wanted me to do the grass but in several places instead of weed eating they wanted me to pull grass up and haul it off around certain bushes. FOR THE SAME PRICE. It was too wet to work that day and they told me they Would call me when it got dry enough to cut their grass. I passed by in a few days and somebody else had cut it.

Last week they called me back once again to cut it and we did.

Going to be interesting to see if we get fired again. If they don't work on schedule this time I am to going to have time to try again.

Wow! Indecisive....

Jul 14, 2013#9

Ric

jekjr said:
I had two ladies I started cutting for last Summer. I cut their yard which is a pretty good sized yard two times. Ten when I went to get paid after the second cutting I was informed they didn't need me any more. Then this year they called me back and I went by and they wanted me to do the grass but in several places instead of weed eating they wanted me to pull grass up and haul it off around certain bushes. FOR THE SAME PRICE. It was too wet to work that day and they told me they Would call me when it got dry enough to cut their grass. I passed by in a few days and somebody else had cut it.

Last week they called me back once again to cut it and we did.

Going to be interesting to see if we get fired again. If they don't work on schedule this time I am to going to have time to try again.

Sounds to me like the lady is playing one company against the other, trying to get the price dropped. It will probably end up with he said he would cut for this and she will want you to be cheaper.

Jul 14, 2013#10

jekjr

Ric said:
Sounds to me like the lady is playing one company against the other, trying to get the price dropped. It will probably end up with he said he would cut for this and she will want you to be cheaper.

I have actually thought about going up on her is she fires me again.

Jul 14, 2013#11

E

edd

i did a cut for a lady and she complained that i stirred up too much dust.....also that my mower ran too fast and would i slow down and not stir up dust.....august in south alabama can be dry and dusty....she turned into a one time cut

Jul 14, 2013#12

lawn mower fanatic

edd said:
i did a cut for a lady and she complained that i stirred up too much dust.....also that my mower ran too fast and would i slow down and not stir up dust.....august in south alabama can be dry and dusty....she turned into a one time cut

'Too much dust'...never heard that one before! :confused2:

Jul 14, 2013#13

Parkmower

lawn mower fanatic said:
'Too much dust'...never heard that one before! :confused2:

Yeah I always close my kitchen windows when I mow my yard. One dry time I didn't and found a layer of dirt over all my counters and cabinets.

Jul 14, 2013#14

lawn mower fanatic

Parkmower said:
Yeah I always close my kitchen windows when I mow my yard. One dry time I didn't and found a layer of dirt over all my counters and cabinets.

Yeah so do I but I didn't know it could put a layer of dust in the house!

Jul 16, 2013#15

lawnbarbers

jekjr said:
I have actually thought about going up on her is she fires me again.

You never win in a price war at the end of it. Sometimes they just want you to stand up to them and then you get their respect. If they don't respect you, you don't need them at any price. One door closes two open....

Jul 16, 2013#16

D

DaveTN

When I was a young teen I used to cut grass in the neighborhood and had about 25 yards spread over two weeks. I'd do 1/2 of them one week and the rest the next week. Usual price back then in the mid 60's was $2-$5 bucks a yard. Usually charge a buck for trimming, which I hated since we didn't have weed eaters then! Anyway this old penny pincher lady across the street from me used to mow her double lot with a push reel mower...no engine! Take her most of the day to mow it. Then she'd have to use the grim reaper sickle to cut the weeds after that. Anyway she asked me to mow it for her and she haggled with me over it. The double lot was worth $5 since she had flower beds, flag stones, all around in the lot the house sat on. The vacant lot didn't have anything out in the open so it was easier to mow even tho it had more grass. I charged her $2 to mow it out of sympathy. I mowed it twice and she told me not to do it again because that was too much. She got one of her renters upstairs to mow it and knock off on rent. He charged her $5 and she had a fit over it. Came back to me and wanted me to do it again for $2 and I refused. I said..."Mrs. Kreider...I was mowing it for LESS than 1/2 price for you...so I guess you'll have to find somebody else or mow it yourself!" Seems you guys ran into your own crudgemungeons as well. I wouldn't go back for 2nds on those tightwads and fussy pants customers. Good Riddance says I.

Jul 16, 2013#17

exotion

DaveTN said:
When I was a young teen I used to cut grass in the neighborhood and had about 25 yards spread over two weeks. I'd do 1/2 of them one week and the rest the next week. Usual price back then in the mid 60's was $2-$5 bucks a yard. Usually charge a buck for trimming, which I hated since we didn't have weed eaters then! Anyway this old penny pincher lady across the street from me used to mow her double lot with a push reel mower...no engine! Take her most of the day to mow it. Then she'd have to use the grim reaper sickle to cut the weeds after that. Anyway she asked me to mow it for her and she haggled with me over it. The double lot was worth $5 since she had flower beds, flag stones, all around in the lot the house sat on. The vacant lot didn't have anything out in the open so it was easier to mow even tho it had more grass. I charged her $2 to mow it out of sympathy. I mowed it twice and she told me not to do it again because that was too much. She got one of her renters upstairs to mow it and knock off on rent. He charged her $5 and she had a fit over it. Came back to me and wanted me to do it again for $2 and I refused. I said..."Mrs. Kreider...I was mowing it for LESS than 1/2 price for you...so I guess you'll have to find somebody else or mow it yourself!" Seems you guys ran into your own crudgemungeons as well. I wouldn't go back for 2nds on those tightwads and fussy pants customers. Good Riddance says I.

Ya those customers just are not worth the trouble

Jul 16, 2013#18

CauZey

lawn mower fanatic said:
Sometimes it's good to lose a customer if it seems they can't be satisfied. They can weigh you down!

Yep! I agree

Home

Export thread

Lost a customer last week.

Footer Links 1

Footer Links 2