Walk the lawn before you bid or this might happen.
With the advent of google maps and other similar services, your lawn care business might feel more inclined now to pull up an overhead map of a new customers home to review their yard. Once you calculate the dimensions of the property, you may even feel compelled to give the new lawn care customer a price quote over the phone to mow their lawn, site unseen.
Here is a prime example of why you shouldn’t do that.
Walk the lawn before you bid it.
Curtis shared with us a story on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum of how he ran into a problem giving a customer a lawn care bid without first walking the property. He wrote “I just learned a valuable lesson - NEVER estimate a yard via your county’s GIS system or Google Maps (getting measurements online).
I had a new lawn care customer call me who lives on a local school campus. She wanted just lawn mowing & trimming. I saw she lived on .32 acres - I told her $25.00 weekly. I got to her house with my brother in law and found the lawn to be WAY overgrown. The grass was up to my knees and I am 5′9″. The job took us an hour to knock it down. I should have charged her at least double!
She said that they moved in nine months ago and just now realized that they were required to mow their own lawn.”
Over Grown Lawn
So remember, always visit the property and walk the lawn first before you give the lawn care customer an estimate for mowing or you may find yourself shocked as well.
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