Gearing up

Since coming on board at Rutland Turfcare & Pest Control seven years ago, Kevin Schofield, vice president, has seen the company grow by leaps and bounds.

“They were more of a traditional landscape company who would pick up some lawn care here or there,” he recalls of the Massachusetts-based company. “When I came in in 2017, they had about 120 lawn care accounts for about $150,000. Today, we have over 3,000 lawn care accounts, 800 tick and mosquito accounts, 200-300 tree shrub accounts… and are approaching $3.5 million.”

And that growth is nothing new.

“We’ve had some pretty good growth,” Schofield says. “Even through COVID and all that, we were growing 35- to 40% year-over-year.”

Rutland Turfcare & Pest Control runs three distinct lawn care programs — a traditional program, a hybrid model and an eco-friendly program, which uses organic fertilizers.

“It mainly focuses on the grass itself and the soil and then you couple that with an aeration seeding, so there’s no control products with the eco-friendly program,” Schofield says.

While all three of their programs have their own ideal customer, Schofield says he expects to see the hybrid model pick up speed this season.

“The hybrid is a nice bridge program and that’s gaining quite a bit of momentum,” he says. “We’re probably at 15% of accounts and that’s growing.”

Schofield says he feels customers find it more appealing than the eco-friendly program because it still allows for the use of low-risk control products.

“The eco-friendly program is not really that well sought after,” he says. “Most people are cautious of certain elements when it comes to lawn care — so they go with the hybrid. We only have about 30 to 40 accounts in the eco-friendly program and probably over 500 accounts in the hybrid.”

Rutland offers additional services including traditional and organic tick/mosquito programs, tree and shrub program, a structural pest control program (for ants and spiders and crawling insects), and last year they added interior pest control (for things like mice, rats, cockroaches and bedbugs).

Schofield says he’s pleased to be having another good season.

“We have been fortunate to not lose any staff so far this season, and overall the team is in good spirits as we get through the hottest part of the season. We are about a week or two away from starting the round 4 applications, so pace wise, we are right on schedule,” he says. “As for sales, it’s another great year. We are at 26% program growth already and about 29% revenue growth year-over-year. We have transitioned to our summer upsells like interior pest control or yard defense for fleas, ticks and mosquitoes which is going well so far. We need to keep this pace up until we transition to one of our biggest upsells in aeration and overseeding. We will sell nearly a half million dollars in aeration/seeding this year and produce it all within about six weeks, which is quite the task.”

Like in most parts of the country, the start of the lawn care season in Massachusetts is all up to the weather.

Schofield adds that it’s typically toward the beginning of the season when Rutland gets its most calls from new, potential customers.

“It varies from season to season,” he says. “From the first week of April to the middle of May is where we’re going to capture 55- to 60% of the program sales we’ll make all year.”

However, Schofield notes that special services can also bring in a lot of new revenue at different points in the season.

“We did over $420,000 in aeration seeding last year,” he says. “And we complete that within about a six-week window from September to mid-October.”

Education equals retention

With thousands of lawn care customers across the state of Massachusetts, Rutland Turfcare & Pest Control knows that educating them is critical to keeping them satisfied.

Schofield says it’s that focus on education that keeps customers coming back season after season.

The company is on pace to earn over $3.5 million in revenue in 2024.

“Retention is one of the key things to our growth,” Schofield says. “Our carry-over cancel rate in a full season is about 16- to 17%. That’s a key part of it and keeping people happy.

“Where a lot of our industry misses the mark is education,” he adds. “I feel the need to educate customers quite a bit. Whether it’s throughout the season or at the end of a service — when you have a customer who may not understand lawn care or doesn’t understand the finer aspects of it, that can create friction. It costs a lot more money to go out and get a new account versus servicing the one you have currently.”

And Schofield says that education starts right as the season does.

“All year long, I’m sending out emails to all of our current customers with seasonal updates,” he says. “So, as we transition from the winter to round 1, they are getting an email of what to look out for and watch out for. They may be seeing snow mold, pink patch or chickweed, which is one of the first weeds you’ll see in the spring. Then as we go from round 1 to round 2 it’s a whole different element. Grub control is coming up and ticks and mosquitos are starting to really ramp up.”

Schofield adds these emails, combined with aftercare notes from the technician at the time of service with tips on mowing and watering, help keep complaints at bay — especially during tough times when the weather really plays a factor on a lawn’s appearance.

“Over the summer, you tend to have drought problems, so I want to get ahead of that and will be talking about drought with our customers,” he says. “I let them know that drought isn’t the end of their lawn. The lawn may go dormant to protect itself, but they come back in the fall. You can lose a lot of customers over the summer if they think you killed their lawn — and that’s the first thing a customer thinks, is that we burnt their lawn. So, if you don’t get ahead of that, it can be a friction point and create some animosity with your customers.”

It's not just drought that can cause problems either — too much rain can have just as bad of an impact on customer satisfaction.

“Fungus and diseases obviously come with that, which creates its own set of challenges,” he says.

Schofield says it’s all about the personal touches that ensure customers see the company as more than just a business.

“Our technicians are trained to knock on the door when they get there for every customer,” he says. “It gets to be that they may be able to fire Rutland, but can they fire Brian the guy who picks up their dogs’ toys and moves their kids’ toys off the lawn?”

The author is an associate editor with Lawn & Landscape.