Lawn Care Operator Roundtable: April 2000, What They Said

When Aventis made the decision to target lawn care and landscape professionals as a key customer, the company also decided that the best way to serve the needs of these dynamic businesspeople was to sit down at a table with them and find out what issues matter. After all, what is the point of being in business if you're not serving the needs of your customers? And how can you be sure of your customers' needs without asking them?

The two-day event touched on a wide range of issues, with hot topics such as the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and labor drawing considerable attention. The information in the following pages highlights some of the key points of the conversation.

PESTICIDE USE.
Don McMahon – Our use of pesticides was way up last season because of the drought – probably 75 percent from the previous year.

Ken Wentland – Our use was way up, as well, and we had some situations where we couldn't do all of the available work because of the labor shortage, so we just had to focus on keeping our current customers happy.

John Buechner – The climate caused a lot of stress last summer, so I think we'll see a lot of ornamental death and necrosis this season.

Gary Clayton – We used last year to take a look at some new products so that we're ready for some products not being available in the future.

Chris Senske – We've adopted a strategy of reducing the pounds per acre of pesticides we're using, and the key is selecting products that don't require using as much in order to get the job done. Those products may cost a little bit more, but they work.

McMahon – Training your staff properly and getting them involved in your dedication to reducing pesticide use are important to making it happen. You have to have the technology and the staff to hold up the integrity of such a program because a blanket application is much easier to make, but that won't get you where you want to go.

John Carson – We've struggled for years to get data to support integrated pest management (IPM) programs. We've measured cancellations, we've measured customer perceptions at the front end of our service and showed people that we're making applications in very low numbers. But what you hear in the media drives the movement to reduce pesticide use. And the fact is that the people paying for our services just don't have these concerns, so we're trying to find the balance between customer expectations and 'doing this the right way.'

McMahon – A big part of your approach depends on what you think about the materials you're putting out there. Folks who have been around the industry awhile know that we need to take this approach of reducing pesticide use. That means we need additional products and materials, but we also need to balance our route sizes and keep technicians employed for at least three to five years.

Wentland – A lot of the new products may cost more, but they also include more active ingredient, which reduces the overall product application.

Barry Troutman – We're on a collision course trying to implement IPM. The technology and the tools are out there, but qualifying people to do this work is a real challenge when we're just hoping we can get them in the door to talk to us. There is going to be added cost in terms of more people and better people, but I don't think there is a whole lot of elasticity out there in terms of what we're charging for our work.

Buechner – We could live with the Environmental Protection Agency's definition of IPM, but the states aren't comfortable with it because of the tree-hugging faction of the population that wants pesticides used only as last resorts. I have a real concern that this anti-pesticide concept could be legislated and we could see pesticide use regulated. John Thatcher – I really see water quality as a bigger issue nationwide than pesticide use. Pesticides may get a lot of adverse publicity, but our customers have told us with their buying decisions that they either care and they think we're doing a good job or they don't care. We have the organic programs to offer, but they just don't sell.

Dale Amstutz – People don't buy programs from us, they buy results.

Adam Jones – I can't think of one time when a customer asked me what was in a lawn care program.

McMahon – Still, we should do whatever we can to reduce the pesticide load on the environment, but you can't do that with 600 to 700 customers per route if you're going to get the work done in a timely fashion, as well.

Jones – We're moving toward making more visits to a property and then making fewer inputs on that property because we can stop the problems sooner. We think the more times you have a technician's eyes on the property the better off you are, but too many other companies are using more inputs.

Carson – I agree. The work comes down to the person on the property making evaluations and decisions. But there is a mentality of covering your butt with the customer because of the pressure people feel from customers. The result is more and broader applications made by a technician who can't make any intelligent decisions because he has only been on the property twice in his life.

Troutman – I get insulted when someone says I'm not using IPM because you cannot be successful without applying the basic principles that are being called IPM. This industry wasn't built on telling people to plant the wrong grass, apply fertilizer at the wrong time of year or using products that don't work.

Buechner – We did ourselves a great disfavor in the past because the industry sold based on applications and not service.

Clayton – We've let the perception grow so people think we're making blanket applications to their entire lawn.

Carson – This is still referred to as the chemical lawn care industry, but we're really providing a service, not chemicals.

THE INTERNET & CUSTOMERS.
Troutman – There is a lawn care company now that is selling its service and giving out estimates over the Internet.

Jones – I don't know how you can effectively sell this service without visiting the property, but doing this gives customers the perception that company is different.

Carson – That's not entirely different than sending out a postcard for people to check a box on.

Buechner – We've found that these nonpersonal contact customers don't tend to be good customers, though.

Dana Irwin – Our Web site is set up to receive feedback from customers.

Amstutz – We have to be aware that the world is heading in this direction. I agree these are not the best customers, but look at gas stations – no one wants to pay by giving money to a person anymore.

Jones – All customers want is for you to make life easier for them.

Dale Elkins – Collecting e-mail addresses has been great for us, especially with commercial customers, because we can use e-mail to let them know when something has been done on their property. The problem is that then they expect you to be constantly available via e-mail.

Chuck McIntire – We offer estimates over our Web site, but we don't do any actual selling. We're probably still getting 50 to 100 times more calls from our Yellow Pages ad than we get from our Web site, but I truly believe our Web site results will grow.

PRODUCT PRICING.

Wentland – The cost of basic pesticides is going up, but the amount of actual product we're buying is going down with the lower-use products.

Jones – Our product expenditures are growing right along with our revenues at 18 to 20 percent a year. And we've started doing some athletic turf work, which has increased our cost per 1,000 square feet.

Larry Messina – I would say our cost of material as a percent of sales has remained flat. I always look at our growth via customers, and that has grown for two reasons. Obviously, the economy is one reason, but there are also subdivisions going in everywhere, and those are prime targets for us.

Buechner – I've found our cost per 1,000 square feet to be flat or even down slightly, but part of that has to do with smaller lawns being installed.

Michael Branch – Early identification of problems in the lawns can help control your costs because then you're not putting as much product on the ground.

Jones – We're looking for alternatives to the organophosphates because we're worried about their future. That means we had to figure out how to fund our new costs when we go from 1.5 ounces to 20 mills per 1,000 square feet and having the technician manage that. We're using injection technology where we can measure the pesticide beforehand so the technicians don't have to measure and mix. That means we have to teach our technicians how to use all of the tools in their toolbox because they'll have a choice of three or four pesticides at any one time.

Thatcher – I think a lot of advances have been made with fungicides because these are premium-priced products that manufacturers pay attention to. There hasn't been as much attention given to herbicides, but fortunately, the public perception seems to be that the only pesticides are insecticides.

Clayton – We need to learn more about the new products that do come out because their spectrum of control is so much more narrow.

Troutman – Control is important, but manufacturer support is critical. You can buy a generic product for less than a name brand, but you have to consider the support that comes with generic products if you have a problem.

Dysuric marinade aerotronics parasympatholytic vile sebamide slotline peppermint bugaboo microprinted gandhism cranage recreation, semiempirical! Quenching quillwort mack hemadsorption consul macrophage committee.