Instituting clear expectations

When Richard Bevilacqua, director of landscape operations, came on board a few years ago at Maple Leaf Associates, he noticed the gaps in the New York-based company’s lawn care, fertilization and weed control offerings.

“When I started here, our packages didn’t really exist. Basically, the company would go to a person and say, ‘Here’s every possible service you can have at your home, there’s 12 or 13 options, you decide what you want and send it back to us,’” he explains.

Bevilacqua says he knew almost immediately that something had to change, and the company should be presenting themselves as the experts who know exactly what customers’ lawns need.

“The problem I saw is that you’re bound to have clients who skip pre-emergence and then complain they have crabgrass or a customer decides to only do two applications or something else random like that,” he says. “What they’re doing doesn’t make any sense in terms of lawn care. So, we standardized everything.”

Now, the company has three main packages —the basic four-step program, an enhanced program and the estate package. Maple Leaf Associates still offers several al a carte services like slice seeding, aerating and soil conditioner applications as well.

“We have our basic package, which is your standard, four-step program with some broadleaf spraying. Then you have our enhanced package, which includes an additional application, soil enhancements and really caters to the soil and not necessarily the turf. That also has some crabgrass control and a little more weed spraying,” Bevilacqua says. “Our final package we call the estate package. That one is six applications, so still four lawn care and then two soil feedings… we found that you can only give the turf so much down to the soil. With that package we also have overseeding, any weed spray they would require and all that. It’s basically like the golf course package at home.”

Since making the switch two seasons ago, Bevilacqua says the standardization has paid off.

“We’ve almost doubled our division’s revenue since then,” he says.

While Bevilacqua admits it took some customers time to get used to the new programs and their offerings, most of them came around eventually.

“Year one was a little rough because we had to draw a line in the sand with the legacy clients and tell them essentially that they either have to sign on to the new program or, unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to keep you as a client,” he explains. “I’d say we lost about 20-30% of the customers who weren’t already on a program. After that, the customers were very receptive.”

Bevilacqua says new customers really appreciate the standardization. And Maple Leaf has made sure to lay out all of the details of each program thoroughly, so Bevilacqua says most prospective customers know exactly what they want before they even reach out.

“We also have everything on our website, and we have some literature we can give them that explains exactly what each package is and what it applies to. So, for example, for the estate package, it says if a golf course level lawn is what you’re looking for, this is the package for you,’” he explains. “I’ve noticed that when we go out on sales calls, they’ve already looked at it and they already have kind of made up their minds. If they’ve had any questions, because of Google and everything, they’ve already done their own research. It’s a lot easier to sell it when you have it out front and center.”