Improving your customer experience should be top of mind for any business. But for the landscape and lawn care entrepreneur, how your customers share their business experience can be the difference between success and failure.

One of the best and most cost effective ways to earn new customers comes from referrals. Providing outstanding customer experience is one of the best and easiest ways to create a positive brand experience and encourage customers to refer your services to others. Top-of-class businesses are also able to build brand advocates. Advocates share their experiences with others by recommending your services to their friends and neighbors.

But be careful. Today’s online, social media-influenced world has simplified a customer’s ability to say both good and bad things to their network of friends. Word of mouth is no longer a one-on-one experience. Satisfied or not, people can now share their experience with the world. This new digital communications megaphone means it’s critical for landscape and lawn care business owners to earn positive customer reviews, addressing complaints quickly and monitoring reviews. A few negative impressions have the potential to harm a business’s reputation.

Managing The Customer Journey Begins with Understanding Expectations

Part of Spring-Green Lawn Care’s professional development training includes a program called Understanding the Customer Journey. The program is designed to identify and manage the expectations of new customers. It starts with the Spring-Green Call Center asking questions that get to the heart of the customers expectations.

Customers’ answers are added to their account and can help guide your future actions. Now you can better manage their expectations based on what is possible with their lawn. Typically, you will be able to meet your customers’ expectations. However, sometimes the expectations are unrealistically high based on the condition of the lawn. What happens then?

Discussing Expectations: An Early Step in Building Customer Trust

When a customer’s expectations for their lawn don’t mesh with the reality of what can be achieved, the time has come to have a frank discussion to help them understand what can and cannot be done to help improve their lawn.

Part of this discussion may require an education on weeds—which weeds are easy to control, which require multiple treatments and which weeds are uncontrollable. In addition to weeds, customers may also need to learn about the impact of past insect or disease problems, environmental conditions, such as shade, or any other factors that may influence a lawn’s potential.

If having this kind of one-on-one conversation with a customer is something you don’t feel prepared for yet, either due to lack of experience or technical knowledge, Spring-Green can help. All franchise owners need to do is take a picture of the lawn problem and send it to our experts to help find the best solution. The important thing is not to miss an opportunity to have a customer conversation to set realistic expectations.

Providing customers with a direct outlet for feedback beyond online review websites is an important part of maintaining positive customer relationships. The ultimate goal is to create open and honest communication between you and your customer.

Want to learn more about how Spring-Green can help your green business keep customers satisfied? Call 1-800-777-8608 or visit us at www.growmygreenindustrybusiness.com.