Wouldn’t it be great to add more revenue and profit to your tree service business? One idea you may have had is adding lawn care programs to your service offering.
But this isn’t always as easy as many tree service businesses would hope. Each year, I talk to many tree care services who have struggled for years to get a lawn care division off the ground.
But not this guy…Joshua Malik from Joshua Tree Experts is a true success story. They've been one of our clients since 2017 and I’ve been thoroughly impressed by how thoughtful he and his team have been as they have grown their lawn care division.
I recently sat down with Josh for a candid conversation about his best tips for growing a lawn care business, particularly when general tree care is your original jam. Check out these tips below in the video interview, podcast, or article.
(Audio Only Podcast Below)
1. Spend Ample Time on Pre-Launch Strategy
One of the biggest flaws of launching a lawn care division is not spending enough time in the planning phase. Josh says they spent 18-24 months nailing down their strategy.
They were already starting in a good spot. They learned valuable past lessons from offering Plant Health Care. The concept of programs and the buyer behaviors behind them weren’t new ideas.
Likewise, their healthy tree care material vendor relationships helped them to find resources as they explored lawn care products.
If you’re not quite at this spot, I’d recommend finding tree services like Joshua Tree Experts who are further along in the journey. They may be able to connect you with industry consultants, peer groups, and vendors with valuable resources.
There’s no need to figure this out on your own.
2. Give Thought to Designing Programs & Facilities
There are numerous options for lawn care materials. Each program will require multiple liquid and granular products throughout the year.
This also impacts equipment choices, from ride-on machines to the trucks and trailers you purchase.
You may also find that your relatively simple shop worked well for tree care operations but the lawn care business is a whole new ball of wax.
Josh realized that a few bays quickly became packed with truckloads of granular materials and jugs of liquid concentrates. Because Joshua Tree Experts orders materials in bulk, they had to renovate these spaces to accommodate their inventory.
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3. Staff Appropriately & Refine Lawn Care Programs
You’ll likely start with one lawn care technician to kick off your new division. One tip Josh emphasizes is to prepare to find mentors.
It may be a stretch for your tree experts to have the lawn-specific knowledge they need to coach your lawn care technicians. Continue to search for senior lawn care technicians who could eventually serve in a supervisory role.
These savvy team members can take charge of continuously reviewing your products, programs, and processes to create an even better lawn care division so you can focus elsewhere.
4. Expect CRM Pains & Pivots
You’ll find that when you look at green industry CRMs and operating software they are often built to address a few types of green industry companies.
Creating work orders and scheduling multiple tree crews with various pieces of equipment is very different than scheduling hundreds of lawn care applications each day. Although many of these systems are somewhat adaptable, it’s a likely pain point as you hit limitations.
Since changing your software is a huge undertaking, contact your software provider to see if they can recommend other users who have added lawn care divisions. These peers may help you understand the workarounds you may need to create.
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5. Build a Call Center Powerhouse
Let’s face it. Lawn care programs and the companies that offer them are fairly similar. When you offer a somewhat commoditized service like lawn treatments where you can shine by creating a more convenient customer experience.
Josh said one key element to success was creating a call center that could not only handle customer questions but can also execute “one-step sales” instantly. He even states that they only miss 0.5% of inbound calls. This truly makes them stand out as a company that is easy to do business with.
Instead of waiting for estimates, the indoor sales team at Joshua Tree Experts builds rapport and gives quotes within minutes. Since time is the killer of most sales deals, this speedy quote process is just another illustration of how to close a high volume of leads in record time.
It also means that your lawn care customers are able to focus on what matters most, enjoying their nice lawn sooner!
6. Collect Regular Customer Feedback
One of the things I really respect about Josh and his team is their desire to know what they need to improve and where they’re succeeding.
Their positive company culture is widely due to their passion for customer feedback. Not only do we help them send out regular feedback campaigns, but the team also calls multiple customers each day with a simple satisfaction survey.
This has led to excellent lawn care customer retention plus hundreds of 5-star Google reviews each year.
RELATED READING: How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Green Industry Company
7. Create an Internal Feedback Loop
Josh says you’re going to get feedback, both good and bad. But that feedback needs to also be relayed to your team members at all levels.
Passing along positive customer feedback is vital encouragement for your growing lawn care division and the people who make it happen. Likewise, more frequent customer conversations allow you to make changes before small problems become big ones.
8. Get out of the Office and Into the Field
Proactive, healthy management of your lawn care team requires ride-a-longs and site visits. Beyond technical training on materials, equipment, and lawn challenges, this is a great opportunity to care for your people.
Joshua Tree Experts has created an environment to hear everyone’s voice and proactively seek them. Josh says it’s critical to ask technicians what they like and dislike about their job so you can respond to issues and remedy them if possible.
9. Use Diverse Marketing Methods & Grow By Thousands of Percent
What started as one lawn care technician has now exploded into Joshua Tree Experts applying materials to over 55 million square feet during each lawn care round!
Josh is a firm believer in diversifying your marketing. As we’ve helped them transform their digital footprint for a steady flow of lawn care leads, they have also continued to use traditional methods such as tradeshows, mailers, and others.
He also places a high value in hiring a tree service and lawn care marketing agency such as Landscape Leadership. In fact, Josh has referred several clients to us as well. (Thanks, buddy!)
RELATED READING: 16 Lawn Care Lead Generation Tactics - Rated Best to Worst
10. Track Lead Sources Meticulously
Although there can be some cloudiness with tracking marketing and advertising sources, the team at Joshua Tree Experts does a fantastic job at recording the last-touch source for the majority of their lawn care leads.
Not only have we helped them create systems to track their digital leads, but their team also incorporates tracking phone numbers, QR codes, and landing pages to track offline campaigns.
Josh says to offer yourself some grace when your company is young as you will eventually get better with this. However, the key is developing the systems and a passion for tracking early on. He said he learned a lot by visiting other lawn care and tree service companies that do a good job at this to understand how to maximize their success.
11. Budget & Plan Early, Not At Year’s End
Collecting lead sources and data can help you create a future roadmap as you grow your lawn care business. As you understand where you’d like to spend lawn care marketing dollars, you can begin the process of budgeting for these investments.
Advanced budgeting and planning are critical as you grow lawn care operations. Josh said it takes his team approximately 60 days to finalize the budget. They aim to complete their budget by September to take advantage of early-order savings from various lawn care manufacturers.
Become a Tree Service & Lawn Care Success Story
I absolutely love sharing the success stories of our clients! It’s been such a pleasure for our team to watch Joshua Tree Experts grow their tree, lawn care, and pest control divisions over the years.
The same can be true for you. Follow these tips to make the right connections and decisions as you add lawn care to your tree service. If you have any questions connect with Joshua Malik on LinkedIn, follow them on social media, or check out their website.
If you like regular insights like these, join over 5,000 of your green industry peers and subscribe to our blog. And, if you’re ready to grow your lawn care business, request a consultation.
