Building a Successful Landscape Company

Landscaping business success – differentiate yourself from your competition

The landscaping business can be cutthroat at times; especially if you offer landscaping services in a community where the stiff competition outweighs the customer demand for these services.  In these situations, how is it that your landscape company can rise above the competition in order for you to grab your fair share, or more, of the available clients?  The answer is quite simple, actually; you simply have to set yourself apart from your competition.

Now, some professional landscapers already know this fact, though many landscapers that aren’t well-grounded in fundamental business strategies go about trying to separate their business from their competitors in the wrong way, completely. It’s called underbidding.

How not to build a successful landscaping company

Before we get into the tactics that your landscape company can use to rise above your competition, we’ll address a common pitfall that inexperienced business owners, landscapers included, use on a regular basis that is actually, in many cases, detrimental to the long-term success of their business: underbidding.

Underbidding projects usually happens when a landscaper is desperate for landscaping jobs, and in order to get some work, these landscapers will bid much less than they normally would simply to obtain a new project.  Consistently underbidding projects for new clients can have negative long-term effects for a landscaping business simply because, many times, the landscaper is working for wages that they can hardly afford with their overhead eating away at their deserved profits.

There are legitimate reasons to underbid projects, however.  If you happen to have a smaller landscape company with limited overhead, you certainly can bid less than larger landscaping companies because your costs are lower.  This, in itself is not technically underbidding, but can be construed that way in the eyes of uninformed or even closed-minded individuals.  Another legitimate reason for underbidding is if you are a new to the landscaping business and you need to get some references; bidding lower than you normally would for a project may be necessary until your landscape company has become established and has built a reputation for delivering a quality service.

While underbidding landscaping projects may be necessary at times, it’s not generally in your companies’ best interest to continually do so as you will be lowering the perceived value of your services in the eyes of your customers.  The perceived value of what you are offering, is many cases, is much more important than the actual value of what you are offering.

So, now that we have that established, what positive measures can your landscape company take to differentiate yourself from your competition?

Give excellent customer service to your landscaping clients

Seen as the most important aspect of any business to consumer business, if you pay attention to what your customers are asking for, while giving them excellent results and getting their feedback on the landscaping services that you’ve performed; you can fully expect that your current clients will not only stay with you, they will actually help you to grow your business with positive word of mouth advertising.

Many landscaping businesses, unfortunately, lack in the customer service department. Whether it’s not paying attention to the customers initial needs or simply performing a cold-service without any human interaction between the company and the individual; in general, most people are receptive and appreciative when a company that they hire takes the initiative to make personal contact and even engage in small talk for a minute or two.  Adding the human element to the services that you perform can literally mean the difference between a one-time customer and a life-long customer who refers new clients to your landscaping company because you come across as a real person.

Maintaining a professional landscaping company appearance

Believe it or not, there are many customers that will gauge the quality of the services that you provide by the way your landscape company presents itself; from the way you and your employees dress, the way that your company conducts itself and even passing judgment, good or bad, based on the appearance of your landscaping equipment.

While in smaller communities you may be able to get by just fine by showing up to a job in dirty and even torn clothing, miss-matched “uniforms” (consisting of jeans, shorts and t-shirts), and dilapidated landscaping equipment, in competitive markets, you absolutely should pay attention to the way that your landscape company is representing itself.  For an inconsequential investment, you can pickup matching uniforms for your landscaping company; something that will undoubtedly cause your customers to notice your professionalism.

In regards to landscaping equipment, even if you cannot afford the top of the line tools of the trade, by being certain that your equipment is in good working order and at least clean, you will further impact the perception of professionalism to your customers.  In fact, you might even end up picking up some “drive by” referrals, if you happen to have a sign on your vehicles advertising your services.  Bottom line, professionalism sells and it will go a long way in helping you to rise above your landscape company’s competition.

 By not caving into the temptation of constantly underbidding on landscaping projects, focusing on customer service representing your company with professionalism, you will be able to rise above your competition.  Not only that, but in the long run you will find  that you can charge more than your competition for the exact same services and people will be glad to pay whatever you are asking for.