America, says the increased number of homeowners with surveillance cameras installed has created additional calls to their office.


Similar to Blades of Green and Ziehler,


Weed Man has had clients calling to thank them for doing kind acts like bringing in the garbage cans or clients saying the technician was not there long enough or did not treat the property at all. “In any case in question, we would meet with the client as soon as possible to inspect the lawn to verify the applica- tion was performed properly and we are seeing the desired results,” says Mike Richard, national marketing director for Weed Man. “When we’re applying a gran- ular product or when aerating a lawn, it’s easy to find evidence of the work being done. It’s more difficult with a liquid appli- cation, where we need to rely on the end results. Depending on the application, we may need to wait a period of 2 weeks, and if after that point, we were not happy with the results, we would simply re-apply the application.”


DEALING WITH CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS AND CAMERA BLIND SPOTS On the rare occasions where a customer voices concern over wheth- er a technician was on a property or spent enough time treating it, there are a number of common explanations for the misunderstanding. The main cause is typically camera blind spots as most surveillance systems are not focused on the entire yard.


In Blades of Green’s case, their pro- tocol is for the technician to inspect the property first before treating it. This can cause the surveillance cameras to pick up the technician walking the property but not performing any service. The cameras will time out and not record the service performed afterward. “They will also sometimes not pick up the technician in the lawn because the cameras are focused more on the immediate area around the house and not the full turf area,” Collinson says. “The second complaint we sometimes receive is more on the plant health care side of the business where we don’t treat every plant at every visit. They are treated based on proper IPM practice and only treating what plants need to be treated at that time of year based on the insect and disease issues of that time. We handle that by explaining what IPM is to the client and why we practice it.” Richard says some of the motion-ac-


tivated cameras are not always prop- erly calibrated and fail to capture their technicians on the property. Other times the camera may only pick up when the technician is leaving the invoice after the application, and the homeowner can feel the work was not completed. “Usually, we find that the technicians have performed their jobs properly, but there have been cases where a mistake has been made and, in those situa- tions, we always make it right with the customer and our teams learn from the experience,” Richard says. Gerken says they see customer


feedback as a chance to build a sense of trust with them.


“On the rare occasion that a customer did not believe that the application was done to the standards that we have set, we have always made it a point to have a service manager visit the property, hope- fully meeting the customer in person and reviewing the application with the goal of achieving a resolution where both parties are satisfied,” Gerken says.


PREPARING FOR MORE CUSTOMER OVERSIGHT


All three companies say it comes down to building trusting relationships with their clients with this increased abili- ty for homeowner oversight. “Our technicians are trained to respect our client’s property and to treat their lawns as if it were their own,” Richard says. “We advise our technicians that many homeowners have surveillance cameras, and they should always assume some- one is watching them at all times.” Collinson says their technicians are required to go to the door prior to starting service, so this often triggers the surveillance system. Blades of Green also takes photos of the property during the inspec- tion process and leaves detailed notes to let the client know they were there and build a relationship with them.


“I would say the best way to prepare for this (home security cameras) is by hiring the right peo- ple, great people that you trust and take care of and then they will take care of your clients and do right by them,” Collinson says. Gerken says they haven’t


changed any of their practices, but most of their technicians make a point to recognize the cameras


NALP qtr pg 1-21.indd 1


and wave at the doorbell camera before starting an application. “Here at Ziehler Lawn & Tree Care we make it a point to focus on customer ser- vice,” Gerken says. “We teach our people to treat our customers’ properties as if they were one of their family members, specifically their Yiayia’s (grandmother). We have a culture that revolves around our unmatched customer experience, which starts on their first day of training and is reviewed on a weekly basis. We have found that when everyone in the company takes pride in the work they are performing and are provided the adequate time to perform an application, the issues with home surveillance are minimized.” TLP


Ziehler Lawn and Tree Care hasn’t changed any of their practices but their technicians make a point to wave at the cameras before starting


an application. Photos (above): Ziehler Lawn and Tree Care


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