Aeration: a can't-miss add-on
1 May, 2005 By: George Witterschein Landscape ManagementTurf professionals seeking another profitable service to offer clients should consider turf aeration. That's the report we get from Green Industry professionals such as Kenny Dickey, founder and president of K&K Lawn Service Inc. of Burlington, NC. His 31-year-old firm offers a full range of turf management services, including aerations, to a mostly upscale, residential clientele.
 Turf pros can find units that aerate properties of almost every size. |
"About six or seven years ago, I got the brochure for an aerator, the AERA-vator," he recalls. "I took the brochure to a copy shop and had a whole bunch of them printed up for my clients and I haven't looked back since.
"We had no trouble selling turf aeration. Ninety to 95 percent of our customers went for it right away and still demand it," Dickey says.
Joyce Pelz also recommends turf aeration both for lawn quality and business profitability. She's the owner and operator of a NaturaLawn of America franchise in Stowe, OH. She works mostly in the Akron area of northeast Ohio. Pelz has operated the franchise since 2000 and now serves about 500 properties, most of them home lawns,. She has a staff of three that includes herself.
"We give them a brochure (provided by the NaturaLawn of America corporate office) explaining our services for aeration and overseeding, and we also supply a price quote," she explains.
"The brochures by themselves typically don't produce a heavy response for us," she says. "We get a better response when our salesperson follows up by telephone. By now about 25% of our customer base purchases these additional services from us, some of them yearly or every other year."
Stress the benefits
A third turf aeration advocate is Dan Warehime, vice president for operations at Senske Lawn and Tree Services, a $15 million firm headquartered in Washington state. The company, now more than 50 years old, serves mostly residential customers in the Intermountain West, including Idaho and Utah. Warehime reports. Shake, rattle and roll |
Senske Lawn and Tree markets turf aeration by emphasizing the importance of the service for healthy, attractive lawns.
"Every price estimate we write for lawn care includes aeration," Warehime says. "Our assumption is that everybody needs it. That's because all soils tend to become compacted," he says. In order to breathe properly and develop root systems the lawns should be aerated annually. Therefore aeration is a basic part of the quality lawn care that we want to provide.
"We have achieved about a 70 percent acceptance of turf aeration among our customers. And that's rising as time goes by," Warehime says. "We're talking the service up. If a customer does not take aeration initially as part of their package, our technicians will suggest it to them in person while working on the property.
"In addition, every year we do a fall promotion for those who do not have aeration as part of their service."
How they price it
Pelz prices aeration by a property's square footage and the the type of terrain. Critical to the process is calculating the number of man-hours needed to perform the service.Senske Lawn and Tree also subscribes to a keep-it-simple approach. "For customers on our program we generally quote the same price for aeration as we do for a lawn care application," Warehime reports. "That is often lower than what competitors are charging for aeration, and we accept our low price as part of our attempt to move to 100 percent penetration of our customer base with aeration services. So we feel it's in our interest to keep the pricing simple. It makes the customer's decision easier.
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