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When the snow comes, who's first served?
1 May, 2009 By: Mark Hall Landscape ManagementNYONE WORKING in a service industry knows what a struggle it can be to find a good balance serving multiple clients. That struggle can become chaos if every client demands full attention at the same time. In many industries these busy periods can be anticipated and planned for. Not so for contractors in the snow and ice management business, who don't get advance notice of the week's snowfall.
 A good contractor simply needs a bit of organization to establish an effective priority plan. |
So when a snow event does occur, how do you to decide which customer will receive service first?
Many contractors don't have a structured system in place — and find themselves asking "Who's first?" once the season is already under way. When the snow falls, these contractors could very likely wind up on the phone with angry customers who have a question of their own: "Why aren't you here?"
To be successful, you must establish realistic expectations — both for your customers and yourself — well before winter hits.
Who's on first?
When prospecting new snow and ice management accounts, contractors often talk to potential customers who specify they want their snow cleared by a specific time. But it's nearly impossible for you to give such a guarantee, simply because no one knows exactly when it's going to snow. Furthermore, there's no possible way to be everywhere at once. The reality is that some customers will get service more quickly than others.
There are undoubtedly several methodologies and systems subscribed to by industry professionals to determine which customers get service first. One approach that has proved extremely successful is the Retainer and Deposit system, a method that basically allows customers to choose their desired response time.
 Choosing clients located close to one another allows for a more efficient operation by cutting down on excessive travel. |
Priority 1: Retainer customers
Under this system, customers are given the option to pay a monthly retainer to gain priority status during a snow event. The retainer is based on the price of one performed service, along with the average number of plowing events that can be expected in a given market.
As an example, say a city usually experiences about 12 snow events that require plowing per winter, and it's generally recognized that there are four months — December through March — when snowfall is most likely. To calculate the monthly retainer, multiply the price for one service by the expected number of plowing events for the entire season, and then divide that number into each of the likely months for snowfall:
So if the fee for one service is $100, the total retainer (assuming 12 snow events) for the winter would be $1,200. Because that covers a four-month period, each month's retainer would be $300.
As the winter rolls along, the advance retainer money can be applied to cover any services provided for the month in which the service was performed. This includes instances where no plowing is necessary, but de-icing materials are applied. The only way a customer loses retainer money is if it doesn't snow, or if it snows so little the total service fees in a given month don't add up to the retainer amount.
Yes, some of the financial investment may be lost. But what's gained is a guaranteed response time during a snow event.
Of course, the retainer system only truly works if you can deliver on the promise for a timely response. The guarantee is nearly impossible to fulfill if you oversell the work and can't service priority customers in the specified time.
In the process of selling their services, many contractors find retainer customers are usually agreeable to a response time of six hours or less, and therefore will set up a schedule that offers a total of six hours per truck as priority-one service. Obviously, the intensity and timing of a snow event will have a significant impact on your ability to stick to a six-hour schedule, which is why the six hours should be based on a worst-case scenario.
In most cities, the worst case would be a heavy snowfall that begins during the early-morning commute right before most businesses open for the day. Just about everything is working against you in such a case: Street traffic is heavy. You must also navigate around vehicles arriving in parking lots. Meanwhile, almost any snow — and certainly a heavy snowfall — will dictate at least a second visit to each account for additional service. If you were to encounter a worst-case scenario having oversold the work, response time can quickly become an issue for some soon-to-be-unhappy customers.
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