Rick Morgan has made an art out of running his lawn care business, and he encourages other lawn care operators to do the same. Morgan, who owns and operates Green World in Hampstead, NH, started out 22 years ago as a landscape designer, an occupation
in which he does what he describes as "sculpting in the real world." After he and a partner purchased a lawn care business
from a relative 17 years ago, he began putting his artistic abilities to work in his new company.
"Running a business is an art," explains Morgan, who is a fine arts painter and sculptor in the off-season. "It's the creative
process of organizing your resources with the goal of producing a tangible, recognizable result."
Those results have helped Morgan build Green World into a thriving business with $500,000 in annual sales and 600 customers
within a 30-mile radius of his office in southeastern New Hampshire. "Results and good communication equal customer satisfaction,"
Morgan says. To facilitate the creative process, Morgan relies on talented people and his computer software program, Lawn and Pest Assistant
III. This software, which is custom-designed for lawn care companies, helps Green World track customer and prospect calls
and follow them to resolution. "When a customer calls, I can immediately pull up the screen that lists all the contact we have had with them, including any
information that may help us provide more personalized service," says Morgan, who retains two employees year-round and an
additional five in season. "For instance, it's common for us to know their dog's name. When they hear that, they think, 'Hey,
these guys are really paying attention.'"
With a customer retention rate of 92%, Morgan, whose customer base is 70% residential, says that simply following up with
customers to make sure their lawn care program is working can be a major factor in retaining their business. "If you guarantee
a certain result, you have to know what you're going to do if something fails," he explains. "If you don't know that, you're
in trouble. Most homeowners don't believe you can do what you say you can do. So, never make a promise you can't keep."
The problem:crabgrass One of the results Green World promises is that its customers' lawns will be free of crabgrass. "The key to customer retention
is quality results, and a lot of customers cancel over crabgrass," says Morgan.
To control crabgrass, Green World includes a pre-emergence grass herbicide with its first fertilizer application in April.
When making second fertilizer applications in May, Green World applies a post-emergence broadleaf herbicide and looks for
signs of crabgrass along the edges of driveways and walkways.
The solution: Acclaim Extra herbicide If he sees crabgrass at this point, he spot treats it with a low rate (.5 oz./1,000 sq. ft.) of Acclaim Extra herbicide. "If
you stay on top of it, it's less expensive in the long run," says Morgan.
Rick Morgan says that when crabgrass rears its ugly head, clients will look elsewhere for lawn care.
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When crabgrass escapes the barrier created by the pre-emergence herbicide, Morgan relies on the product to provide the kind
of post-emergence crabgrass control he needs. "Even our basic program includes spot applications with Acclaim, and that gives us the ability to guarantee our results,"
he says. By adding the herbicide to their programs, lawn care operators may increase their costs by "a couple of dollars per
1,000 square feet," he adds, but the additional cost is justified by the amount of customer satisfaction it buys.
"Guys who don't take advantage of this product are leaving one of the best tools they have on the shelf," he says. "Crabgrass
control is one of the most basic things a customer expects. If you can't control crabgrass, you're going to lose that customer."
