Page 16 - OPE March 2020

INSIGHT
Lawn & Garden Contractors
BACKINTHEday,therewerejust a couple of lawn & garden brands and life was good for franchisees
whose books were full of regular clients. Now,withanincreasingnumberof
casual customers and some lawn & garden professionals reacting to increasingly
poor returns by joining a growing band ofexperienced“privateers”,competitionis intense and success is all about operators with focus and a strong business sense.
To find out more, I sought out three long term players in garden care:
• GrahamWatson–HeadFranchisor
of Express Lawn Mowing (www. expresslawnmowing.co.nz) and long-time former franchisee.
• EstelleLogan–NZNationalFranchisor of VIP Home Services (www. viphomeservices.co.nz) now in its 25th year.
• KateBromley–Franchiseand Operations Director of Pimp My Lawn (www.pimpmylawn.co.nz), 13 years in lawn care this year.
Read on...
BEATING THE WEATHER
“The last year has been interesting, hasn’t it?” says VIP’s Estelle Logan, “with such dry conditions, which we haven’t had forprobablysevenoreightyears.But everything is cyclical, isn’t it,” she says.
And in fact the drought has just not affected gardens: “It’s impacted on the wholemaintenanceofthepropertybecause everything has been so dry. So you don’t want to be pruning. You don’t want to be cutting a hedge when it’s already stressed.”
So, with some VIP outdoor franchisees
experiencing a bit of a squeeze, it’s up to
the franchisor to step in, says Estelle: “It’s really the support and the training of our franchisees that enables them to get through adverseseasons.”
Such as? “Addressing what they can
do to help clients who have got stressed lawns, because really what happens is the grassgetsreallystressed...howcanwe best still retain the lawn so that it isn’t compromised?”
All this – mowing techniques, equipment optimisation for the conditions, water maximisation and more – happens during VIP’s usual round of meetings around the country with franchisees.
On top of which, as a true multi-service, VIP outdoor franchisees do more than just mow lawns. “The variety certainly assists them... That’s a really important aspect
of their business because it makes them sustainable through different challenges and different seasons,” says Estelle.
“That means that they’re doing property maintenance, they’re doing the gardens, doing the section clearing, they’re doing the gutter clearing, the high-pressure blasting.
“Some also have the skills to do repairs and maintenance and painting, or hard landscaping. It really depends on their own skillsets.”
Success, according to Estelle Logan, is also fundamentally connected to the quality of the operator’s relationship with their clients, how well they have networked their client base to have the opportunity to do other work.
“What we have found is that the franchisees who look after their clients and do more things than just the lawn are far more sustainable than those who only ever mow lawns.”
THE NEED TO ADAPT OR DIE
Of the 26-odd Express Lawn Mowing franchisees, the drought probably only affected a couple of them and these received extra support.
“We just made sure we were really proactive,” says Graham Watson, quickly adding that he too needed to diversify somewhat: “It’s been a struggle, but I’ve just been keeping myself busy with like massive one-off jobs like tree work and pruning and hedges.”
Graham clearly agrees that branching out is another way to reduce exposure to weather and/or economic conditions.
I remember the first time we spoke, back when he was wearing a different colour shirt, Graham’s view was that the best garden care operators didn’t restrict themselves to lawns but assessed the customer’s other needs. Is that even more so now?
“Absolutely! It’s like when you shake a tree, sometimes you just don’t know what’s
CASUAL WORK – GOOD FOR NO-ONE?
GREEN ACRES LAST year
launched its Uber-like Green Acres Go offering with a view to snapping up what it saw as increasing demand for ad hoc or casual garden care.
The word around the traps at the time was one of surprise in an industry that has traditionally sought to achieve a bottom line through regular customers and repeat business.
What’s our panel’s view now on
this sort of casual demand? (Spoiler
alert: consensus is that “casual” is not necessarily good for the customer and on that basis it’s not good for business...)
Pimp My Lawn for one sells its service around a regular programme of lawn care visits every six or eight weeks.
“But we’re dealing with nature and
obviously it’s a living beast,” adds Kate Bromley. “So, it could quickly turn from perfect to diseased to mossy or weedy.
“So we’re very, very careful about taking on one-off work.
“We say, well, you need to be realistic, you can expect some things to die.
“You can expect some improvement, but you certainly can’t expect strawberry jam.”
From another perspective, says Express Lawn Mowing’s Graham Watson, the value of clients is not what it was 10 years ago, plus it is very hard to get good quality, regular clients.
“Yeah, a lot of clients just want casual,” he admits, however qualifying that one-off jobs are different from – and preferable to – casuals.
“One offs are fine, because you get paid properly,” he says.
“But a casual, who you’ve maybe quoted $40 for the lawn, may let it grow for six weeks and then still expect to only pay $40.
“So don’t do it – it’s just not worth it. It’s not what I got into the business for. And I wouldn’t expect my franchisees to be led around like that.
“There’s no efficiency in it – you can’t schedule your week, you can’t schedule your day if you’ve got a whole lot of casual clients.”
“You have to create regular clients; clients are not going to get the same care and attention on a casual basis, and it’s a risk – if the customer’s not happy. It won’t work.”
016 NZOUTDOORPOWEREQUIPMENT MARCH2020
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