Are you paying enough attention to customer experience in your landscaping business?
There are various stages to a buyer’s journey, beginning before you hear from them and continuing even after the job is complete. In this competitive landscape (ha – see what we did there?), cultivating a truly exceptional customer experience from start to finish is the key to making your landscaping business stand out, earning you profitable clients and customers that keep coming back.
Let’s explore each stage of the buyer’s journey and ensure that your landscaping clients are receiving the best possible experience that will leave them satisfied every step of the way.
Stage One: Awareness
The very first stage in the buyer’s journey begins the moment that that realize they’re in the market for landscaping services.
How do you make the most of the customer experience in this stage? You cultivate a brand that conveys expertise, authenticity, and reliability.
Since the buyer has only just realized they’re in need of professional services, the wheels in their head begin turning even before they have a chance to search for potential landscapers. When you can successfully build a brand for your landscaping business that carries weight in your community and has positive connotations, you’re winning this stage of the customer experience.
Ensure that your brand is consistent across all channels, both in voice and aesthetics. Pay attention to creating a brand that is consistent with who you are and your company values, and grow that brand through quality online content, social media engagement, and involvement in community events and projects.
Stage Two: Education
This is the stage where the buyer does their research. For your landscaping company, this stage involves a few different things.
First of all, you need to be easily found. This means having a functional website and accompanying social media profiles, employing strong SEO tactics across all website content, and making sure that your Google Business Profile is fully complete and accurate.
Once a customer finds and clicks on your website, it’s important that they’re satisfied with what they see. To deliver a top-notch customer experience your website should be intuitive and easy to use, include all information that a searcher might be looking for, and be visually appealing in a way that complements your overall brand.
Stage Three: Evaluation
When seeking a professional service like landscaping, buyers will typically exit the education stage with a shortlist of the most appealing potential companies to choose from.
When it comes to the landscaping industry, past performance is often the biggest factor at this stage in the process. Buyers are interested in seeing that you have a strong track record of satisfied clients, which is why it’s crucial that you have testimonials proudly displayed and easily accessible. Encourage happy customers to leave a review on your Google Business Profile once a job is complete, and be sure to interact with your audience on social channels to further solidify your reputation in the eyes of the buyer.
It’s also crucial to ensure that your communication is timely, professional, and friendly. Demonstrating reliability and high standards in your company communication is a good indicator that customers can count on you for those same things when it comes time to tackle their landscaping projects.
Stage Four: Decision
This is the meat and potatoes of the customer experience journey. They’ve chosen you as their preferred landscaping company and now it’s time to deliver.
At this stage you should focus on delivering the high-quality work that your business is known for, of course, but it’s also important to maintain that customer service and high-quality communication throughout the job.
Keep the client updated regarding the status of the project and make sure they understand what to expect moving forward. If you’ve verticut and reseeded a client’s yard and it will take some time before the client sees visible improvement for example, be sure to inform your client of that timeline in advance. Maintaining this sort of transparent and professional communication is almost as important as the landscaping work you produce when it comes to cultivating a positive customer experience.
Stage Five: Retention and Advocacy
In an ideal world, every client you work with will become a repeat customer and recommend you to everyone they meet.
While that’s a lofty goal, you can certainly encourage the behaviour and continue to perfect your customer journey to get there. Make sure that your communication remains prompt and professional even after the job is done, returning and customer queries with on-brand responses.
Streamline your invoicing process and save yourself from headaches down the road by keeping organized books as you go. Need a hand with this? AIS Solutions is here for you with our bookkeeping services for landscaping businesses.
You also might want to adopt the practice of keeping all client information on file and sending out emails to previous customers as the peak landscaping season approaches each year, reminding them to book their preferred services and making sure you’re in the front of their minds.
Cultivating a truly outstanding customer experience can get a little overwhelming, we know. The good news is it gets a whole lot easier when you have a specialized home services management system in place like Jobber. With features that help with scheduling, invoicing, customer communications, follow-ups, quotes, and so much more, you’ll be amazed how implementing just one single tool can help you elevate your customer experience to the next level.
