Why it’s More Complicated Than it Looks
Lawn service scheduling is a commonly miscommunicated and misunderstood process between providers and clients. Lawn care work such as fertilizer, aeration and seeding, mowing, mulching, and more is a tricky field of services when it comes to public perception versus reality. An industry that is stereotyped as nothing more than small scale blue collar work, lawn care is frequently short changed with little consideration for the work being done behind the scenes. As a result, the majority of homeowners who hire a professional lawn care company are surprised when they learn how complicated and involved lawn service scheduling can be.
Outdoor Work is at the Mercy of Mother Nature’s Whims
Whats up with my lawn service scheduling? First and foremost, we must keep in mind that every service under the umbrella of lawn care is being performed out in the open. While a plumber or a painter is doing large parts of their work inside your home, your lawn care crew is only going indoors if you’ve kindly invited them in for a glass of lemonade. As a result, lawn care workers are subjected to every type of weather condition that your lawn experiences. These conditions include extreme heat, extreme cold, high winds, and, most detrimentally, rain.
It seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many people are surprised to learn that most lawn care companies actually don’t expect their crew members to perform services in the rain. Not only is it harmful to your lawn, which we’ll discuss later on, but it’s simply miserable and even dangerous for the employees performing the service. If it’s not good for the crew and not good for the lawn, there is no reason to be forcing the lawn service scheduling that day. Where weed control through fertilizer services or flower bed maintenance visits are concerned, high winds and gusts as well as certain temperatures can throw off a service as well based on label regulations.
A Lawn Doesn’t Dry Instantaneously
Once we get to the point of understanding why a lawn care crew isn’t going to perform services while it’s actively raining, the logical question to follow asks how soon the crew will be back to perform the service. Unfortunately, there are multiple factors influencing this lying below the surface of the question. It’s not a simple answer, nor one that is the same for every property.
Let’s say that our area gets heavy rain Monday morning, but the rain stops around lunch time. For most professional lawn care companies, this kind of weather takes all of Monday off of the table. This would even be the case if it had rained Sunday night; lawns stay wet until they’ve spent hours in the sun. Even then, the soil is likely to be saturated for at least a day, more if the yard naturally holds water.
If a lawn is wet, a professional lawn care provider will avoid putting any kind of equipment on it at all costs. This is because of the damage machinery can do to a wet lawn. If the grass is still wet, tires and wheels can tear the blades of grass as they slip on it, damaging the plant you’re trying to keep healthy. If the soil is saturated and soft, it is very easy for even a small push mower or push spreader to leave ruts in lawn areas, damage that could have been prevented.
Every company is different, but if lawn service scheduling planned for Monday gets rained out, PPLM’s policy is not to skip that week’s service. Instead, we adjust our schedule to slide the whole week back a day. This keeps things more consistent and fair. However, if a service is rescheduled for later in the week, it does not mean that the conditions will be right for service. The yard may still be too wet to work on, and the job may be put on a longer hold until it has had more time to dry up. Regularly scheduled services are only skipped completely if the conditions of the lawn are too wet or if multiple days in a row have been rained out.
Just Because it Didn’t Rain at Your House Doesn’t Mean it Didn’t Rain Down the Street
As we mentioned, it’s a knee jerk reaction for many people to assume that lawn care companies are one crew operations that service a small, localized area. For more and more providers, however, this is not the case. Many lawn care companies like PPLM have multiple crews in operation that service multiple counties and cities on a planned rotation. As a result, it is normal for crews to service properties ten or more miles apart from each other on the same day and to be up to fifty miles away on Tuesday from where they were scheduled on Monday.
While a property can sometimes be revisited after a skipped service the same day or the following day, it is not always feasible based on the route that has been carefully planned. Additionally, if a whole day is skipped because of guaranteed rain in the forecast, this decision is made by necessity with the whole route in mind. It’s not at all practical for a company to pay team members to be on call in case part of the route is missed by bad weather or to send out a crew to check on each individual property in case one or two is dry enough to service.
At the end of the day, for many well established lawn care and turf management companies, lawn service scheduling is a full time job in and of itself. It requires great organization, supervision, and flexibility. Always keep in mind that no service provider in any industry is intentionally trying to skip your service or make you unhappy. Service providers are on the same page as you because it’s performing work and keeping clients happy that pays the bills. However, it’s unfair to blame your lawn care company for things that are as far out of their control as the weather. Their only option is to try to work around it in a way that is fair for the greatest number of clients as possible.
PPLM is revolutionizing professional turf management in the following ways and more:
- We offer a cutting edge, carbon driven fertilization program that is applied with sophisticated, calibrated equipment for accuracy and success!
- We go above and beyond in educating and communicating with our clients through newsletters, personalized feedback, and YouTube videos!
- We never subcontract our lawn services; if you’ve hired PPLM for fertilizer or seeding, you will always be receiving PPLM work for your lawn!
- We are a fully licensed and insured family owned company in RVA that has been making lawns green for decades with a diverse and enthusiastic team!
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