5 min read
Everyone loves a great deal—or even better, getting stuff for free. That’s why promotions and deals that offer free lawn care visits can be incredibly enticing. But what exactly are you receiving with these free lawn care visits or treatments?
That’s a question that we at Oasis Turf & Tree receive quite a bit. We often have prospective customers ask us about the various lawn care specials they’ve seen from our competition. The big question is: With all these companies offering free lawn care treatments, what are you actually getting for free?
Because we want to help you be an informed consumer, let’s look deeper into this common practice of marketing lawn care.
First and foremost, we want to be clear that we aren’t saying “free is bad.” In order to give our customers as much value as possible, we offer free services as part of our program too.
However, we think homeowners need to be cautious about exactly what they’re getting for free.
The concern is that some companies use “free” as more of a marketing ploy than a true “value add” to your program. Here are the two common ways in which lawn care programs use “free” in a sneaky way.
Some companies will boast inexpensive or even free services to reel you in as a customer. Once you’re hooked, though, that service will never be cheap or free again (like it was the first time) and the company will constantly be up-selling you for more services.
It’s sneaky as you’d obviously prefer to work with a company that just told you what your lawn needed from the onset as opposed to one that plays marketing games.
The other sneaky thing that companies sometimes do by offering a service for free is they give you a cheap treatment that your lawn doesn’t actually need such as lime and gypsum or “soil conditioners.” Your lawn does not need either of these services and yet there are plenty of lawn care companies in Cincinnati, Dayton, OH, and Northern Kentucky that will try to make you think that you’re receiving something valuable for free.
Think of it this way: When a company is saying that you’re going to get “two free visits,” it’s important to recognize that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting two free lawn care visits that are part of their total program.
You’re just getting two additional treatments that may not even be a product you need. You think you’re getting six visits but only paying for four when in reality, you’re paying for the full program that the company offers and just getting two additional treatments that you might not even need.
While we certainly are not saying every lawn care promotion out there is bad, we just want you to be an educated consumer who is able to weed through the marketing noise. There are so many promotions out there that it can certainly be difficult to tell what’s valuable and what not.
At Oasis, we don’t play marketing games, but we do provide free added treatments that we think add value to our overall program. The free lawn care treatments that we offer are additional materials, meaning they are applied in addition to your full lawn care program (applied while we are there already applying other treatments). We know these treatments have a big impact on results so we include them as extra measures to ensure that we cover issues that most companies will charge extra for or will show up at another time to bill you extra.
These services include:
We also offer free service calls, which many companies should offer, but don’t. We don’t charge to come back out if you are still experiencing problems despite following the program.
These free additions to our lawn care programs are not bait-and-switch offers that we only offer for the first year. We offer them in your lawn care program year after year. On that same note, we aren’t charging you less for your first year and then jacking up your price to get our money back later. Pricing may slightly increase by a couple percent each year as is typical industry-wide (due to the natural rise in the costs of business), but don’t worry about getting those two “free visits” tacked onto your renewal at full-price next year at a big increase.
Most homeowners tell us that they appreciate knowing exactly what they’re paying for with our program. We are both honest and transparent and you can count on us to tell you what your lawn needs.
Of course, most homeowners don’t hire us just to apply fertilizer and perform weed control. They hire us to take away their worries from their landscape—and that’s exactly what we do. By working with Oasis, you can gain peace of mind that your lawn is in good hands and for many, that is the most valuable aspect of our program.
Tired of getting jerked around by marketing ploys? If you’d like to learn more about the honest lawn care programs that we offer in Dayton, OH, Cincinnati, or Northern Kentucky request your quote, help us find the right program for you, then sit back and relax knowing you’ve made a wise choice.
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