You want your lawn to be its best but it has some issues. Maybe weeds are sprouting up, it doesn’t seem as thick as it could be, or it’s lost some color. Whatever the case may be, you want to remedy those problems but you also don’t want to spend more than you need to on lawn care.
You’ve found that a lot of lawn care companies push “full programs,” but you have a suspicion that they may be doing a lot of treatments just for revenue—not because your lawn truly needs them.
You should be able to trust that the lawn care services in Ohio and Northern Kentucky will provide what your lawn needs most, but you’ve also heard some stories about people being ripped off. Even worse, maybe it’s even happened to you and you are leery of getting burned again by investing in a program that doesn’t actually fix your problems.
At the end of the day, you just want to make sure you’re not wasting your money and that you wind up with the kind of lawn that you’ve intended to invest in.
3 Types of Lawn Care Programs
Lawn care programs can vary from company to company, but there are typically three main business models for lawn care services in Ohio and Northern Kentucky. These include a la carte services, bait and switch style programs, and full programs.
1) A La Carte Services
With a la carte services, the customer picks and chooses what services they want to have done. This type of approach turns your lawn care service providers into “order takers,” so to speak. While some may think that gives them a lot of value since they’re picking and choosing what they want, the truth is that this model does not have the customer's’ best interest truly at heart.
With this model, the lawn care company is focused on what they can sell you. Not selling you what your lawn needs. Many times they don’t even let you know what could happen if you don’t add certain items.
2) Bait & Switch Offers
Another popular model for lawn care programs is what might be called “bait and switch.”
It is a common practice with some of the large national chains and is a sneaky way of reeling in a lot of business without true concern for your lawn. The goal is to hook you with an inexpensive base price that you may mistakenly believe covers all your lawn’s needs. It doesn’t of course, which means they then have to upsell you constantly.
Constant upsells from companies that operate this way are very different from an occasional recommendation for an extra service that your lawn actually needs. Bait & switch relies on “upselling” you services you should have had from the start. But what they have done is sign up as many new customers as possible at a lowball price, to undercut the competition, and then belatedly let the new customer know about all the added services that are needed.
As a result, with a company like this, it may appear you made the least expensive choice, only to find it costs more in the end for complete service than a company that offered you a full program all along.
3) Full Lawn Care Programs
The third type of lawn care program you’ll come across is the full lawn care program. Under this model, with a reputable company, your lawn will receive all the care it needs from the very beginning, not in bits and pieces as more services are upsold to you later.
Full-service lawn care programs are also valuable because lawn care technicians will be visiting your lawn regularly, spotting potential problems and even performing proactive treatment, which can save you money in the long run, not to mention enhance the quality of your lawn.
Even within full program approaches, there can be some variation. A reputable lawn care program may offer 2-3 tiers of full program options, with the higher tiers offering aeration or seeding as well. However, with any professional full care program, the trustworthy lawn care service will explain what those other options are in advance, and help you make the choice that’s best for you and your lawn.
The Value Behind Full Lawn Care Programs
One of the biggest benefits of a full lawn care program is the peace of mind that it provides. You don’t hire a lawn care company simply to apply fertilizer or weed control: you hire a lawn care company to take away your worries about your yard. Only a full care program can accomplish that.
With a la carte, you’re ultimately making all the decisions about what to do on your lawn. Let’s face it, you shouldn’t have to research agronomics or understand what services should be performed at what time of year—that’s why you’ve hired a professional.
With a la carte or the endless barrage of ‘upsells’ in a bait & switch, you must ultimately make all the decisions about what to do on your lawn. Let’s say you have signed up with a lawn care program that is not full service. It’s a la carte and you don’t choose to do grub control, or maybe it was a base package and you didn’t buy into the upsell on grub control. Then a grub problem occurs and the damage is catastrophic. Now the cost of replacing your lawn is astronomically higher than had you paid for preventative treatments at the beginning.
Why should you have to research agronomics to understand what services should be performed at what time of year— isn’t that why you hired a professional? In a full lawn care program, you would not have had to worry about grubs, because the preventative control was included as part of the package. The right lawn care company knows that this service is vital and made sure you had the benefit of the treatment.
Unfortunately, many people do get enticed by low prices, only to find out later that the services they really need cost a lot more than they bargained for. There are also a lot of not-so-honest lawn care services in Ohio and Northern Kentucky that run gimmicky promotions, such as free applications or services with no beneficial effect like lime and gypsum supplements (which can even have long-term negative results). A lot of these promotions take advantage of the average homeowner’s lack of lawn care knowledge, because these are services you don’t really need. Worse, the services you do need are not included in the attention-grabbing offers.
Choosing the Right Lawn Care Program
At Oasis Turf & Tree, we offer only full programs, because we have our customers’ best interests in mind. We do not compromise on services. When you choose Oasis, your lawn will get the services it needs. Different lawns have different requirements, so we customize our programs accordingly, based on which one of our full care programs is right for your lawn at this time.
In addition, when it comes to add-on services, we will make recommendations only as needed for your particular lawn, never because we are just trying to make another dollar from you. For example, if the summer was particularly brutal, you may need aeration and overseeding to restore your lawn’s health, and we will be honest in advising you of that.
Choosing a lawn care service in Ohio or Northern Kentucky that you can trust will help ensure that your lawn gets what it needs and that your lawn care dollars are invested wisely. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by pushy companies that try to distract you with flashy offers which disguise their true motives. Consider your options carefully and remember--if we can be of assistance in any way, we’re here to help. At Oasis Turf & Tree, we want you to have the facts you need to decide what is best for you and your lawn.
If you’d like to find out more about our full lawn care programs for your Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio, or Northern Kentucky home, give us a call at 513-697-9090 or contact us for a free estimate.
