Lawn Care maintenance plans

A lawn care plan bundles the weekly mow with the seasonal work, so the customer pays one steady amount and you know your route for the year.

A mowing customer who also buys fertilizer, aeration and a fall cleanup is worth several times a mow-only customer, and is much less likely to switch for a few dollars. A season plan sells all of it once, in spring, instead of chasing each service.

Three tiers give the customer a choice that is not yes or no.

From the lawn care cost calculator's sourced bands for a lawn of about 1/4 acre and a Midwest season of about 26 weekly mows: mowing $33 to $61, typical $47 a visit, a first fertilizer application $67 to $343, typical $223 and later ones $50 to $150, typical $100, aeration $100 to $250, typical $167, a cleanup $200 to $462, typical $339.

Write the terms down before the first customer signs, and use the same words on your site, the estimate and the invoice:

• Season start and end dates and the number of visits
• Rain days and skipped weeks
• Which applications are included
• Billing: monthly across the year or per visit
• Cancellation

For the visit itself, use our printable lawn care visit checklist so every visit covers the same items.

The best moment to offer a plan is right after a good visit, while the customer is looking at the work. Here is how it can go:

• You: We have your mowing on the route every Tuesday. Most of our customers on your street also have us handle the feeding and the cleanups.
• Customer: What does that add?
• You: The full season plan covers the fertilizer program, aeration in the fall and both cleanups. You pay the same amount each month and never have to call us.
• Customer: Can I start with just mowing and feeding?
• You: Yes. I will set it up today and send you the plan by text.

Say the price as a monthly amount, and offer to add it to today's invoice. Then stop talking.

The examples above are national numbers. Your plan price should come from your own labor, drive time, parts and overhead. The calculator above does that math for any trade: visits, hours, parts, the member discount and your margin. For the per-visit prices, the lawn care cost calculator has the sourced ranges.

Maintenance plans are part of Koira's Front Office plan, $499 a month flat. Koira offers the plan on your site, on the estimate and on the invoice, bills the card on file monthly or yearly, and books each visit when it comes due, so plan visits land on your day with everything else. See how maintenance plans work in Koira, or start on Front Office.

On the free Office plan you can still sell the visits one at a time with estimates and invoices.