Why Lawn Care Guarantees Suck

Brendon Willis

Something we often hear in life is “you can’t be perfect, so just do your best.”

While this may or may not be good advice for personal life – it’s terrible when it’s applied as a business principle. And — it’s really expensive if you’re offering a money-back guarantee.

Isn’t it the obligation of the company to at least aim for perfection? Isn’t this what you are paying for?

Lawn Care Guarantees – Like a game of darts

Consider this: You’re playing a game of darts with a friend. Every time you hit the bullseye, you win a dollar. Every time you miss the bullseye, you lose a dollar. Would you toss darts and hope for the best or would you specifically aim for the bullseye?

Failing to aim for the bullseye (perfect customer experience) means you will only hit it by luck or chance.

But when you…

  • 1) sign a contract and
  • 2) go with a company offering a “free unlimited re-treatments” guarantee…

…it’s like playing that game of darts with the company – except you pay them a dollar whether they hit the bullseye or not, and they never have to pay you a dollar when they miss.

At Willis Lawn Services, we think that too few companies aim for the bullseye. We think if more lawn care companies aimed for perfection, more of them would offer a money-back guarantee.

The Problem With Free Unlimited Treatment Guarantees

A common guarantee offered with lawn care companies sounds something like this:

  • “We’ll come back as many times as needed until you’re happy!”

While it seems ok at first – the problem is, if they ever need to come out over and over again, they didn’t do something right the first time, and you have no confidence they are doing it right this time – whether it’s free or not.

Besides – who wants to have to call the company to come out over and over? And what about if they never come when they say they are going to? Is this really a benefit to you or a hassle?

If you buy an item and it breaks immediately due to a design flaw, how helpful is it if the warranty just continues to send you the same faulty product? You’d rather get your money back and move on.

Company-Centric Guarantees

A guarantee that forces you to keep paying a company who continually fails is a recipe for frustration. It’s great for the company’s bottom line, but it’s bad for the customer.

Guarantees are supposed to be there to reduce or eliminate risk for the customer.  A guarantee that only offers “we’ll come back as many times as it takes” should actually say “We’ll keep you in a contract with us, even if we don’t know what we’re doing.”

Guaranteed Results vs Guaranteed Experience

What complaints have you had about your lawn company in the past? Weeds? Sure – heard that one quite a bit. But what about things like:

  • Dependable notifications before they come
  • Dependable billing
  • Answers the phone when you call
  • Calls you back when you leave a message
  • Friendly and helpful people on staff
  • Clean lawn treatments

How does “free re-treatments” cover these things? We hear more complaints around these issues than around weed issues.

Our guarantee isn’t results based, it’s experience based. If we haven’t provided you a delightful experience in every interaction, you’re eligible to receive your money back – up to 12 months.

A New Way

There is a huge need for accountability in the lawn care industry. An enormous amount of our customers come from other lawn care companies in OKC. It’s crazy to us, how many companies some people will try. We feel bad for them.

There is a problem with lawn care companies not delivering on the promises they make. We’re changing that with zero contracts and a 100% money back guarantee.

Want to know what it’s like to do business with a company who guarantees your entire experience? If you’re not 100% satisfied with your current service, please reach out to us!

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