Quote for today: "Great minds have purposes, others have wishes."
- Washington Irving

Article by Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor

One of the expectations visitors have when they go to Walt Disney World is that they will experience top notch customer service. You anticipate the grounds will be spotless and beautiful, the employees (cast members) will be gracious and cater to your needs and that your vacation will be idyllic.

Disney goes to great lengths to make sure that visitors know perfection when they visit. It is for this very reason, that I go with my family regularly to Disney World for our vacations. I not only appreciate their good customer service, I also enjoy the treatment! And as a result, I am a loyal customer.

My trip to Disney World earlier this month was no exception. But it very easily could have been different. One night, my husband and I went out on our own, for a romantic dinner for two at Epcot. The restaurant was one we'd eaten at previously and enjoyed. However, this evening the meal went wrong. My husband had to send back his meal four times. At one point, after the third return, we waited an hour for a new dish to emerge from the kitchen. Our romantic dinner for two had turned into a marathon. The waitress, upon the third return of my husband's dish did apologize profusely and said his main course would be free.

At this point, though, we'd expected no less as we had waited a considerable amount of time due to the waitress' and then the chef's error. In fact, during our wait we remarked to each other that we would not be returning to this restaurant. Even though, his meal eventually did come out as he'd originally ordered and was delicious.

When our dinner was at last completed, the meal finished and desert consumed (my husband's favorite desert is at this restaurant) the waitress informed us that the entire meal was on the house. She then introduced the manager to us and he again apologized for the errors with my husband's main course, the long delay and said it was the least he could do to waive the charge.

As we left the restaurant, my husband and I, after over two hours of frustration, finally had smiles on our faces. In fact we thought, it was likely that we would return to the restaurant. Once again we had been impressed by the Disney philosophy. The customer is always the number one priority!

When you experience good customer service like this it changes your outlook on a business. You want to continue purchasing from that business and you want to tell others about the business. You have the urge to become their cheerleader!

Plus, as a small business owner, having an experience as I described makes you take a closer look at your own business. I began to question the customer service we offer? I asked myself how loyal are our customers and are they happily
referring others to us?

During the evaluation of our customer service, I realized that a key to online businesses providing good customer service is using email effectively. In fact a good emailing strategy will help ensure that your customers have a positive experience with your business.

It all starts with acquiring the email address of your prospects. When you have the email address of your potential customers, you can easily follow up with them. You can answer their questions, address their concerns and convince them of the merits of what you are selling. What's more you can give them more than just a sales pitch.

Your emails to prospects should be informative and offer helpful resources and information not just push to close the sale. In addition, you need to be sure to treat your sales prospects' email boxes with respect. Do not bombard them with offers and never sell or give their names to others without their permission.

The second element of using email effectively in customer service is providing email customer support. Your customers will contact you with questions via email before, after and during the sales process. Your business has to be prepared to answer customers' questions promptly, correctly and courteously.

Step three to good customer service is sending an email thank you note to customers after a sale. You can improve your businesses' image even further by adding to your thank you a free gift, coupon or survey for their feedback.

Finally, by conducting an ongoing follow-up email campaign you secure your position in your customers' minds. You show your customers you care about them. You want to keep them up to date on interesting information in the field. And you
want more of their business.

It is through quality email communication and follow-up that your online business will impress your customers because you are giving them the Disney treatment. You have made them feel that they are your number one priority!

Abbie Drew is the Editor of DEMC E-Magazine. Since 1995 DEMC has specialized in publishing useful "How To" information designed to empower our small office/home office community. DEMC has attracted over 215,000 readers and their feedback/ suggestions have been instrumental in the content of the publication over the years. Visit DEMC at: http://www.demc.com/

I Survived the Landscape Industry Trade Show

Article by Henry Siegel

Q&A
Questions from our readers...

Q. I have a small, but rapidly growing landscape maintenance company. My biggest problem is quality control and customer turnover. What policies would you recommend to provide better quality work and less customer turnover?

J.L.
San Diego, CA

A. You are experiencing a common problem for many business people, not just landscape gardeners. The first thing you need to do is ensure that your employees value your customers as much as you do. All the threats in the world will not do this. You must give them the responsibility. You must pay them well. Only pay unsupervised employees by commission only. They only get paid if you do and only a percentage, not a flat fee. Provide a bonus plan based on monthly customer service reply cards (mail them out with the bills and offer a discount if they are returned - this way you get the good comments as well as the bad). Also call customers regularly for additional input. Make the bonus worthwhile for excellent work. Set up a program to allow your employees to share in the profits on commission sales of materials (fertilizer, etc.) Give each employee the responsibility to handle their own customer's complaints. They, not you, should contact the customer and discuss the problem and resolve it (lay out the guidelines of what can and cannot be done). Be sure to follow up on this to make sure it was done. Do a monthly profitability analysis on each employee's route or list of customers. Set up a scoring method. Incorporate this into the bonus plan. Set minimums for profit, customer complaints, equipment care, etc. and stick to them. Have written guidelines as to what occurs when an employee drops below his minimum (sliding commission scales, warnings, then ultimately termination). This provides a lot more carrot than stick, but for certain people the stick is necessary (if nothing else it will eliminate your problem employees before they cause you problems). Lastly, for employees with over a year in the company set up a profit sharing plan. Give them a stake in your future and they will guard it for you.

Q. Is there an easy way to remove old lawns before rototilling? Also, how do you keep Bermuda type grasses from coming back?

C.D.
El Toro, CA

A. A machine called a sod cutter is available for rent at most rental yards. It will slice away the top layer of lawn allowing you to get down to the dirt. Before doing this spray the lawn with Round-up (allow a month for the following process). First make sure that the lawn is in good shape, nice and green. Yes, nice and green. Round-up must be absorbed into the plant's system to work so the grass must be healthy and growing. Spray the lawn thoroughly with Round-up (follow manufacturers directions). After allowing period to dry (follow directions) resume watering of lawn as normal. Wait one to two weeks to assess results. Spray again if necessary. After another two weeks if there is no living grass you can proceed with the sod cutter.

Q. We often do landscape jobs on residences that have small sloping lawns that we seed instead of sod. Watering this area just right is very tricky to keep the soil in place. Is netting appropriate in a case like this?

S.T.
Pacific Beach, CA

A. A fine netting can be used, but you will still have a problem with the netting interfering with the growth of the grass. A better solution is a soil stabilizer like Soil Seal. We will have an article in an upcoming issue on this technique. For now, though, if you want more information contact Soil Seal Corp., 1111 West Sixth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017, (213) 481-7185.

Have questions? We have answers. Send your questions to editor@progardenbiz. Your questions are welcome and will be answered by email and appear in our "Letters" or "Ask?" columns.

Free Stuff on the Web:

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Starting a Landscape or Gardening Business:

ProGardenBiz, a landscape and garden magazine for the Green Industry is your online resource for starting and operating a business as a landscape contractor or landscape and lawn maintenance gardener. Related fields covered by ProGardenBiz are irrigation installation and maintenance, sprinklers - repair and maintenance, waterscapes, water features, and ponds. You will also find information on plants, plant identification, trees and tree maintenance, and many other topics that span the Green Industry.

If the answers you seek are not readily found, then drop us an email at: editor@progardenbiz. Your questions are welcome and will be answered by email and appear in our "Letters" or "Ask?" columns.