The correct answer is it is never too early. Just because a season doesn’t start up for a few months doesn’t mean you can’t be in contact with customers year round. We don’t mean to pester your clients, calling them up every few weeks and asking them if they’d like yous green industry business to provide services for them. But you can stay in contact and on their mind on a regular basis throughout the year so they know you 1). Care enough to plan for them and 2). Are still around and know about the services you provide.
There certain times during the year when you should contact customers regarding specific services. These will vary depending on your location and the exact services you provide, but it should give you a good general schedule of when to contact customers and with what content.
Late Fall/Early Winter:
Contact those whose contracts are up for renewal. Find out if they have any new or pressing issues that should be addressed in the new contract.
Now is also a good time to send out a thank you to all customers for their business in the past season. A holiday card or wishing a Happy New Year is a great way to get out the thank you as well as staying fresh on customer’s minds if you haven’t served or spoken to them since September or October.
Late Winter:
Send out the actual renewals for your customers. Staying ahead of the game will make all of your spring startups, clean ups, shrub trimming, etc. a lot easier to jump into.
Spring-Summer:
Send out thank you’s to new customers. Thank them for their business and remind them of the other services you offer that they may want to consider.
Now is also a good time to recommend other services you provide in the offseason. If you are in the snow plowing business or offer holiday lighting, brag about it! Your customers obviously appreciate your work in the spring and summer, so it can’t hurt to ask if they’d like you to do jobs for them in the winter as well.
Late Summer/Early Fall:
For the late summer, get your customers set up for their blow outs and shut downs for the season.
In early fall, if you didn’t have time during the spring-summer season, reiterate that you offer things such as snow plowing or holiday lighting. It never hurts to ask and could bring in some extra cash flow for your business in your “slow” season.
I can say it enough – It’s never too early to reach out to customers. They may ask you to call back in a couple weeks when they are ready to make a decision, but others will be happy to get set up and on your schedule so they don’t need to worry about making the calls last minute. Stay ahead of the game and reach out to customers sporadically throughout the year to stay proactive as well as on customer’s minds.
Need more ideas for things to do in the offseason? Download our 10 Ways to Improve Your Business in the Offseason eBook today!