Landscape Management, October 2010
THE INDUSTRY PULSE The consumer recovery Consumers will spend again but not excessively S ome people described it as gluttony Others called it obnoxious It was consumers I have to have it mentality Anything was attainable to people who wanted it If they didnt have the money they borrowed it Today that has clearly changed Contractors now use words like cautious careful and conservative to describe customer spending Clients seek information before they make any decisions and are more frequently asking about deals and discounts Instead of making instant purchasing decisions they hesitate They consider They ponder In the Landscape Management survey 36 of lawn care and landscape professionals say customers are taking more time to make decisions And in todays depressed economy bad news travels too fast says Joe DiRoma owner DiRoma Landscaping Lisbon CT People are sitting on the fence not spending money until they see what other people are doing he says I think they hear so much about the economy and that makes them more cau TAKE AWAYS 2010 Consumer Confi dence Setbacks 1 Customers demand more deals and discounts 2 Constant barrage of economic negativity increasing fear even when money isnt an issue 3 Pickier customers 2011 Consumer Confi dence Goals 1 Build consumer faith in the value of landscape services 2 Strengthen customer relationships 3 Phase work into easier to swallow bite size chunks LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2010 S8 tious They hear other people are struggling and theyre worried about spending their own money Instead of neighbors one upping each other gushing about new furniture or their bigger and better televisions the water cooler battle is who has the saddest story to tell According to Gallup coms latest consumer confi dence survey 47 of Americans rate current economic conditions as poor and 63 say economic conditions are worsening Though unemployment is tough and home values are not at their best my impression from surveys we get back from customers is their reasons for discontinuing service is not that they lost their job or home value has gone down shares Chris Senske president of Kennewick WAs Senske Lawn Tree Care Its just that theyre uneasy and hanging on to money People are unsure We do have customers telling us they want to scale back and we did lose customers who told us it was because of the economy admits Giuseppe Baldi landscape maintenance manager for Baldi Gardens in Arlington TX Though he feels this was worse in 2009 compared to this year What has changed Theres been a profound shift in client needs and expectations says Kirk Brown business
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