[Rick Carver]

TD

Yes,,,, all warranties MUST have a TRUE cost or value clearly written out. Without an associated cost you actually have no BASE to mount any type of argument pro or con when a warranty may be in question. In court, if you did a $5,000 dollar install and guarantee the material for a year in FACT the associated cost for warranty coverage would be $5,000 in any court! Protect youself folks and protect your honesty and integrity and your customers good will by really understanding warranty and guarantee coverage.

The only thing I'm suggesting here is to stand out from the rest of your competition and simply SHOW the customer the cost of the warranty that is included with this proposal/contract.
Give the customer a chance to understand your companies PROFESSIONAL CONTRACTING POLICY regarding warranties.
Let them choose the warranty option that they like the best. Keep it simple and straight forward.
EX. Yes Mrs. Jones you recieve our standard 30 day no questions asked replacement warranty on all plant material we install. Then if you wish we will be glad to include in the contract an EXTENDED warranty for 3,6,12, months (your choice to decide here) for replacement including labor. This warranty coverage includes every plant up to a total warranty limit of $200, $500, $2,000 or untill the 3,6,12 month term limit is up. Which ever comes first.
HOWEVER Mrs. Jones,,,, I am also including our NO GIMMICK, NO RISK, extended warranty refund policy (minus a 3% or whatever administrative charge) of all unused warranty monies at the end of the term limit. WHY? Why would I offer this??? Because I am a landscaper not an insurance salesman. I am confident that not many other companies I compete with Mrs Jones can offer this.
I don't want to make money off of warranties Mrs Jones, I would rather you put your money into additional plantings or towards a maint. contract etc.

So,,,, again yes the warranty should ALWAYS BE CONDITIONAL NO MATTER WHAT!
When you really think about it,,,, why would we ever offer a warranty without conditions attached,,, such as,,,, a time limit and price cap??? Why some do? Because maybe they have never been pinched in court yet,,,,,,,, and/or maybe the following season when they are replacing plants from last year they truly do not know what kind of a hit there NET is taking.

Warranties can be used as an additional income source if you like,,, I have no problem with that,,,, just make sure you look into all the really neat and VERY VERY EFFECTIVE ways that warranties can help close sales, protect your net, portray a much better professional image, and get your customers to look no further then your organization to do HONEST business with from now on.

Man O Man,,,, 2 nights in a row,,,,, I have been able to actually take some time away from the nursery and my private gardens to see how yous all are doin,,,,, :-) :-)

Rick

[VoodooChile]

Why would you give a warranty on a perishable product without an automatic irrigation system AND a maintenance contract ??

Because the market-place dictates it.

I run a landscaping company, not a insurance agency.

Actually you run a Plant Insurance Agency , if you do residential installs. If the client wanted to spend money killing plants, they wouldn't have hired you; they would have planted and killed the plants themselves.

You have no control over the care of the plant material after you install it, yet you want to guarantee it even if it is not cared for properly ??

Yup! But I have total control over the installation, and who I work for. The green thumbs get the good stuff, the "no maintenance" enthusiasts get the spireas.

And everything goes in the ground right.

PROTECT YOUR NET PROFIT !!

To protect my net profit, I nurture lasting relationships with clients who value quality, and that includes replacing plants that die due to no obvious negligence on their part.

Who are we kidding? More plants die in the field due to flagrantly poor cultural practices in the nursery, and utter disregard for site and sound planting by landscapers, than any lazy homeowner ever killed not dragging a hose.

If replacing plants is costing your net, maybe the problem isn't your client, maybe it's your business, including, but not limited to, its size, lack of training, poor suppliers, and/or dearth of expertise.

The good news is that our residential business is now down to less than 20% of our gross revenues, and our net profits are up

Residential landscaping has it problems, but in ten years we've gone from poverty to success servicing (almost) exclusively residential clients.

After all, if taxing the public is lucrative enough to finance the most corrupt, failed, wasteful corporation in the world-- the U.S. government-- why wouldn't targeting our marketing and working for the richest 25% of the public, be good for me and mine?

[johnkeegan]

Getting burned on plant guarantees is probably what forces many landscapers to give up on residential planting. There's quite a (constant) learning curve. What plants go where (soil, wind, sun...) and, like Voodoo says, how to spot a high maintenance customer that is a low maintenance gardener.
P.S.- also keep the hardscaping employees away from planting...and vice versa.
...But that's our job. We need to take the time to test the soil, research the plants, randomly check the quality of the planting, check up on and call customers during dry spells and fine tune the "lazy arse customer" radar. This all takes time and effort that many are not willing to invest
...And I'm glad so many are unwilling to do this. It significantly "thins the herd." Therefore, there's less competition... and we know what that means.

[TrickyDick]

Well said John. So what is your warranty policy?

[johnkeegan]

One full year. Yes, I put in the stipulations about watering, etc. Do I often replace stuff any way if its a good customer or not a PITA?.. yes. Have I even (selectively) replaced stuff after the warranty?...yes. Is that a form of shameless, cheap adveritising that get's me alot of return business?.... You guess.

[TrickyDick]

I guess that's where I run into problems with this. That is exactly how I have always thought about it but now I see that there is always the potential for a bad customer who IS a PITA to say they watered their plants even though they clearly didn't and cost you a lot of money. Unless, as Rick says, the warranty doesn't actually exist but you still have to deal with the whole mess...court, lawyers, etc. Seems like a dangerous way to live. And if I'm offering a warranty that isn't legally binding what's the point?

[VoodooChile]

Back in my days of roofing and chimney sweeping, Cooperfield-- a big chimney cap and liner manufacturer-- promoted the concept of creating "Customers for Life".

The primary idea was to schedule the next sweep a year in advance, complete with handy postcards and refrigerator magnets, to insure that you got back in the customer's home to make the service call, as well as creating an opportunity for add-ons like new andirons, hearth rugs, etc.

Landscaping isn't chimney sweeping, but they are both service industries where established clients who consistently buy repeat services are a great way to bypass cut-throat competition and to insure a base level of sales.

I think plant replacement offers a similar opportunity to create customers for life. In fact, a return visit could be pre-scheduled roughly a year after the installation completion to evaluate the landscape, get face time with the client, and hopefully sell more services. The actual plant replacement could then be bundled in with the performance of the additional services.

Again, around here, as in most places, the 1 year no hassle plant guarantee is industry standard, and arguing with potential clients about why you don't offer it, creates a huge obstacle to sales.

I'd rather first get to the point where I can charge for estimates, before I ax our plant replacement guarantee.

[GLAN]

I have the same circumstances as Voodoo does.

No guarantee.......Nice concpet........but that will be about all it is.

[NCSULandscaper]

Ive been offering a 1 year warranty on all my plants since the first day i was in business, and i have stipulations mentioned in the contracts about what is covered under warranty and what is not.......and after the thousands and thousands of plants we have put in during the last 5 years, ive had to replace less than 100 of them.......am i losing money offering a warranty? No not at all, my markup covers everything if plants die, like mentioned its insurance, and yes i do provide insurance at a cost, which is figured in to the plant price, and just like an insurance company if the plants dont die, then i still made money.

[Rick Carver]

Voodoo,,, I agree with exactly what you posted. Opportunity for any service industry company may come in many forms. Up selling or add on's are natural and most customers would admit,,,, I bet,,,, expect it. I know I do when I am getting quotes on projects here.

I think that may be why our sales did so well. I didn't use our standard 30 day warranty as a up sale,,,,,,, but we did with our " OPTIONAL" extended warranty and it worked in several positive ways,,,,
First it truly proved that honesty & professionalism with this certain quote is unquestionable. Second, when (not as often as you would expect) the warranty option was questioned it gave our sales staff a UNIQUE opportunity to explain how all warranties work in reallity and that the correct way to price and contract it in the agreement,,,,, normally in my market,,,, customers were impressed. Why? (third) because it cast the light on companies who didn't maybe understand their own cost for a warranty and/or their ability to service the warranty in the future,,,,,, of course this would become a customers concern without US ever having to say a negative word about our competition.

We also used the warranty for negotiating on many bids. Like,,,, instead of our 30 day standard we would offer a 60 day standard, or maybe instead of charging for any extended warranty (after showing the TRUE cost for this warranty) we instead offered a maint. program for XXX months where the 100% plant guarantee that we installed would be in effect as long as we had the maint contract,,,,, and we had a chance to show off our TLC service's,,,,,, this ended up getting us multi year contracts with customers who originally only wanted an installation and then took advantage of a offer from us.

There are so many variations to offer warranties that makes the customer and company equall in satisifaction.

We would never argue why we wouldn't include a no hassle industry standard one year warranty, we only asked if they wanted one,,,, and if so,,,, what it would actually cost and what they could expect from us is all. That by itself was so different in our market that it made us stand out.


Rick Carver