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When a company has been in business since 1947 and literally pioneered the lawn care business in its market, there is not much left for them to figure out. Senske Lawn & Tree Care understands what it takes to grow, to retain customers, and to build a business by offering additional services. Headquartered in Kennewick, Washington, the company has six locations, employs 220 people, and provides a variety of services to 25,000 active customers throughout Washington, Idaho, and Utah. In addition to lawn and tree care ––60 percent of its revenue stream –– Senske Lawn & Tree Care offers industrial vegetation management, pest control, grounds maintenance, irrigation repair, holiday lighting, tree pruning and arboriculture, and snow removal services.

“Our mission is to deliver value every time,” says company president, Chris Senske.  “We do that in several different ways –– by making the extra effort to communicate with customers, to spray along the curbs and sidewalk cracks, to have a live voice answer the phone, and to respond as quickly as we can to customer requests.” Little things add up in a hurry, he notes, especially in the lawn care market, where competitors range from small owner/operators to large, national companies.

“One of our challenges,” he continues, “is to be perceived as a highly professional company while still providing the same level of personalized service that smaller companies provide. Our applicators and technicians, for example, are skilled. They are uniformed and drive clean trucks, and they are very professional in their overall demeanor. They also are very flexible and have the knowledge to answer a wide variety of customers’ questions. Like owner/operators, our field personnel are also empowered to make sales calls and provide a service without first going through ‘headquarters.’”

Post-war roots

Chris’ father Bill founded the business in 1947, after spending World War II managing several bomb factories. During the war, he became familiar with chemicals, including those that dispatched weeds. As Chris points out, “My father remembered how tough it was to pull weeds when he was a youngster and thought homeowners would appreciate a lawn service that would easily get rid of them. So after the war, he rigged up a wheelbarrow and sprayer and killed weeds for 50 cents a lawn.” In the early 1950s, after requests to rid Spokane’s streets of pigeons and to control the rat population along a riverfront, the elder Senske added “pest control” to his services.

After graduating with a B.S. in chemistry and biology, Chris joined the business in 1974 to help his father out temporarily. Though he had planned to attend graduate school, he never left his father’s business, and he took charge of the operation in 1980 with an urge to develop the company further. As he recalls, “I would read about these large lawn care companies in trade magazines.  I wanted to grow, too, and we had a good group of people who shared similar aspirations.  We learned as much as we could from the large companies and then initiated our own growth plans.”

Along the way, Chris and his team learned several important business-building strategies. They quickly found that growth does nott come without making sacrifices, and they began advertising extensively. The company still has a healthy advertising budget, spent primarily on direct mail campaigns, Yellow Pages, and newspaper inserts.

Chris notes that the proliferation of radio and TV stations has made broadcast media less attractive today. “Cold call” telemarketing is less effective, too, thanks in large part to no-call lists. Still, his company does telemarket to current and recent customers.  It also has a Web site that functions less as a marketing tool and more as a way for customers to pay bills, change schedules, and otherwise communicate with their service provider.

Another growth strategy involved expanding the company’s customer base by offering additional services, an initiative that began in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Today, maintenance accounts for approximately 25 percent of the company’s annual revenue, and the company owns nine Christmas Décor franchises in six markets.

None of the additional services, including maintenance, has the growth potential of lawn care. “When talking grounds maintenance, there is always the danger of growing too fast,” says Chris. “Then there is also the labor issue. To be profitable, you have to manage everything, including labor, right down a gnat’s eyebrow.”

He continues, “Labor is the largest cost in a lawn care business, too. Yet it is a much smaller cost per dollar produced when compared to maintenance. Growing a lawn care company is a matter of keeping current customers and adding new ones when possible.  The challenge is managing the unit cost of acquiring new customers against their income.” 

The company’s emphasis on delivering value for every service call has resulted in a customer retention rate that peaked well over 70 percent for full-service lawn care customers. The marketing, including direct mail and additional service offerings, makes up for attrition and helps meet annual growth goals.

Establishing locations in major markets around Spokane accounts for the company’s other growth strategy. “The lawn care and pest control markets are getting more competitive every year,” Chris remarks.  “Successful operators have to be smart business managers and marketers. They have to take advantage of the latest technology, be as professional as possible, and then work to differentiate themselves from the competition.” As he points out, nearly 60 years have gone by since his father offered weed control for 50 cents a lawn. Times have changed, but one thing has not: customers still want value for their money.

6/05

By Rod Dickens, PLANET Contributing Writer