Answering Phone Calls for My $75M Lawn Care Business
In this Command Center session, Mike Andes walks through the phone‑call process used by Augusta (Guestination) Lawn Care, a $75 million lawn‑care operation that manages over 200 locations from a central hub. He explains the streamlined "10‑out‑of‑10" call framework—upbeat tone, thoughtful upsell, and the "10‑out‑of‑10 question" that asks customers what would make their experience perfect. The video then showcases a series of live customer calls, illustrating how agents schedule one‑time and recurring mowing, set up drive‑by estimates, upsell weed‑control and treatment packages, and capture specific customer preferences (e.g., patio cleanup, edging). It also highlights a mis‑communication case (the "Jay" incident) where a customer was mistakenly scheduled, demonstrating how the team uses CRM notes, property notes, and internal coordination to resolve issues. Throughout, Mike emphasizes the importance of personal connection in an era of AI automation to reduce churn, and the team documents each interaction with call notes, property notes, and to‑do items to ensure consistent service delivery.
Chapters
Today we're in Command Center and Command Center is where we answer all the phone calls, emails, texts, payroll, and everything for Guestination. So over 200 locations get managed from this facility. During peak season, there's over 80 agents answering the phone and doing admin tasks. Right now it's about half that as the season has slowed down a little bit, but I'm going to be taking calls today. And I think that in the age of AI, when everything gets automated, is actually a huge opportunity to be able to show a personal connection with your customers. And so here at Command Center, we used to have 40 different things that made up a good call and we'd track all of them. And that's fine. It's good for training, but we really narrowed it down to 3 aspects of a phone call that make it a 10 out of 10 phone call. And it's 1, an upbeat tone, 2, a thoughtful upsell, and 3, we ask what we call the 10 out of 10 question. The 10 out of 10 question simply states, what would we have to do to serve you and give you a 10 out of 10 experience from Augusta. By getting that information to our owners, to the general managers, to the technicians, we're able to make sure we serve the customer at the highest level. So I'm actually hop on the phone. I have not taken a phone call for Augusta here at Command Center for many, many years, so I'll be very rusty. But my hope is to be able to show those three parts of a phone call, because in the age of AI and instant quotes and things being done online, be able to have that personal connection is the thing that reduces churn. And when they think about canceling, they'll think about you and the care that you had for them when you first got started. So a lot of these calls that we're doing today are actually going to be for new customers customers and making sure they're set up correctly and seeing if we can offer them another service. What's up, dude? We're back, we're back.
Exciting stuff.
Yeah, client wants a one-time mow as quickly as possible and set up— wants to set up recurring mowing service. There's too much tree cover for OTP. I set up a drive-by estimate for recurring mowing and weed control.
Okay, so they are just doing a one-time mow.
They're just doing a one-time mow, but the recurring we don't know yet because they need a drive-by estimate. I mean, look at the property. Let's see if we can just— if we could gauge it and then just try to get upseller right now. Yeah. So I think 8,500 square feet, $65, and it's same week. Yeah, dude, let's go. All right, so let's give him a call. We're going to say, hey, the first service is on the schedule.
Yeah, we got you on for today. And I actually was able to measure your property in the meantime. Here's the recurring.
I think we can sell it.
I think so.
Off the $8,500. Yeah.
Hi Kelsey, this is Mike over at Augusta Lawn Care. How you doing?
I'm doing great, how are you?
Fantastic. I just wanted to confirm we do got you on the schedule. With the weather, you know, probably within the next couple days, but we will—
Yeah, no, that's fine. I had a feeling around like 5 this morning.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I did go ahead though and— No, you're good. Able to measure the property, and I was able to get you the quote for the recurring service. And so awesome.
Did—
do you know if you want it weekly or biweekly? What works best for you?
Um, probably biweekly would be best.
Okay, perfect. So it's $65 per cut, and there's no contract. You can cancel, um, at any time. But if you'd like, because you got already your card on file and everything, do you want me to just go ahead and put a note for the scheduler to put that on the schedule like 2 weeks from time of your first service.
That'd be perfect. Um, and I, I do want to ask, for that, would it be the front and the back?
Correct, yes. And, and you'll get a great scope too when we get out there the next couple days. We'll make sure we touch base with you, and then if there's any edits, like, hey, there's this little strip in the back you might have missed, just let us know, cuz we can put visit notes for the crew so whenever they come, they don't forget any areas.
That's awesome. Yeah, no, thank you so much.
Okay, awesome. And my last question, what can we do to make sure it's a 10 out of 10 experience for you, just to make sure you're taking care of?
Um, basically our big thing would be like the cleanup after, because most of the people we have come out will kind of like leave all the lawn clippings on the patio and on the walkways.
Okay, just making sure those are all blown off.
Yeah, yeah, it's okay if it's in the grass, but when it's on the walkways, my dog carries it in.
Okay, no, I get it.
Um, are you gonna be there, you think, usually during the day for us on that first visit, just to touch base?
Um, probably not. The only weekday we're really home is Monday.
Uh, totally fine.
But if, if I have a heads up enough, I might be able to.
Oh no, you don't have to be. Just let us know if after that first service there is any edits or like we miss a spot or anything like that. Please give us a call back because I can just make those extra notes for the crew. But for now, I'm going to make sure it's on there about blowing off the patio because we make sure that's taken care of for you.
Awesome. Very cool. Thank you so much.
Awesome. Thanks, Kelsey. Have a good day.
You too. Bye. Bye-bye.
Awesome. So we sold the biweekly mow after this, and then we just need to put some notes.
Yeah. So yeah, we would leave, I guess, so a call note, a property note, and then we're going to create and accept that estimate for the biweekly. Yeah.
And probably delete the in-person today or the drive-by.
Yeah. Or yeah, we could just mark it as done or skipped.
Okay, so we're out right now making notes for the owner, letting them know, hey, you don't have to drive by. We sold the job on a biweekly basis, so skipping that drive-by estimate for today. And then also, yeah, 10:00 AM for this customer. She wants the walkways and the patio blown off.
It was really interesting how you upsold it as well because you option closed her really well. Yeah, you were just, hey, do you want this or this? And they're like, I'll take biweekly. Cool. So yeah, that should be good there. And then we want to just create the estimate.
Oh, and then mark as accepted. Exactly.
Smart. Yeah.
Okay. All right, cool. All right, Jay.
Jay, let's see how it goes.
Hi, is this Jay?
Yeah, this is Mike over at Augusta Lawn Care. How are you doing today? Okay, good, good. I just want to let you know, um, we did go ahead and get you scheduled for your initial mow, and we'll be able to get over there today. If not tomorrow. We'll be able to get you set up. We really get you set up. I never ordered, uh, I never ordered a lawn care. Oh, okay. Did you by happen talk to the owner at all? I am the owner. No, it's Jake.
Interesting.
Okay, and so is your property— I just had it mowed yesterday.
Oh, fantastic.
They were able to get to it yesterday. I don't think it was you guys that did it. Okay, um, let's see here, because I did have you set up. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. Okay, does my address is, uh, 619— yep, that's what I'm looking at right now. And so we got our estimator, Steven, was out and he said that we wanted to get you set up for first service today and then bi-weekly on Tuesdays. Sounds like you were able to get taken care of yesterday. I don't know. I would— I wouldn't even— you didn't talk to me about it, and I would never agree to a biweekly thing or anything like that. I pay cash and that's it.
Okay.
Do you have it set up for the biweekly, or did you want me to send that price over for you just so you have it on file? No, not really.
Okay.
I'll make a note here then, because it sounds like you don't need service anymore. Is that correct? Well, I never did get service, so I don't know. I'm really— Wait, you got me down as a customer and I'm not a customer. Interesting. Well, what I'll do is I'll reach out to Steven J and just touch base and see why, because he had asked us to go ahead and put you on the schedule for today. But, um, I will make sure we confirm it before we show up. Well, it wouldn't do any good to show up because the lawn is already mowed. I know, I gotta go. Okay. You guys figure it out, whatever, but I gotta go. Bye. Okay, I'll send you a text message. I appreciate your time.
Oof. Was he mad?
Weird.
No, he wasn't mad. He was confused. But it's in part because we have no record of how this client—
We might be able to track it down in Connect team. I'm sure, I mean, we have records.
Could you pull it up?
Not on my computer.
Because it's DM'd?
Yeah, because I don't have access to like the— specific location chats, but like, I mean, there's people that do, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, weird. I mean, it sounds like it was a good thing we called them so we didn't accidentally—
Yeah, it's scheduled for today.
Yeah.
I think we should probably reach out to the owner specifically.
Yeah, calling him might be a good call just 'cause it's a— Since it is on the schedule for today, it's a bit time sensitive. If you wanna give him a call, get to the bottom of it. That would be hilarious if you just like randomly were calling an owner.
At first he was like, "I am the owner." I'm like, but at first I thought he was like owner of the business, but he's owner of the house. Of course. It processed afterwards. I'm like, you're not the owner of the business. I know who the owner of the business is. It sounds like there was some confusion because someone else mowed the lawn yesterday.
He doesn't want us to show up at all. Yeah.
I don't really want to call Steven though without looking at the Connect team. Sure. Like seeing what he said to us. This one's tough because we really don't have any record of like an instant quote, a web form, a phone call. It's just the owner just dropped his, hey, put this person on the schedule.
Yeah. That one was funky, but I don't think it was the fault of the system. That was just the owner set something up that was maybe miscommunicated.
Yeah. Cause he definitely mowed the lawn yesterday. He wanted me to know that. So I was trying to be like, hey, why don't we get you on recurring? He's like, I never accepted recurring. I don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah. And yeah, it could just be a really good thing that we call them for some other reason. Cause that would have been maybe a bad review or something. So this is what Jay got.
Could you please add this customer to schedule Monday with initial and recurring? So we did exactly that.
Yeah, we did what the owner requested us do. It was just the owner's request. Who's to say how they got that lead?
Yeah. Do you want to call them?
Call the owner and be like, hey, we just called the client because it's on today. It might be worth doing for sure.
I'll let you handle that one.
Are you sure?
Yeah, you do it.
I think it would be hilarious if you called the owner randomly. Hi, Steven. Hi, this is Josh with Command Center. How you doing today? Yeah, I was just giving you a quick call because we have a new customer on the schedule, Jay Heven, and he was put on the schedule for today. It was just like a Connect team request from you, but we just gave him a call for like scheduling and like an upsell follow-up, and he said he wasn't like aware of anything, and he actually just got the lawn mowed by someone else yesterday. So yeah, he's not really wanting service and like kind of wasn't sure how it got set up or anything. I just wasn't sure about it and wanted to let you know. Ah, the grandson set it up.
Ah, okay.
So yeah, I'm not sure. 'Cause yeah, we literally just spoke with him and he was like, yeah, the lawn was just mowed. I don't really need service anymore. Um, so yeah, just letting you know. Sounds like a plan. Yeah, sorry about that, but, uh, I just wanted to let you know since it was on the schedule for today.
Okay, I appreciate it. Cool.
Yeah, well, have a good one.
All right, dude.
That makes more sense. So yeah, I guess the grandson set it up for him.
Okay, so he had no idea what was going on.
Exactly. Yeah, he was like, I've never even heard of you guys.
Ah, so that's something that in the perfect world Steven would have let us know so we could put notes and be like, hey, it's your grandson that set up.
Exactly. Yeah, it's tough when like this is all you get and it's like, okay, I guess I'll set him up.
Is he still going to go do it?
He said he'd just take it off the schedule. Um, well, he was like, yeah, if it's already mowed, I guess can't do it now. Uh, I'm sure he might follow up with the grand center or something. Funky one.
Okay, we got Maple Ridge.
So they called in to request an estimate for lawn mow.
He was also interested in lawn treatment, so he sent over the phone estimate.
So So this is the estimate we sent him that was accepted. He accepted mowing but not the treatments, but he is getting weed control.
Interesting. So he's doing weed control but not the treatment package.
Yeah.
So I could probably try to sell him this but not— like sell him upgraded into this.
Yeah. And then, I mean, of course we could also try, um, I mean, looks like pretty much anything else. Yeah.
Okay.
So I like to get them in the package.
And then we have him on the schedule.
Did we upsell that then on the phone or?
Looks like Mindy upsold this. Yeah, so she called him for mowing and then she upsold till-on treatments and I guess got him on weeding.
Got it.
And when's the first service scheduled then?
Um, let's see the schedule. Today. So Brian's the owner estimator, Cody's the customer.
Cool.
Let's do it.
After leaving a message, you can hang up or press for more options. Your message will be transcribed and delivered to the recipient, so please speak clearly. Hey, Cody, it's Mike over at Augusta Lawn Care. I just want to give you a quick call. We sent you an email just to confirm the schedule for your mowing and your treatments. We'll get started today unless there's something crazy happens with the weather or something, it'll get pushed to tomorrow, but we should get it done today, that first mowing service as well as the weed treatment for the lawn. And so I got everything set up here. You got your billing account all ready to roll. So you should see the crew today. I did want to just take a note here because I did see you got the weed treatment for the lawn, but if you would like to move forward with the treatment package, it's a great deal right now. We're having that promotion, and we do have the grub treatment that usually end of June, beginning of July, we start putting that out just to make sure that the bugs in the lawn are taken care of. So I did, did see that you have that quote. So if you ever do want that, feel free to give us a call or just go right into that estimate link and accept that. That, but we'd love to get you on that schedule as well. Just make sure for the sake of the kids and for the lawn, everything's taken care of. But look forward to servicing you at your property. We'll be there today for the lawn mowing and for the treatments. Appreciate your business and look forward to servicing you. Take care.
Okay, well, basically nothing to do on this one.
I'm actually surprised the first two answered because usually it's like, um, I mean, random number calling you, it's pretty rare.
So, so I guess notes on this one would just be like, we confirm the appointment for the day and we did try to again upsell the package.
Yeah. Okay, cool.
The biggest thing for her or whoever this is, the customer, I just want to make sure that they were taken care of. They just finished the service. That's great. And then they know they're on weekly on Fridays and just confirm that's okay because I don't want the crew showing up on Friday and her freaking out.
Right. Which, yeah, is a great reason to call her anyways. Okay, cool.
Let's call. Is it? What's her name again?
So this is Casey.
Actual price, right?
Yeah, the pricing for them would be $109. Or like just under $700 for the full package.
But then they get 10% off?
Yeah.
I mostly want to confirm the schedule for mowing because they haven't got a thank you and welcome email. Does she have a card on file?
Card on file.
Sweet.
Everything looks pretty good.
Oh, because it came through the website.
So yeah, and we already did it.
Oh, I see. They got that automation for the review of the crew because they just finished the service. Yeah, exactly.
So it hasn't opened it yet, but yeah, $50 bonus if they review them. Okay, cool.
All right, let's call her. Casey? Is Casey— could be a guy, girl, who knows. Does it say in the notes?
Like, sometimes it says he or she. Um, but yeah, since it was a contact form, I don't think they've talked to anyone yet. Okay, interesting.
So the estimate form came in, got accepted. Card on file. And then the service has already been done.
Yeah.
All right.
So now we're calling from the Springfield number, so it'll be a local phone number. Okay, cool.
All right, let's do it.
The person you're trying to reach is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hi Casey, this is Mike over at Augusta Lawn Care. I just wanted to reach out. Our crew was there this morning, was able to get your first mowing service done. I just want to make sure that was a 10 out of 10 experience for you. And just make sure it was up to your standards. Uh, we really enjoyed doing this, the first service, and we did go ahead and get you on the schedule for your recurring mowing. And so I do have that on Fridays every week, uh, plus or negative a day, just depending on the weather, the scheduling. But we'll plan on being there this Friday. If you do ever want to switch to biweekly or have any scheduling issues whatsoever, just give us a call, um, and we can definitely get that set up for you. So I appreciate that. Also, I did note here, we got you the mowing, but if you needed treatments, please let us know. We got some special packages going on right now for our treatments and would love to get you set up for that. There's a discount for our customers that are on the mowing service, and we get 10% off. So feel free to reach out about that as well. But just so you do know, we are on schedule for weekly mowing on Fridays, and we certainly appreciate your business. Hope you have a great rest of your week.
Take care. Cool.
Yeah, I'm wondering, what do you think a good workflow would be for this?
Yeah, I think on this one it's just a matter of like, hey, we noticed there wasn't a thank you and welcome email, so we confirmed the Friday weekly, and we also pitched that we do have packages for treatments.
Yeah, there's definitely value there for sure. Um, no doubt about it.
Would you put that just in call notes then on that one?
Yeah, exactly. Like, uh, let's see what's going on with this one.
So TJ called to see when the soonest we can mow because the lawn is overgrown. He accepted the estimate, has a payment method on File. Client Colin is requesting an estimate for mow.
What?
Why are they called back-to-back days?
So I guess he called in, got OTP accepted with Dan.
Oh, Dan is like, yo, I'm overgrown.
Yeah, he was like, I want this like now. And then I guess, oh my God, conveniently we got on the schedule for today. Haven't done it quite yet. Yeah, so that works out great. He'll be happy to hear that.
And then he's— but it's just a one-time mow.
Yeah.
So I want to sell him recurring.
So he's selling the house. So very easily could sell him like, hey, if you want to like spruce it up anytime. Yeah. I mean, they also offer like probably property cleanups, maybe to sell the house, help do that.
So house is for sale. It's a one-time mow.
Okay.
I'll just let him know he's on the schedule for today.
I think he'll be thrilled to hear it.
And I'll try to get him on like, hey, why don't we do recurring service until it sells?
Yeah.
Okay, so this is out in Bloomington, Illinois. So we call out from the local number now.
The person you're trying to reach is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hey Jim, it's Mike over at Augusta Lawn Care. I just want to give you a quick call. I know you got the house for sale there and are trying to get the lawn mowed as soon as possible. We really get some stuff moved around and we are trying to get you on the schedule for today. So the crew should be there, get it mowed, looking good. I know it's a little overgrown. I did see here that because the house is for sale, I was wondering if you'd like to go ahead and put it on like a weekly or biweekly service just until it sells. There's no contract. You can always cancel anytime. So please reach out if you'd like that. Because I know today they'll get it up to snuff, make it look good. But until it sells, if you want us to take care of it, just let us know. Otherwise, within the next 24 hours or so, the crew should be there. The only reason it'll get pushed off to tomorrow is if weather happens or something with scheduling, but we'll try to get that out there as soon as possible. I know that was important for you. So, we look forward to servicing your property. Please, anytime, give us a call back and we can get you on the weekly or biweekly service and just make sure the property continues to look good while it's on the market. Appreciate you. Hope you have a great day. Take care.
Basically, we're just upselling the recurrence of the mowing while it's on the market. Okay. Sent over the phone estimate for a one-time mowing. She accepted estimate and added CC on her end and needs to be scheduled for one-time mowing if you can, otherwise right away.
Okay.
So that was yesterday. Called on Sunday, scheduled a one-time mow, which is rare.
Yeah.
So let's see here. It looks like this morning the owner said, if you're able to add you on the schedule for later this afternoon, once the crew completes a prior scheduled project, they'll swing by your one-time mowing service.
One.
Oh, you know what? There's the initial, initial mow only.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so she just got quoted the per-minute per-man rate. And cool.
Latosha.
Latosha is an interesting name.
Cool.
Hi, is this Latosha?
Hello?
Hi, is this Latosha?
Yes, Latosha.
Yeah, this is, this is Mike Andes from over at Augusta Lawn Care. How are you doing?
I'm good, how are you today?
Good, good. I'm just making sure you got our text. We'll be able to make it this afternoon for that initial mowing service. And, um, okay, so we should be able to fit you in. The crew's gonna finish up a project, but then they'll swing by as soon as they can.
Okay, sounds good. So this afternoon?
Yeah, this afternoon we should— you should be able to get that done. I had a quick question for you if you have a second. Did you want that serviced in the future? Because it is significantly cheaper if you get on a schedule, but no pressure. Just wanted to see if that's something you might need.
Um, I don't think at the moment, but I'll definitely let you know.
Okay, why don't I do this? I'll make sure this gets on the schedule for today. I'm also just gonna drop you the estimate of what it would cost if you ever wanted to go on a weekly service. It's just gonna be significantly cheaper. And then if you ever need that service, just let us know.
Sounds good.
Awesome. I have one last question for you here. What could we do to make sure it's a 10 out of 10 experience for you today? I know it's just the one service, but what could we do to kind of blow your socks off, if it were?
Just the edging. We also do have a lot of new grass coming in, so if they can try not to cut it too low.
Is it pretty long right now, like a little overgrown? Yeah. Okay, I'll make some notes for the crew then. I'll make sure that we get the edging done and don't get it too low, because I don't want it to die, especially with the heat. And, um, yeah, I think that wraps up for you today though.
Awesome, well, thank you guys so much.
You're the best. I look forward to seeing you this afternoon. Sounds good. Take care. All right, bye-bye.
I have a feeling she's either a tenant or this is like an apartment or something.
Most likely. Yeah, it seems likely.
Yeah.
And I mean, so it's going to be the minimum.
What's our minimum?
By far.
So, yeah, anything under 3,000 square feet is $4,500 or $5,900 biweekly. Cool.
So could we send her an estimate for the $4,500, $5,900? Yeah, just to send it out. Maybe let's take the initial MO off. Just actually, let's leave it on there because it's happening today, right?
Yeah.
Should we make call notes about what we did and just let them know that, hey, we also sent this estimate?
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that would actually be the exact last step. So, yeah, customer, or you would say like upsell follow-up. Customer was open to seeing pricing for recurring service.
Should we also put in there about what we asked about the 10/10 question, right? You should basically say focus on edging and it is overgrown.
There's a couple ways we could, we can make an FYI, which would notify the manager, or you can always make like a property note. The crew pulls up, that's what they see when they clock into the job. And it can be like edging is really important to them or something. Got it.
So we could save the call note and then—
And then make either a to-do or a property note.
Probably just a property note. It's just basically like, hey, it's gonna be overgrown and it, She specifically wants the edging done really good.
Yeah.
Okay. So I think, you know, we got one upsell out of it.
Yeah.
Let's go. One out of five.
I'm glad we did one more. That was good. We got a good one in there.
And it saves him from going out and doing the driveway.
Yeah, exactly. I think that was awesome.
I'm pretty confident, like, we really measured.
This seems pretty generous as well.
Well, yeah, it's 10,000 square feet essentially for the lot size. We put 8,500. Yeah. So if you just take out the house and the driveway, If the whole thing is lawn, we still got it. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Sorry for the headache.
No, all good. That was a good time.
