Mike Andes films a 44-second video of the property showing the lawn, flower beds, and problem areas, uploads it unlisted to YouTube, and sends the link with the written estimate. This approach clarifies scope for absent clients and closes more deals by setting clear expectations.
Alright, you guys seem to like the last video so I figured I'd post another one. We're at this property here and right now, because we're next to the Canadian border, a lot of our clients cannot come and actually be at their properties. This is like their summer house. They live up in Canada, they can't cross the border. And so today's video is really about how do you do an estimate for someone when they aren't home or when they can't actually come meet you at the property or give you clear instructions. This might be for vacation rentals for, for landlords that live out of town. One thing that you can do, take a video. I said, I shot a 44 second video that showed the flower beds, that showed the lawn, showed these other flower beds. I told them what it would be included in the mowing so we would weed whack that over there. We would mow this little lot property. I told them, hey, it's our minimum price because it's so small, but we have to charge a minimum rate. I told her, hey, I'm going to give you a price for these weeding of these beds which at first is going to be expensive because it's so overgrown. Like these flower beds back here are so overgrown.
As you can see here. By told her, hey, I'll also give you a price for bi weekly maintenance after that. It'll take care of the beds until you get back home. And I also let them know that these dandelions will cut those that are coming up through the, through the patio. So this is what I would recommend. If there is someone that is not home or they ask for a drive by estimate and you're like, I'm not really clear what they want. Don't put together an estimate. And then you might have to come back because it wasn't included or they didn't, they weren't really sure what you were including and weren't including on the estimate. Like if it's not very clear, like as simple as mowing a lawn and weeding beds and that's it. If there's any sort of like ambiguity or they just like send you on a drive by for a property cleanup and you get there, you don't really know what they want done. There's a massive variety of how much work could be done. I highly recommend shooting a video, upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video, send it to them as a link with the estimate and then they'll be able to see exactly what they're getting for that estimate. And when they click accept, you're not, you know, crossing your fingers, hoping that you're on the same page with the customer. Use videos, use voice notes. This is something we've done a long time ago. Lawn care. Using voice notes and using videos to communicate with customers. Prove to them that you're professional, that you're ahead of the curve, that your communication is fast and efficient. And this client is going to really value the fact that they even get a video of their property because they haven't been here for so long and it's going to be really valuable to them. They're going to see that, you know, there's debris everywhere and that they're going to want that cleaned up and that they might point something out completely different, that they need more work done. So, and this is going to separate you from the pack. They might get three other estimates for this place, guarantee none of them are sending a video within a couple minutes of me leaving. And.
This is going to separate. They're going to be willing to pay far more, far much more money for our service when we communicate like this than if we just showed up. Send them a number and it's left it at that. They haven't seen the property. They don't know what all is included in that. Especially in a property where, again, there's ambiguity, there's some gray areas, like, I don't know, maybe they don't. Maybe they don't want me to do that. But, like, I think that's going to be an important part of the mowing service, is to weed whack that. So videos are great. Upload them to YouTube Unlisted. You can do it right from a cell phone, like I'm doing right here, and send them that link with the estimate. And you're going to close deals, Promise you that. Good luck.
