MOONLIGHTING: Stop 🛑 Disgruntled Employees from Stealing Your Customers!

Your first three lawn care services free. I saw this the other day. The first three mowings for free for new contracts. That sort of thing is absolutely not good.

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes from landscapebusinesscourse.com and today I'm talking about movie Moonlighting, which is basically if you have an employee and they actually start to take your clients and take your jobs away from you behind your back or potentially after a really bad firing, and then they go and take your customers. I've kind of seen it. All right, so we have over 60 locations at Augusta Lawn Care, and I've seen everything from my own employees to franchisees. Employees do some really crazy things when they get fired or potentially just trying to take customers on the side and then doing the work after they're supposed to be at work and then on the weekends, et cetera. So I've seen employees leave and tell clients that the company went out of business and that they will do the service now or they go start their own business altogether and then take the clients from their previous employer. And sometimes, which is really difficult, is they'll take employees from their previous employer. So I'm going to be talking to you as the employer who currently has employees and really just talk about this whole topic that I don't think we talk about it a lot of times because we don't want our employees to hear about it. We don't even want to think about the possibility. But guess what? It's probably going to happen to you at some point if you're going to keep growing your business. I had it also work out really well where there was individuals that wanted to start their own lawn care business. And I knew that. And we were able to kind of like coach them and walk them through it, and they were successful and we were cohabiting in the same area and it's totally fine.

So first off, what I'm most against when it comes to moonlighting is that when someone has a bad experience, as I've had and many of you probably have have had as well, there's an inclination to stop sharing information with the team, stop sharing with them the cost of the product, stop sharing with them the dollars per hour that you charge the customer, stop sharing with them the profits and sharing your financial statements with Open Book management. There's an inclination to say, I should not share this information with my team because that information could be used against me. Or they're gonna think that I'm making all this money because I share all the numbers. And then they're gonna go try to take the customers away from me and do it at a lower rate. I've always said that you need two things in order to think like an owner. And everyone's always like, well, I want my employees to think like an owner. I want them to think like an owner. Great. In order for an employee to think like an owner, be efficient like an owner, and treat the business like their own, they've got to have two things. One, they've got to be compensated like an owner. That's through pay for performance, where they make a percentage of the revenue they earn for the business. And two is they need to have the information like an owner. The only reason you as the owner are so efficient on the routes is simply because you know the rates, you know the customer's information, you know all about the financials of the business and which services are most profitable and how to be most efficient. So if you withhold from them the information, the pricing, what every job cost, how much a specific project is going to be priced at to the customer if you withhold that information, do not expect them to think like owners in terms of cutting out waste and being efficient.

A lot of people are afraid of training people and giving that information to their employees and then those employees leaving. The only thing that's worse than that is not training your employees, not giving them that information, and they stay for a very long time. Like, I don't want to have employees that don't know about the business, don't know about the numbers, and they simply just show up to work and punch a clock and punch at the end of the day, and they're fine and happy with that. I want them to be able to grow and expand and learn. And as they're being employed in my business, it's much better to know if they actually do want to start their own business. It's like, hey, just tell me. And I'd actually like to coach you, I'd like to help you through that part. And then because there's that relationship built and you're actually helping them start their own business, there's probably going to be a much better relationship formed where they're not going to steal customers or steal employees because you're giving them help, you're trying to get them started, you're trying to get their feet on the ground and get their business off the ground.

If an employee is going to moonlight and take business or potentially leave and go start their own business, I'd much rather have a relationship with them that's very positive. So if someone was wanting to start a lawn care business or do side work, I would want to say, hey, let's talk about it. Is there a way I can help you get more work? Potentially, if you're wanting some extra work on the weekends, maybe there's certain types of work that we don't specialize in that I can give you or we can refer off to you and you can do on the weekends to make some extra money. Because a lot of times moonlighting is sometimes an employee just needing more hours. And if you're not willing to give a bunch of overtime, they potentially just need some more money to provide for their family. So you might be able to give them certain types of jobs that you don't really want to do, but they could do just fine on the weekends or in the evenings on their own and make some extra money. Now, what gets worse sometimes is when you know they want to go start their own lawn care business. And you almost get afraid of like, man, they might take my customers, they might take my employees because they have all this information and knowledge, But I'd much rather give them that information and knowledge and then actually be able to kind of coach them and help them get established if they're going to start their own lawn care business. Because if I have a good relationship with them, it's likely that they're not going to steal from me. They're not going to take customers, they're not going to bad mouth me, and they're probably going to try to work with me and I can refer work to them that I don't want and they'll refer work to my business. If I'm larger, that can be done. That's a larger project and they might not be able to handle as a solo operator. And at the end of the day, you really just need to do the math. If one of your employees is leaving and they are going to go start their own lawn care business, you got to ask yourself how many employees, how many people, men and women, work in the lawn care industry? In my county, in my city, in my territory, let's say it's 200 people, right? And I'm not talking about number of businesses, I'm talking number of workers. And what you got to ask yourself is, okay, if there's 200 people working in my community in the lawn care industry and there's one person leaving my business, that means that that person can only serve 0.5%, half a percent of the market. That means there's 99.5% of the market remaining. So they're not going like it's not even going to make a measurable difference on you by having one more competitor and one more employee, because it's likely that they're going to be by themselves. Most lawn care moonlighting doesn't happen when they take like five or six of your employees and go start their own business. The only case that would ever happen is you, like a really high level manager, had plenty of capital, really make a massive impact on your business.

But more commonly, one employee is going to leave, they're going to start doing side work and then go start their own business. And you just have to realize that the math is on your side in terms of the size of the market and just how little it's going to impact you in the future. Keep in mind, if someone really is toxic and really negative after you fired them, or they just want to go start their own business and they're going to be really, really negative and try to take your customers, they're going to take the ones that are most price sensitive and they're going to do it by saying, hey, if you're getting charged $50, I'll do it for 40. If that actually works for a customer, that employee that's moonlighting is going to get the worst customers because those are the price sensitive customers. Those are the ones that are already somewhat disgruntled or unhappy with the service. And if they're going to steal away employees from your business, the same thing applies, probably the employees that you don't really want anyways that have been really a cultural drag to you in the business. So again, I would not be worried about moonlighting. And even though you have it inside of your manual and I have inside of our employee manual, that's not allowed without the consent of the employer. It's not something that you're gonna ever go to court over because it's so hard to enforce. But it's just, I would rather just be open and honest and have my employees talk to me about it. And if they need more work or they want to do side jobs, just let me know. I could probably give you some of the work that we don't want to take on, and I'd much rather just have open lines of communication so that nobody is mad at anybody. EL.

Now some of you are still saying, well, I still don't want it to happen. I don't want the chance of employees taking away my customers. I already mentioned that you could have an employee handbook that Has a written form of an agreement that says, hey, I'm not going to do any other work in the lawn care industry without notifying my employer and talking them through it. And we have that in our handbook. And you can actually get a hold of our handbook@landscapebusinesscourse.com all your members there, you can download it and make it your own. But let's talk about five different ways that you can actually prevent this from happening and how you structure your business. The first one is have a strong brand. Because customers are not going to leave for a random employee that walks up to their door. If you have a strong brand that they have affiliation with and they actually know the logo, they know that the trucks roll up with a certain color and they see the uniforms. That type of branding that creates loyalty that will keep customers from leaving you when some random person walk up the door and says, hey, I'll do it for $10 cheaper. The second thing that you want to do in order to prevent moonlighting or people taking customers away from you is have really good communication, answer the phone, and have great office help for your customers. Because they typically, if they value that and they've had that experience with you, they're going to know that if they join Bob, who just left your employment and is trying to undercut all your prices and take your customers, Bob's probably not gonna have a great office, not gonna have anyone to answer the phone, not gonna have good communication skills. So develop that with your customers. Cause that's very sticky. Most customers won't want to leave after they've had good communication. And when they call you answer the phone, you pick it up and you get back to them quickly. That's the type of thing that will keep customers from leaving for a cheaper option from one of your employees that try to take work from you.

The third thing is do not use price discounts to get customers. Because if you use price discounts to get customers, there's a really good chance the way you're gonna lose those customers is that they get price discounts from somebody else. Whether it be another competitor or one of your employees that goes rogue and says, I'm just gonna go try to steal as many customers I can by undercutting the price. So again, if you get price discounts and you use price discounts and get customers, that's probably the same way you're going to lose those customers. So just don't use it in your marketing. Don't offer your first service for free. Your first three lawn care services Free. I saw this the other day, the first three mowings for free, for new contracts. I couldn't even believe it. Don't do that, because the next guy's gonna come along and offer the better deal. And if one of your employees go and says, hey, I've been mowing your lawn for six months, I'm leaving Bob's Lawn Care and now I can come do it for you for $10 a month, $10 a week cheaper. That sort of thing is absolutely not good. Don't go there. Do not use price discounts. Number four is if you simplify your services, you'll be much less damaged if someone does moonlight or leave and start their own business or go really toxic, right? So if you simplify services, you will not be at the mercy of that employee that potentially might have all the trade secrets, all the knowledge. Know how to be the only person in your crew that knows how to do the work. Simplify your services so that everyone in your crew knows how to do most of the jobs that you do in your business, so that if one of them leaves or there's a really bad fire and it's not going to negatively impact the business.

The fifth and final thing that you can do is mix up your routes. So if you're doing lawn care and you're doing mowing, and this is a really big concern that you think your employees are going to do work on the side or take customers jobs from you is if you mix up the routes because then you're not going to have the same employee at Ms. Sally Jones her house for three years straight because there's going to become a rapport there. And then then that would leave you susceptible to that employee taking Ms. Jones if they were ever mad at you. So if you mix up the routes where, hey, we have job notes on all of the routes, all of the jobs, and we're just going to whatever is most efficient. Whoever's on the crew, we're going to route them efficiently. And that means that maybe I do Miss Sally Jones once a month and then I'm not there for a couple weeks and then I'm there the next week. As an employee, I'm kind of going around at different customers, different routes, and I mix the routes up, mix up who's on lawn care versus the landscaping and the project side. If I do that, then the customer is going to build an affiliation with the brand, not necessarily with the employee. That way it puts you at less risk that if the employee ever goes rogue or goes crazy when they if you ever have to let them go and they're mad at you that they can't necessarily go and cash in on those relationship that they've built personally with the customer because the customer has built the affiliation and the brand is what keeps the customer around. I'm Mike Andy's I hope that was helpful. If it was I really would appreciate if you go to landscape businesscourse.com conference and sign up for the three day conference we're having this January. It's going to absolutely change your business. It's January 13th, 14th and 15th we're going to come together. You're going to be with like minded landscapers probably a couple hundred at least other landscaping business owners that want to grow their business and this type of information is what we're going to go very very deep in and you can answer ask questions and get them answered. I look forward to seeing you there's in January. Take care and have a great day.