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Videos33 Grasshoppers zero-turn mowers in 17 years and more on the way
Oct 17, 2013
Rodney Miles just wanted to spend less time mowing is yard. He owned a home with 3.5 acres in Portland, Ind., and he spent more than 5.5 hours every time he cut the grass. He knew a zero turn mower would cut the time in half or better, but he wasnt ready to buy brand-new just yet. He purchased a used Grasshopper FrontMount zero-turn mower with a PowerVac leaf collector in the spring of 1996. He fell in love with that mower. It mowed so well, he says. It was just a great machine. That fall, he traded his used 1822 for a new 720K Grasshopper mower, and to help offset the cost, he started mowing a few yards in town. He had no intention of making it a career.
Miles Mowing & Lawn Care
But that was then, and now 17 years later, Rodney has owned a total of 33 Grasshopper zero turn mowers, employs 10 people at Miles Mowing & Lawn Care and maintains more than 125 acres of commercial and residential landscaping accounts every week. I started trading the current mower every year for a new one, and it just grew from there, Miles says. Eventually, I was trading in two a year, then three a year. Before I knew it, I had passed 30 mowers. He made the switch to diesel in 2008 and hasnt gone back. He says the the power and better fuel efficiency of the Grasshopper diesel mowers and fuel savings have contributed to a healthier bottom line. We run exclusively diesel now, with three 930D FrontMount models. The three Grasshoppers run 10 to 12 hours every day in two shifts, one in the day, and one in the evening. The residential accounts are maintained during the day shift when most of the residents are at work or out of the house, while the commercial accounts are tended to in the evening when those businesses have slower traffic or are closed. We have a good system going, and it helps us give our clients the best service we can, Miles says. In fact, I still mow the very first commercial account I signed almost 17 years ago, and its because of our focus on customer service.Service First, Money Second.
Thats what sets him apart from his competition: his approach to customer service. Miles Mowing & Lawn Care is a full-service landscaping company he also has a Grasshopper AERA-vator coreless lawn aerator that he uses to provide aeration and Miles tells his employees and his clients that his number one priority is service and client satisfaction. Anybody can mow a lawn, he says. But, we treat our clients properties like were the ones living there. I tell my guys that if they dont feel like they could pay for the job weve done, then the job isnt done. His philosophy is that service comes first, not money. That kind of service comes at a premium, but hes selling the value of the service he provides, not the final price tag. He sees many competitors that offer lower prices, but they dont have a business plan, they dont have insurance and they dont have a service model. They are just cutting grass, and not cutting it very well. Were not one-price-fits-all, and we dont sacrifice quality to match somebody elses price, he says. We focus on providing our clients higher value for the dollars they invest with us. Its an approach that has paid off. Nearly all of Miles clients have been with him for several years, and most of his new business comes from word-of-mouth referrals from his satisfied clients.Lawn Service Satisfaction. Guaranteed.
He tells of a call he received from a business owner in Florida. The caller had a rental property in Miles town that was not being maintained, and he contacted Miles to clean it up. He had heard of Miles reputation and was willing to hire him without meeting him in person or seeing examples of his work first-hand. The property was neglected. I sent him before pictures with a formal quote, and he said, Lets do it. We did the work, and I sent him the after pictures with an invoice, and he was extremely pleased with the job we did. Thats the kind of reputation Miles has built from the ground up and works to improve with every client and every project; its a reputation that he credits to his choice of equipment in Grasshopper. The out-front deck on a Grasshopper gives us so much more flexibility maintaining a property, whether mowing and trimming or removing the deck and attaching an implement like the AERA-vator, he says. His aeration service is aimed at higher-end customers who want their landscapes immaculate. Some clients simply trust Miles to do whats right for their lawns, so if aeration fits the need he works it in, while other clients request the service specifically. Hes looking to purchase a fourth Grasshopper to use with the AERA-vator as a dedicated aeration system in the next year. Its amazing what a Grasshopper can do, he says. You can literally do anything with them. And they are user-friendly. Theyre comfortable. They definitely increase our productivity. And increasing productivity while focusing on the needs of the customer to provide lasting value is a recipe for continued success.
