5 Fantastic Reasons to Quote Lawns Using Google Maps

If you are actively growing your lawn-mowing business, you will know that quoting on lawns can take a lot of your time. 

You take the call, get the details, drive to the lawn and give a quote on location or contact the lead later if they are away when you call. 

But what if there was an easier way? What if you could use technology to your advantage? Well, there is! Google Maps offers a number of features that can make quoting lawns a breeze. 

Here are five reasons why you should quote lawns using Google Maps

It can save you time. 

You Can Mesure up the job while you are on the phone – If I get a call at my desk, I can look at the job immediately.

You will save money on gas – It can save you driving all over town, especially if you get many quotes. You can pick and choose. 

You can do more quotes in a day – If you handle a large volume of quotes, you can give conditional quotes as the leads come in. 

You can even quote at night. – There is always daylight on Google Maps. 

You can get an idea of what you are walking into

You can get an idea of what to quote before you get there – if you have measured the job up before arriving, you will have a much better idea of the price. 

You can get an idea of parking – If you tow a large trailer, you can avoid quotes with narrow difficult driveways. 

You can qualify for the job.

I like to qualify the lead with questions, but now you can visually qualify the job as well.

You can know immediately if you need a better fit for you – If you are looking for work for large or small mowers, it will allow you to check that it’s a job you want BEFORE you get there. 

Once you measure the job, you could keep or sell the lead – We have a maximum lawn size, and for any lawns over that size, we onsell the lead. If we were not measuring the lawn we would have to guess which jobs we don’t want. 

You give a ballpark figure and see if it’s worth visiting – If you can provide a ballpark figure over the phone, it might save you a trip. If your data says the job is worth $60 and they are telling you they want to pay only $30, then you know that will not work. 

It allows you to quote with more accuracy. 

It’s a uniform way to quote – You can start basing your quotes on facts rather than gut feelings. 

You can fine-turn it and work on the figures – If you keep track of all the information, your accuracy will improve with time. 

If you want to increase your hourly rate, you can adjust your quote – Using the measuring tools will allow you to be consistent with new pricing.

It can Increase your profit. 

As you get busy, you can cherry-pick the high-profit jobs – The more active you get, the pickier you can become. Choose high-profit jobs before you visit the site. 

If you keep on doing this, your hourly rate will improve – The longer you quote like this, the higher your average quote price will become. 

We’ve all made those “what was I thinking quotes” –  Now these can become just a bad memory. 

Here is an excellent example of how I use Google Maps. This happened to me yesterday. 

I had an older man ring me for a quote. He was a bit jaded and wasn’t sure he wanted someone else to come around. I did a bit of digging (as I do) because I knew there was a story behind this quote, and I wanted to know the details.

He said he had run another company that arranged to call in, but they never turned up. 

After 48 hours, he rang them back. They promised to be around 9 am the following day. They quoted him over $125 a regular mow. He wanted another quote but wanted to avoid repeating the whole thing. 

Sitting at my computer, I asked him for his address. I went to Google Maps and measured up his lawn. It was around 500 square meters, so I typed that into my lawn quoting tool, and it told me the job was worth approximately $60 (just under an hour to mow)

I gave him the ballpark figure, and he was happy to get a firm quote. We no longer accept jobs over 400 square meters, so I told him I would arrange for someone else to do the quote. 

I texted the lead to a local contractor I had on file (he pays me for leads), and he went around, quoted $60 and got the job. It took him roughly 50 minutes.

 

Everyone was happy

This quote probably only happened because I could give him a ballpark figure. 

While this sounds good, it’s not a bed of roses. Before you rush out, buy a laptop or tablet to take the show on the road. Let us consider a few cons. 

Cons

Not always up to date

• Some of the images can be a few years old

• Not good in recently developed areas

It can be hard to measure if blocked by trees etc

• Sometimes it is hard to tell where the boundaries are. 

• If there are big trees on the property, you may not be able to see the lawn.

You don’t know the gradient.

• The property may be on a slop

• The property may be muddy or uneven

You won’t know if the lawn is overgrown. 

• You will have to ask when the lawn was the last cut

• It could be a jungle, and you wouldn’t know

You cannot measure on the mobile app. 

• As far as I know, this feature is NOT available on mobile

• You could use a tablet

Summary

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Google maps are the be-all and end, but it is certainly worth a look. Don’t think of it as some kind of swiss army knife but as something available in your toolkit to be used as the need arises. 

Also, it is essential to remember that the tool can be hit-and-miss. It is helpful for around 80% of the quotes I do. However, at the end of the day, some jobs will always require an onsite quote. 

You will never get rid of that part of the job entirely. 

As you can see, there are many reasons use Google Maps is advantageous when quoting lawns. From getting accurate measurements to finding driving directions, Google Maps offers a number of features that can save you time and hassle when quoting jobs—so what are you waiting for? 

Start using Google Maps today!