2025 Wk 5 Update

Its hard to believe its already February! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and thank you for your support throughout 2024. We're excited to continue serving you in 2025 with improved processes and services.

We are going to try to give these weekly updates throughout the year. We feel like it will give customers some useful insight and will continue to make us a better company moving forward. Weekly updates won't contain any customer names or specifics, but will offer an optional way for customers to get some of the week to week happenings within our company.

Last month we did a lot of plowing. We plowed as much in January this year as we did all of last season! We had a few hiccups along the way. We've recently had to replace a water pump, fan/blower motor and alternator on a truck, and a variety of small plow issues - but overall most of our accounts were plowed before the roads were all clear and we hope we kept everyone taken care of as they expected and didn't leave anyone in a bad spot. When we haven't been plowing, we've been trying to get computer work caught up - as well as making sure systems are in place to where we don't fall behind on invoicing in the future. We are continuing to get organized and prepared for this spring, we are very excited for this coming season.

This week it looks like we could get around 1.5" inches on Sunday and 2.5" through Monday afternoon. We are planning on doing all of our North and West accounts on Monday after the storm stops; then getting all of the accounts in Kaleva and Brethren on Tuesday morning before people are up and moving too much. If we get more or less, we'll adjust as necessary, we are just getting everything soft scheduled so nothing is missed. Outside of plowing, we will be working on making sure all accounts are invoiced up to date, and we are working on getting payments in. We fell behind in the office - we transitioned pretty much straight from leaves, to snow, back to leaves, then straight back to snow again! Mix the holidays in there and things got a little overwhelming for a bit. We prioritized service over billing, and now we are having to play catchup big time on invoicing and put systems in place to avoid this issue in the future.

Here are some general updates:

Accounts and Billing:

• View Your Account: You can now view your upcoming and previous visits, as well as pay your bill online. Click the Portal link on our website, bearlakelawncare.com

• Invoicing: Starting Spring in 2025, customers will be invoiced immediately after each service. For those without an email or textable cell phone on file, we will print the invoice before the truck leaves the shop and leave it at the property upon completion of the service.

• Payment Options: We can store and charge cards/ACH on file and charge the day after service. Having a card on file will be part of our standard service to avoid late invoicing and manage a steady cash flow. We will still accept checks as well.

Flexible Payment Plans:

• We fell behind on invoicing. As always, we prioritized completing scheduled services, leaving us with very little time for billing and office work. We are scaling, training and putting policies and practices in place to prevent this from happening again. If you need assistance catching up on payments, we offer flexible payment plans. Please reach out to us, and we will find a suitable solution. You can call or text us during business hours at 231-242-3292 or email anytime at greenlawnsmatter@gmail.com.

Growth and Customer Service:

• We are receiving many calls from new customers for this upcoming season. This is why these systems are important to allow us to grow responsibly. Please reach out as soon as possible to ensure we have you on our list for this coming season.

• We will continue to honor the customers we serviced in 2024 at the same rates in 2025, but we need to get you on the schedule ASAP to ensure a spot! Call, email or text us to make sure you are on. Thanks!

  
  

Commitment to Improvement:

• We are taking steps to ensure that billing delays do not occur again in the future. Your satisfaction and trust are important to us, and we are committed to improving our processes to serve you better.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! We are constantly trying to improve, and this seems like a great place to keep everyone up to date on our plans and progress to getting where we want to be!