Who really likes to care for their lawn, honestly? Unless you are one of those rare individuals who takes pride in silly things like public appearance and accomplishing tasks, getting out the lawn mower and weed eater to get your yard in tiptop shape is not high on the list of priorities. And, I mean, sweating, really? That's for the birds.
Thankfully, if you are in California or Texas (some restrictions apply, continue down to the interview for exact locations) Lawn Love can take care of those tasks for you. They are bringing tech into what is typically a low tech field. We had the chance to talk with Jeremy Yamaguchi, founder of Lawn Love, to ask him a few questions about his lawn care services. Check out our interview below!
For those that don't know, what is Lawn Love?
Lawn Love is an on-demand lawn care marketplace. We make it incredibly easy to find, book and pay for a great lawn service. We've been called the "Uber for lawn care", but I'm not sure that's the best comparison. Like Uber, we're bringing a tech platform to a traditionally low-tech space, which allows us to provide customers with a much better experience than the current alternatives. Unlike Uber, we're actually pretty nice people and keep the baby-eating to a minimum.
In what locations do you provide lawn care?
We're currently live in seven major markets across California and Texas. We initially launched in San Diego and have since expanded to Los Angeles, Orange County, San Jose, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. We have plans to be in another 10-15 major metro areas in 2015.
What services do you provide your customers?
The majority of our customers use Lawn Love for regular maintenance. This includes things like mowing, edging, trimming, and general yard care. We also offer a number of specialty services like lawn aeration, seeding, fertilization, etc. Our lawn techs are highly experienced, and can take care of just about anything that grows outside your home.
What is a "Lawn Care Technician"?
Our lawn technicians are independent service professionals. We have a pretty rigorous section process, and we screen, background check, and I-9 verify each of our service providers before bringing them on board. They average ten years of experience caring for yards of all shapes and sizes, and are familiar with the grasses, pests, and seasonal challenges that are specific to each region. They are highly capable folks, and will work wonders on your yard.
On your website, you mention that you "give back" by helping provide clean drinking water to developing countries. Care to elaborate?
We support charity:water, who are helping bring clean water to people in developing countries. More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world. As human beings, we think that's egregious and want to do what we can to help. Charity:water is making significant progress on this front, and we're proud to support their efforts.
What inspired Lawn Love?
Inevitability. I tried to hire a lawn care service myself, and found the process to be difficult and unnecessarily painful. Lawn care is a large, well established industry, but it lags 20 years behind on the technical scale. The whole process of finding, scheduling, and paying for lawn care is antiquated, and there are a ton of benefits you can realize when you introduce advanced systems to a traditionally low-tech space. We wanted to solve our own problem, and reinvent an age-old industry in the process.
What makes you stand out from other lawn care providers?
As it stands, trying to book a great lawn care service is a pretty terrible experience. Here's a current scenario:
You start with a search on Craigslist, at which point you're presented with a dizzying array of service providers. You have zero indication of their skill level, reliability, legal status, or ability to render service. You reach out to a few random individuals and proceed to wait a couple days for a response. When you do finally hear back, you have to make an appointment for an in-person estimate, which will take place days if not weeks in the future. Providers are unresponsive and have to physically step foot on your property just to get you an estimate for the work.
Total time to book service: Days if not weeks.
With us, you would start by submitting a request on our website. We'll get back to you in an average of five minutes with a personalized quote for your yard. We use satellite mapping to measure the square footage of the yard, which allows us to provide accurate quotes sight-unseen. You can then book service with one of our lawn techs, all of whom have been I-9 verified, background checked and reference checked. The booking experience is vastly superior, and the quality of service far higher.
Total time to book service: Five minutes.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The systems we've built provide efficiency and quality advantages over the lifetime of your relationship. These range from things like smart routing and job clustering to ratings, reviews, and performance optimization.
Thank you for your time. Anything you would like to add before we wrap it up?
I think that covers it! Give us a try if you're ready to ditch the dirty work.
So, next time you are looking for a lawn care service provider and don't want to deal with the hassle (or wait times) of dealing with Craigslist ads, Lawn Love is smart alternative if it is available in your area. Being able to get real time quotes by the use of satellite imagery definitely gives Lawn Love an edge over the competition. On top of that, you will also be supporting charity:water when you hire them for yard services! Which is fantastic because it means you don't have to break a sweat, and you're supporting a good cause at the same time.
