4 BEST WAYS TO COLLECT
Does your landscape service business still print or handwrite invoices and mail them to customers? How you bill and collect payments for your landscape service business is an important decision because it can help you save time and money.
A pleasant customer experience and using proper business etiquette for invoices can encourage repeat business. Using a landscape service app that can receive and process payments, such as SAWIN Field Service software, will be a far better option as your landscape service business grows.
1. Professional Looking Invoices
It’s essential that you stay highly professional when you ask your landscape service customers for payments. By using a landscape service app, your technicians can send professional-looking digital invoices from their phones immediately after completing the job. A mobile app eliminates messy handwritten invoices that can sometimes make it difficult for your customers to read, in turn, causing confusion.
Some landscape service apps even have the ability to take payments via a merchant service. You can use these apps to take credit cards or check payments in the field. In the event that you are unable to accept field payments, you can instead email the invoice to your customer, who can make payment online via a private, secure portal.
2. Make Invoicing Convenient
Make invoicing simple and convenient for your technicians and customers. Invoices can easily be sent via a mobile landscape service app and all you need is your customer’s email address. These invoices can be sent immediately after the job is completed. By using a mobile app, you eliminate the unnecessary steps of writing up a paper invoice, printing it, mailing it to your customer, and waiting for them to send back a check payment.
With a mobile landscape service app that also has payment processing software, like SAWIN, your customers can submit payments securely and at their convenience. Payments get deposited into your bank account 2-3 times faster, which improves cash flow.
Here are a few approaches to help you set up a seamless invoice system:
Invoice Your Customers After Every Job
If you’re a newer landscape service business that is concentrating on upselling other services or you plan on collecting payments from loyal customers every few months for fertilizing or weed control, be diligent about collecting the amount owed as soon as you finish a job.
A mobile landscape service app will make this process much easier for your technicians. They will be able to collect credit card or check payments while on site.
Collecting payment immediately after a job is completed helps you to accurately estimate job costs and keep a healthy flow of cash in the business.
Invoicing a Flat Rate Once a Month
Do you maintain several properties on a larger scale? Consider invoicing a flat rate that is fair to your customer once a month. You’ll be able to set a higher rate to ensure you turn a profit no matter what type of maintenance or weather the month brings. Using automated field service software to charge a flat fee once a month is also less time spent on administrative tasks.
Keep in mind that with a flat-rate fee, it’s essential that you itemize what services your contract does and does not cover. If landscape service customers start asking for additional services on a regular basis, talk to them about an increase in price and develop a new contract with the added services that is more suitable to their needs.
Invoicing Once a Month for Multiple Visits
You can also invoice your customers once a month for any visits during that month. If you have a solid list of recurring clients and a healthy cash flow, this is a great way to send out your invoices. A landscape service app that has a batch invoicing feature allows you to track your jobs and send them all out in one monthly invoice.
By having all your charges for all your visits on a single invoice, you can drastically reduce your administrative time, keep track of paid and unpaid invoices, and easily monitor customer payments to ensure they pay on time.
3. Improve the Ease-of-Use
Landscape field service apps often give you the option to automate weekly or monthly invoice amounts, so your invoice values are set when the job gets scheduled by your office staff.
For example, a lawn mowing job that occurs weekly will have a service item with the quoted amount for the lawn mowing service. After completing the mowing job, your landscape service technician can easily select the option to email the invoice to the customer. With the saved automated invoice value, the technician doesn’t have to remember how much the invoice should be every week or month.
Other services (ex. weed control or mulching) get handled in the same way. The service and the material amount will be quoted and added to the job by your scheduling team. Your technician in the field simply completes the job and emails the invoice to the customer.
4. Create Peace-of-Mind with Security
Landscape field service apps provide an extra level of security, whether in the field or online. With credit, debit, and ACH processing, you can accept payments for products and services anytime, anywhere, with in-person mobile payments, online payment forms, and over-the-phone payments with your back office.
Invoices that are emailed to the customer by the technician, will contain a secure payment portal for customers to submit payments. The online payment portal allows customers to enter credit card and checking account information privately. This provides a sense of confidence for your customers that your landscape service business handles and processes payments securely.
Experiment to Figure Out What Works Best for You
Take care of your employees and customers with simple easy approaches that save time and increase cash flow. Experiment with the different methods to figure out what works best for your landscape service business. If you take some extra time to do your research, you can create an efficient payment system that reduces unnecessary stress for both you and your valued customers.
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