Cold call "landscapers"

In the past two months the fylde coast has been visited by a gang of "landscapers" whos speed at getting work has been extraordinary.Heres what they do.Cold call by there sales person (who must have the gift of the gab)Turn up at the job in brand new everythingdrop about 8 kids off to do workfinish drive in approx two daysWhat has shocked me is the way they can do about 5 drives in one street in a week and move off to another location. Leaving a job that as soon as a car pulls on to it it sinks. They always use block paving and are very cheap.To my knowledge one local landscaper has reported them to trading standards who has told them to stop all work. They do but come back the next day under a differant trading name!What i find hard to belive in this is that they dont just target the elderly everyone from doctors to civil servants have been caught, am i wrong to think tuff you pay for what you get or are landscapers/products becoming to costly now that there boom time is over and people cant afford there prices anymore. Or are customers to easily sucked in by a cheap suit and cheap prices.

This is a tricky one.

I've been in the business since God was a lad and it seems to be still the case that good marketing, especially using glossy Sunday supplement ads and, as Graeme writes, slick sales people, are as effective as ever - but I can't see how they, per se, can be effectively banned.

The only way to really do something about this is to introduce regulation - for example, in the USA you need a permit from the council before you can legally start the dig-out and to get this you have to produce your bona-fides - in France, you have to be qualified and registered to describe yourself as a practitioner of any profession. So, in both of these countries, the people you describe would be acting illegally and can (and mostly will be) lead away by Inspector Knacker.

The only problem with this is that it would hit the economy hard - it would put a lot of people out of business and significantly increase the price of services of all descriptions, many of which are being done very well by perfectly honest people - there are probably a good many members of LJN doing great work without formal qualifications.

Loads more civil servants would doubtless need to be employed to deal with all of the paperwork arising at great cost to the taxpayer and the Police would no doubt complain that they don't have the staff available to effectively enforce the new laws.

So, to paraphrase Harry Hill, which is best - regulation or deregulation?

Replies

Graeme @ BGS October 14, 2009 at 10:40pm

People like a bargain Martin and with slick sales talk bingo!

My mate runs a very large double glazing company - he only sells the product and subs out the manufacturing and installation. You will be amazed at what BS they come out with to get the sales man in the door (free holidays read timeshare inspection visit) and they get at least 75% conversion rate once in. Of course they then contact next door and offer a "big discount" (after inflating the price) as there are in the street.

These companies don’t care about trading standards or customer satisfaction. Short term profit and run.
PRO

Phil Voice October 15, 2009 at 9:52am

john

Do a Google search on 'cold calling landscapers'

If a potential client did the same they would find the threads on cold calling.
Maybe Martin can link to this page on the cold calling scam in his intro piece too?
PRO

Phil Voice October 15, 2009 at 11:23am

Point taken John :-0))

I think I need to link a few more forum categories too to drill down some of our 'off-topic' posts.

Thanks

Phil
Steven Callaghan October 15, 2009 at 2:09pm

This is a tricky one.

I've been in the business since God was a lad and it seems to be still the case that good marketing, especially using glossy Sunday supplement ads and, as Graeme writes, slick sales people, are as effective as ever - but I can't see how they, per se, can be effectively banned.

The only way to really do something about this is to introduce regulation - for example, in the USA you need a permit from the council before you can legally start the dig-out and to get this you have to produce your bona-fides - in France, you have to be qualified and registered to describe yourself as a practitioner of any profession. So, in both of these countries, the people you describe would be acting illegally and can (and mostly will be) lead away by Inspector Knacker.

The only problem with this is that it would hit the economy hard - it would put a lot of people out of business and significantly increase the price of services of all descriptions, many of which are being done very well by perfectly honest people - there are probably a good many members of LJN doing great work without formal qualifications.

Loads more civil servants would doubtless need to be employed to deal with all of the paperwork arising at great cost to the taxpayer and the Police would no doubt complain that they don't have the staff available to effectively enforce the new laws.

So, to paraphrase Harry Hill, which is best - regulation or deregulation?
PRO

Phil Voice October 15, 2009 at 4:53pm

Find a landscaper - LJ is coming up top or second on my PC John - there are big companies with deep pockets bidding on these keywords. Landscape Juice features very well for many phrases and keywords through organic search.

Whist it is a bonus to get our members work, the primary aim of LJN is to share knowledge and help each other. Please bear in mind that the site is still immature i search terms (33% of traffic is through search where as LJ is 84% search)