Now when customers request to get their lawns mowed on Plowz and Mowz, they can upgrade the service to include leaf removal.
Leavz is the latest service offering from the on-demand landscape service, often dubbed “the Uber for landscaping.”
Launched last year, Leavz follows the app’s original philosophy—to help contractors weave one-off jobs, for clients who don’t typically purchase landscape services, into their existing routes. Co-founder Wills Mahoney said customer demand drove the company’s decision to add the new service.
“We listened to our customers, and there was quite a bit of feedback where people were like, ‘You’re offering a lawn mowing service. Why aren’t you offering leaf services?'” he said. “The other reason was we wanted to extend the season. We’re a year-round business now with lawn mowing, leaf removal and snow plowing.”
Mahoney said Leavz was “very successful” in its first year of operation thanks to an already existing customer base. The company did not disclose the exact size of its customer base, though Mahoney said it’s “thousands and thousands” and continuing to grow. The company has about 3,000 landscape service providers on board.
Leavz also opens up additional revenue for landscape companies. Alone, a mow is typically priced just under $50. With the leaf removal upgrade, contractors are pulling in about $150 dollars per job, depending on the size of the property and the market. Some cut and leaf removal jobs pull in up to $300, Mahoney said. It also helps companies work later in the season.
“Last year, in the northeast, the winter was relatively late,” he said. “So we actually had customers order the Leavz service multiple times to really keep up with it.”
Leavz is available in all markets that Plowz and Mowz operates. Minneapolis, Cleveland and Raleigh, N.C., were the most popular markets for leaf removal in the first year.
“We expect that we’re going to see it really take off in other markets now that we’ve grown as a company and people are using our app on a regular basis,” Mahoney said.
Contractors interested in joining can sign up at the Plowz and Mowz website. To offer Leavz, a company must have commercial grade leaf removal equipment, like a blower, and experience with the service. Unlike Uber, the on-demand company does not hire workers without experience, or as Mahoney puts it, “someone with a rake who is not a landscaper.”
“At the end of the day, we’re just trying to grow (contractors’) businesses,” Mahoney said. “We always tell the landscapers, ‘Do what you do best. Mow lawns, rake leaves and plow and we’ll supply you with jobs and recurring jobs.”
For more on Uber-style landscape services, read our August 2014 feature story on on-demand services.
