Unprofitable Snow Removal Business: 5 Reasons You’re Failing

In order to fix what’s making you an unprofitable snow removal business, it’s important to understand the most common causes.

Use this article to help you explore why you’re an unprofitable snow removal business so you’ll be able to:

• Price services for maximum profit
• Beat the competition with a few simple strategies
• Hire and keep top local talent in the midst of labor shortages
• Streamline communication between the office and dispatched crews
• Improve client satisfaction and increase conversions with automatic communications

Follow these top expert strategies so you can STOP being an unprofitable snow removal business and START being profitable today!

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1. Problems Hiring the Right Crews During Labor Shortages

By far, hiring is one of the biggest leading causes of an unprofitable snow removal business.

After all, it’s easy to desperately hire when there’s a labor shortage and you have open positions you need to quickly fill.

However, it’s important to remember that it only takes one bad employee to cause disgruntled clients to write damaging reviews.

Here’s how to quickly attract the right professionals to staff your crews:

• Establish a positive company culture
• Offer a competitive wage with unique perks and benefits
• Develop compelling hiring ads with a robust job description
• Build a strong online presence (e.g. website, social media, etc.)
• Provide clear career paths and achievable opportunities for advancement

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2. Issues Getting Ahead of the Competition

Client poaching is one of the biggest reasons you may have an unprofitable snow removal business. It’s hard to get ahead of the competition if they keep stealing your clients.

These are a few top ways to keep your clients happy so you can stand out and beat the competition:

• Nurture relationships with existing clients
  • E.g. nurture email campaigns, holiday cards, client loyalty rewards, etc.
• Strive to provide your best 110% effort with every visit
• Admit fault and commit to a 100% satisfaction guarantee
• Build an engaging, positive online reputation with leads and clients
  • E.g. social media, website, reviews, etc.
• Prioritize client and employee satisfaction with routine surveys and implement feedback
  • E.g. automate these surveys in Service Autopilot!

By utilizing these top client retention strategies, you can ensure your clients don’t leave for the competition.

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3. Improper Pricing

Pricing is a HUGE leading factor as to why you might have an unprofitable snow removal business.

Especially as industry inflation is on the rise, it’s crucial to reassess prices for maximum profitability each snow season.

Here’s a quick look inside a few key areas you’ll want to consider with your prices:

• Track crews and job times
• Know your local target market
• Track ALL costs—operational, equipment, chemicals, etc.

Plus, you can use Service Autopilot to easily track your crews, job times, chemicals, assets, and more!

Furthermore, Service Autopilot allows you to quickly view client profitability and base prices off your most profitable jobs.

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4. Failure to Automate Client and Lead Communications

By automating client communications, you can ensure no client or lead gets left behind or forgotten—quickly turning your snow business into a profitable one.

Take a look at a few of the top communications you can automate:

• 90-day surveys
• Welcome client
• Nurture campaigns
• Estimate follow-ups
• Past due reminders
• Upsells and cross-sells

Also, you can leverage your existing lawn care clients by converting them into snow removal clients using an automated email campaign.

As a result, automating your client and lead communications allows you to:

• Increase conversions
• Close more contracts
• Improve client retention

In addition, you can use Service Autopilot’s automations to create custom campaign triggers. Which means, these triggers will funnel leads and clients into the right campaign path based on their actions.

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5. Disconnect Between the Office and Dispatched Crews

When there’s a disconnect between your office and dispatched crews, it’s easy for everyday operations to fall through the cracks:

• Job notes get lost
• Routes don’t get updated
• Job progress doesn’t get relayed to the office

The list of problems stemming from the disconnect between your office and dispatched crews are endless.

Especially in a busy industry like snow, your team needs to be able to conduct smooth storm operations in a moment’s notice.

For these reasons, if you want to stop being an unprofitable snow removal business, then you’ll need the right software to streamline daily operations.

Plus, when you choose Service Autopilot, you’ll also get:

• Same-day automated payments
• Asset, chemical, and crew tracking
• Rapid estimate creation from anywhere
• Accessible client account history and job notes on-the-go
• Pre-built master routes for quick operations during pending storms
• A flexible billing system to meet your unique pricing needs (e.g. per inch, hourly, etc.)
• Simplified, automated marketing campaigns with custom triggers and detailed tracking

It’s easy to see why thousands of businesses trust Service Autopilot to maximize time, resources, and growth.

Experience for yourself how Service Autopilot can boost your profitability today!

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Solve the Issues Making You an Unprofitable Snow Removal Business

Finally, you can use these simple pro strategies to solve the issues that are making you an unprofitable snow removal business:

• Boost profits with optimal pricing
• Quickly get head of the competition
• Attract and keep the best local snow professionals
• Streamline operations with effective communications between the office and the field
• Automate client and lead communications to improve client satisfaction while increasing conversions

Now, you can begin utilizing these leading industry strategies to fix what’s making you an unprofitable snow removal business!

Related: Biggest 7 Snow Hiring Mistakes By Businesses

Originally published Dec 26, 2023 7:00 AM CT