Every year right after the busy spring season when you feel your business is bullet proof, things start to change a bit in the service business, and specifically the tree service business, and others.
After servicing the tree service industry for over 6 years in digital marketing, we have seen this every year around the end of May onward with our clients.
Consumer demand and priorities change during different periods of the year.
This is no time to panic though, there are strategies to help keep things rolling into the summer!
May:
The entire spring leading up to Memorial Day weekend generally is a busy season for the tree service industry. After the winter slower months, things thaw out, and so do consumers’ brains. They start scheduling those outdoor services that they have been putting off! This is when the tree service business begins really ramping up, scheduling appointments, and nothing seems to go wrong during this busy time frame. Work is plentiful.
Then, Memorial Day hits. Great, it is an awesome holiday and we should proudly celebrate it!
However, it is also the beginning of the slower summer months ahead. Memorial Day weekend is generally a busy travel weekend, kids just got out of school and families are focused on those leisure activities and getting outdoors.
June:
Things are slower during June since Memorial Day just wrapped up, kids are now out of school, and everyone is squeezing in summer vacation travel, going camping, and having a great time outdoors. Search volume for tree services on search engines like Google are down 30-50% in some cases. This means consumers aren’t focusing on those outdoor services at the moment. Calls and appointments still come in, but they are considerably slower than the previous spring time season and this is a good time to market to your existing customers with incentives and offers.
Additional activities in June:
Vacations: Tons of families are vacationing in June, and focusing on that with friends and family.
Graduations – School just wrapped up, so graduations are right after and a lot of planning goes into these.
Weddings – June is one of the most popular wedding months.
Anniversaries – works together with weddings, June is a big month for Anniversaries and trips for that as well.
July:
Ahh, the dog days of Summer are here. The week leading up to the July 4th holiday is generally a slow drag for calls coming in. People are planning for the 4th, and where they are going to celebrate.
Then, you have the actual holiday long weekend, or even more challenging, if the holiday is in the middle of the week, the entire week is basically out of commission. Afterwards, the week after the 4th holiday, people are getting back home, and finally start to get back to normal. But, still a heavy travel season for those families that didn’t get June travel in, they are breaking for the summer vacation later in July before school starts back.
In July also, some of the aftermath of Memorial Day weekend, vacation from June, graduations, weddings, anniversaries and such create a sort of rut or hangover from that busy activity span. But it starts to lift a bit in the middle of the month, and consumers are now starting to get back to getting work on their schedule and prioritize home services more frequently. So, it can pick up a bit during the middle to end of July and your marketing will help fill your calendar as consumers start searching online to book appointments.
August:
Good ole dog days of summer continue….August. The tendency for another slowdown ensues with families wrapping up last minute vacations, and summer activities. And, as you all know, the relentless back to school advertisements and shopping start to take the front seat to many other priorities with family life. Once the school shopping is completed and parents have their clothing and supplies, this is when school actually starts in many areas of the country, including your neighborhood and local service area.
It is a momentum game, if you had a great spring season, kept busy and did well, and kept your marketing channels running through these last few months, August can then ramp back up right after the kids get back in school.
You can’t take your foot off the gas. This is when Moms and Dads are back to a more normal routine and will start knocking out outdoor work off their checklist.
Just always keep in mind the back to school and the early part of August is a HUGE distraction and families are super focused on that. Then, it starts to subside.
September:
Now that the kids are back in school, and things are starting to get back to normal, the last Big Bang holiday quickly approaches! Labor Day weekend. Another 3 day weekend for everyone to take their focus off of all of that home service work on the “To Do” list. So some of the previously mentioned slow down, focusing on other things start to take shape as it did in June/July after Memorial Day.
There will be an early September slow down because of this, but luckily this is the last and final one that rounds out the Summer. Things will generally get back to the normal busy season for Tree Service Companies to fill up the calendar again. Typically we see this uptick right after Labor Day weekend, sometime within a week or two after that.
You can kiss the Summer slowdown goodbye now!
In conclusion, I wanted to put together this article to explain what you may be experiencing with your tree service business. It isn’t just YOUR business, but every business in home services for the most part unless it is an emergency type service.
Also, be mindful that it isn’t that the “Marketing isn’t working” or anything of that nature either, people just have summer priorities and aren’t online searching as much during these periods. Which is why we suggest preparing in advance for the summer with customer outreach campaigns such as text message incentives, and emails to your customer base. This will bridge the gap so to speak.
If you have the mindset and understanding that these periods come around every year, then you will be well prepared to prosper during the summer!
All the best, and let’s push forward!
