Background
You are the owner of AAA Landscaping, a small company inOrlando, Florida, that specializes in resodding and maintenance oflawns. Much of your business is through word-of-mouth advertising.Once a contract is negotiated, portions of it are subcontracted outto other companies (e.g., sprinkler system repair and pesticideservices). Recently, you went to the home of Stu Murphy to bid onresodding his lawn. He obtained several other bids, but yours wasthe lowest. You arranged for work to begin to remove old grass andreplace it with the St. Augustine grass sod that he requested. Aspart of the contract, Stu also asked that some basic maintenance bedone (e.g., hedge and tree trimming, hauling away of old decorativewooden logs from around flower beds, and general sprucing up of thefront area of the house). In addition, fertilizer and pesticidewere to be applied within two weeks. Stu signed the contract onWednesday and the work was to be completed by Saturday, when he hadplanned a party.
Your Role
You were pleased to get the contract, worth over S 1,200. Thisis actually the third or fourth contract in the same subdivisionbecause of word-of-mouth advertising. Your employees completed theinitial sod removal and replacement, weeding, and pruning onFriday, and you received full payment on Monday. You received acall from Stu on Tuesday afternoon stating that several trees werenot trimmed to his satisfaction, debris covering decorative
rocks along hedges was not removed as agreed, and bags ofclippings had been left behind. Because of other commitments, itwas only on Friday that you sent someone out to finish the job. OnSaturday, Stu left another message on your answering machinestating that there was still an untrimmed tree, the debrisremained, and the clippings were still in the side yard. You didnot get around to returning his call. Stu called again Monday,repeating the message he had left before and reminding you that thecontract called for pesticide and fertilizer to be
applied to the lawn. You called back and said that someone wouldbe out the next day. Again, other commitments kept you fromfollowing through. Stu called on Wednesday and left a fourthmessage on your answering machine. He said that he was gettingirritated at not getting callbacks and action on his needs. Withoutreturning Stu's call, you responded by sending someone out onThursday to take care of the outstanding work. It has been severaldays since the work was completed, and you assume that Stu is nowsatisfied since you have heard nothing else from him.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Based on information in this chapter, how have you done onproviding service to Stu? Explain.
2. What were Stu's needs in this case?
3. Could you have done anything differently?
4. Are you sure that Stu will give a good recommendation toneighbors or friends in the future? Why or why not?
