How My Fertilizing Company Uses ServiceBot to Keep on Growing

Case Study: My Fertilizing Company

80%

of ServiceBot interactions go
through the entire process

7%

of sales currently go
through ServiceBot

About My Fertilizing Company

Industry: Lawn Care and Fertilization

Plymouth, Michigan-based My Fertilizing Company was founded by co-owners Ryan Shiplett and Andrew Walsh in 2014. In that time, they’ve grown from around 150 customers to more than 2,000, servicing primarily residential properties in the Detroit metropolitan area. They have been a RealGreen customer since they started their business, and a Lawnbot customer since 2019.

The Challenge

My Fertilizing Company is built on innovation – it’s one of their company’s core values. When Andrew Walsh read about the AI-powered sales enablement tool ServiceBot several years ago, he immediately knew that it would be a perfect fit for his business. “I wanted ServiceBot because I knew this was going to be the purchasing way of the future,” he says. “We need to make purchasing lawncare as easy as possible. For those people who do want to buy online, we need to give them that opportunity.” He scheduled a demo with ServiceBot founder Kendall Hines and was immediately sold. However, he also knew that he would need to fight for it – there would be no immediate buy-in from his co-owner and the sales staff. “I thought, man, we need to get this. I just need to convince the rest of the team to do it.” Ryan Shiplett agrees that he needed persuading, saying “I didn’t want ServiceBot. For me, I wasn’t personally comfortable buying something like lawncare through a bot. I definitely was hesitant on getting started.”

Needed to keep pace with customer purchasing trends
Manual data entry for leads takes a lot of time
Needed to get internal buy-in

The Solution

After watching Hines’ ServiceBot presentation a few times, Walsh created his own slideshow to share with his team: “I wanted to make sure we were all on board.” His tactic worked. According to Shiplett, “I started thinking: Certain people don’t like sending checks in the mail. Certain people don’t like buying things online. And certain people don’t like talking on the phone.” My Fertilizing Company ultimately signed on with ServiceBot as one of their earliest customers. After a short setup period, they were up and running by the end of 2019. Almost two years later, their bot (which the team has named “Growbot”) is a major presence on myfertilizingcompany.com.

“Just about every page of our site has a bot on it,” says Shiplett, making it easy for customers to find and engage. After a customer enters their name and address, the bot leads them through the sales process, asking probing questions and even helping to overcome common sales objections. It shows them a photo of their home from Google Street View, followed by a Google Earth view where they can trace the areas of their property they want serviced with their finger or mouse. The bot then uses that information to generate an estimate based on My Fertilizing Company’s price charts and provides options to purchase. Customers can tell the bot which specific services they are looking for as well.

Shiplett estimates that around 80% of those using the ServiceBot go through the entire process all the way to the decision point. In addition, all of the information customers enter – from their address to their property measurements to the services they are interested in – is automatically integrated into Service Assistant 5. “Even if ServiceBot isn’t closing the sale, we have that information,” says Walsh. “When our people call them back, they have that ammunition, they can ask the right questions. It makes the sale a little bit easier.” Shiplett agrees: “If you walk in on a Monday morning and there’s 30 leads, someone has to enter that in, and it takes time. ServiceBot’s taking that whole process and putting it right into our software. It’s our overtime worker.”

Lawnbot integrated on nearly every page of the company website
Information entered into Lawnbot by the prospect automatically imports into Service Assistant 5
7% of sales are currently coming through Lawnbot
Lawnbot uses the company’s price charts to provide accurate service options and quotes

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“If you walk in a Monday morning and there’s 30 leads, someone has to enter that in, and it takes time. ServiceBot’s taking that whole process and putting it right into our software. It’s our overtime worker.”

Ryan Shiplett
My Fertilizing Company

The Value

Once hesitant, Shiplett is now a major fan of ServiceBot. “Working with ServiceBot has been a great value. Obviously, it’s a paid service, but we’re making money on top of it. It’s easy, it’s integrated. I’m really, really happy we went with ServiceBot.” And both partners note that the ROI has most definitely been worth it. “I think ServiceBot’s been great, especially for the initial investment – the ROI is excellent,” says Walsh. “You have to put a little bit of work into it, and you have to have someone managing it, but it has been awesome.”

My Fertilizing Company Discuss Truck Routes

Shiplett and Walsh both say that ServiceBot would be a great choice for any company interested in long-term growth. Shiplett: “For anybody that’s interested in getting ServiceBot, it was a game changer for us. It really helped us bring in some sales – 7% of our sales are from ServiceBot this year.” But it’s not just about the sales ServiceBot closes. “Even if we had zero sales from Lawnbot and it was all just the integration of information, it would be worth it to me.”

Walsh notes that ServiceBot will be a crucial component of My Fertilizing Company’s ongoing growth. “It’s going to be really good in the future, especially if we open another office. ServiceBot will be a huge help with scalability. We won’t have to keep on hiring new salespeople. It’s never going to be 100% of our sales, but it might be 10%, 15%; it’s always going to be creeping up. The younger generation, especially people below the age of 40-45, a lot of them want to purchase that way. If you’re up and coming and you want to grow, I think it’s a no-brainer.”

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