I recently worked with a lawn care client in Orange County Florida, whose identity I’m keeping anonymous. I sign NDAs as standard practice and am intentional about protecting information that could expose a client’s internal strategy or performance data. 

For this case, I’ll use the pseudonym “Lawn Guys” and walk you through the changes we made, without revealing any identifying information.

Here’s what made this case frustrating (and familiar):

Lawn Guys had tons of happy customers. But almost none of those happy customers said it publicly.

Their crews did solid work. Customers renewed. Complaints stayed low. But their Google reviews stayed flat.

In lawn care, flat reviews quietly erode revenue because when homeowners compare options, they trust the company with the most recent, most consistent proof.

At first, they assumed they needed to:

- “ask harder,” or

- “run more ads.”

But they didn’t have a marketing problem.

They had a system problem.

They had no process to guide happy customers to leave proof at the moment they felt happiest.

So I coached them through my Hero Blueprint, a simple framework that makes the customer the hero and your business the guide, so the experience naturally leads to trust, action, and proof.

The key moves that changed everything:

- The tiny “moment of delight” we turned into a review trigger

- The one-line text that got replies without begging

- The choice-based request that doubled participation

- The testimonial prompt that produced usable quotes (not “Great job”)

- The automation that ran it without the owner babysitting it

Here’s the play-by-play.