dog poop neighbor problems! help!

•K• • Mom to a one son, one 🌈 daughter, and 3 LOVED angel babes. One of the nice girls. Fitness fanatic. All glory and praise to Jesus!🙏🏼🙌🏼❤️
We live in a town home and our back patios are right next to door to our neighbor's with a fence between the two residences. They have two big dogs that stay inside all the time, except to go to the bathroom, which they apparently do on back patio. We know our neighbors as acquaintances and have spent time talking with them before. However, I need to ask them to clean it up. What's a super nice way to address the dog poop issue in person? It smells SO bad in the California heat and I don't think they ever clean it, maybe twice a year if we are lucky? We'd like to start using our back patio. And I don't want to offend them but it's GROSS. What would you do?