It’s that time of the year when people are excited to see the past 12 months summarized in stats and graphics. Even if you don’t share your landscape company’s accomplishments with a wider audience, it is a good idea to take stock of your successes and positive changes you’ve made.
Josh Wise, CEO of GrassRoots Tree and Turf Care Inc., based in Acworth, Georgia, says reflecting on the past helps you gain perspective.
“Make sure to always celebrate the wins (no matter how small) and learn from the losses,” Wise says.
Tyler Stocking, director of business strategy and impact for Gachina Landscape Management, based in Menlo Park, California, agrees that looking back and having an attitude of continuous improvement is important.
“I treat looking at the past like looking through a windshield when you drive down the road,” Stocking says. “When you drive, 95% of the windshield is there to help you look forward and progress, but there is a rearview mirror, which covers 5% of your view. That 5% helps us to remember the past but we should be spending most of our time looking at the larger windshield moving forward.”
One of the key elements of these different annual lookbacks is the usage of data.
“People will look back and maybe they think they did a good job, feel like they did a good job, but maybe the data says something different,” says Gilly Artigues, president of Pleasant Places, Inc., based in Charleston, South Carolina.
Artigues suggests grading yourself as a company. Every year, Pleasant Places has their management team anonymously grade not only their own performance but the performance of the company.
“I think it’s important looking back at the year and getting feedback from your team because those guys are in the field,” Artigues says. “They’re smart people. They have ideas. I think you’re doing your company a disservice, not listening to that.”
Andrew Ziehler, owner and CEO of Ziehler Lawn Care, based in Centerville, Ohio, argues that assessing the past year should be a consistent process throughout the year, not just once the season ends.
“Constant assessment allows you to see trends and identify the areas you need to explore and work on to understand more deeply,” Ziehler says. “This process helps you ensure you are spending your resources on the items that will give you the most return. Many of these items need to be developed multiple quarters prior to the next season in order to provide the maximum benefit during your most productive seasons.”
Below are some of the common themes of achievements that lawn and landscape companies experienced this year.
Better Training
Stocking says that a new process they implemented this year is specific monthly in-person training for account managers, project managers and irrigation managers.
“These are geared towards teaching the managers how to successfully run their financials, understand and use Aspire better, customer service skills, horticulture knowledge and emotional intelligence,” Stocking says. “We’ve seen success with our managers in reaching their financial goals, communicating more collaboratively across branches and helping each other out with best practices. This has been a game-changer for our company.”
Jason Cromley, CEO of Hidden Creek Landscaping, Inc., based in Hilliard, Ohio, says he is proud of their employee development this year, particularly with sales training.
Ziehler says they have implemented the second piece of their lawn specialist incentive program, which is a career progression plan based around agronomic training, licensure, skill mastery and retention.
“This next piece helps reward a specialist’s ability to consistently get work done safely and efficiently while upholding our Ziehler standards,” Ziehler says.
Implementing Technology
Increased usage of technology was another change many landscape companies saw benefits from. Kevin McHale, principal of McHale Landscape Design, Inc., based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, technology has helped them be more efficient.
“This year, we have used technology to further aid our fleet management and financial reporting,” McHale says. “AI has helped our marketing team, finance team and design teams.”
Artigues says they’ve started utilizing Pipedrive. Cromley says they’ve been using their LMN software to keep clients better informed.
“We had become pretty complacent,” Cromley says. “‘Oh, we know how the software works. We knew probably 50%; it was that other 30% out there that we needed to maximize.”
Les Lightfoot, founder of LEI Grounds Groomers, based in Houston, Texas, says by meeting weekly to discuss how to improve they have made major leaps forward including implementing a new software system and adding an AI GPS with in-vehicle cameras.
“We are constantly measuring performance, reviewing, then brainstorming how to make small improvements,” Lightfoot says. “This has made things easier, safer, and more productive, which adds value to everyone’s life in our team as well as our customers.”
Improving Processes
Cromley says another big focus this year has been making sure that processes are getting documented so when a new person walks through the door, they have a manual with all the SOPs rather than 10 different ways other people do it.
Artigues says they have improved their bidding process this year, which involves weekly updates and better forecasting.
Wise says a new process they added this year is seven, 30, and 90-day touch points on all new accounts. They also have a 48-hour clock for all service calls and new accounts to be performed. As a result, their customer retention has been at 88.3% and net growth at 19.8% this year.
“We are receiving excellent reviews on our services again this year as we continue to make small adjustments to continue to raise our level of service and results,” Wise says.
Excellent Teamwork
Stocking says a major successful change they made was moving their branch managers around with six out of their seven branches having a new branch manager or a different branch manager shifted to a new branch.
“I believe this was the change we needed as a company at that time,” Stocking says. “I’m very proud of our managers for believing in themselves and working very hard to achieve success in their new positions. It was a team effort to step up and manage the challenges.”
Lightfoot says his team also navigated numerous challenges such as inclement weather and increased growth.
“The things I am most proud of our team is our accountability, teamwork, and camaraderie,” Lightfoot says.”
