How the Green Industry Can Automate Their Processes With Leaner Teams

Now more than ever, it’s important to be able to structure your business to run lean with limited office staff. You can keep important communications in place by utilizing Automations to communicate with your clients. 

Here are some ideas for automations that you can implement immediately to continue to build trust and loyalty to your landscaping company: 

• New Lead Welcome and Introduction
• Proposal Sent Follow Up
• New Client Onboarding
• Satisfaction Survey/Review
• Scheduling Reminders
• Service Completion Alerts & Education

One of my personal favorites is a callback/respray follow up campaign. If you’re a fertilization and weed control provider, you’ll no doubt have to go back to a client’s property to re-treat at some point. Following up after this service not only shows that you’re concerned with the client and their satisfaction, but gives your company a chance to improve with constructive feedback. 

Last year, one of my client’s, Dowco Enterprises Inc in St. Louis, MO, decided that they did not want to leave door hangers on their client’s properties upon completion of a lawn care service. (ie: fertilization and weed control, tree and shrub care, and bed maintenance program) In lieu of leaving paper behind, we converted all of their follow up to automated emails. 

Once a treatment that’s part of their 7-step fertilization and weed control program is completed, an automated email goes to the client with a few notes. The first is what type of application was applied, when and where.

The second part shows images of current seasonal weeds and how they were treated. We called this section “What’s that Weed?” and client’s feedback has been positive to get a little education along the way.

The third part contains seasonal recommendations such as a reminder to schedule a bed cleanup and mulch during the spring. 

After 3 days have passed, the client is sent a follow up email with a gorgeous photo and an upsell opportunity based on whether or not they have a specific client. For example, after round 4 is completed, the system will check to see if they are signed up for aeration and overseeding. If they’re not, they’ll be sent an additional, personalized email offering them this service. They are using the software program Service Autopilot to complete all of these automations. 

If you’ve already developed these processes, great! Now, take some time also to review your existing automations. Do they still make sense from last year? 

For more up to date notifications for clients and vendors, consider adding a standard signature line to your emails. A service that I’ve used for my clients is called WiseStamp. It’s relatively inexpensive and gives you a company-wide polished branding. You can update it seasonally, or in the case of Covid-19, daily with updates. Updating on the fly is easy to do and it reflects on everybody’s signature. No more reminding everyone to make updates! 

I wrote an article about Why Your Landscaping Company is a Great Place to Work and How to Keep it That Way for The Herring Group a few years ago. It discusses the importance of striking a balance between automation and personalization. If you want to read more on how to install processes and systems as you grow, but make sure the things that make your company human remain personalized you can read more in that article. 

The Herring Group is also hosting a webinar Fri, Mar 20, 2020 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM CDT for business owners only. You can find details and register here. 

Stay well 💜 Kelly