From reinventing operations to engaging customers and driving growth, business software and mobile apps are the foundation of the modern landscaping and lawn care business. But the tools designed to help are often a double-edged sword.
The complex features of the software technologies we use every day overwhelm and paralyze small businesses, hindering their ability to make the most of their ever-expanding digital landscape. This can be due to a lack of understanding, an inability to fully utilize the software's vast potential, or simply owners and managers being too proud to ask for help. A 2019 survey by HR solutions company Oasis revealed a startling statistic: approximately 42% of small business owners are not using technology to its full potential.
Yet a wealth of solutions are just a few keystrokes away. In many cases, these solutions can be unlocked with just a little additional training, allowing you to harness the full potential of the technology. To overcome some of these systemic software challenges, we reached out to software developers serving the landscaping industry for tips and insights on how to better utilize their product suites and unlock their enormous potential for increased efficiency and success.
Read email
The amount of content that hits your inbox every day may seem endless, but it's important to keep an eye out for hidden gems from your software vendors. Vendors regularly send you important messages packed with valuable insights to optimize the use of your business tools. These messages can unlock efficiency and effectiveness you never knew you had.
Landscape software is feature-rich, but Ted Rightmire, CEO of green industry field service software company HindSite Software, identifies a common challenge: Landscape professionals often admit they use less than half of the software's features in their day-to-day work. To close this gap, HindSite hires a dedicated digital adoption manager.
“We have people who make sure we're creating content on how to use the software,” Rightmire says. “The emails include how-to guides, case studies, best practices, and so on. Even just looking at the newsletters and release notes is a big help.”
Optimize your reach
Mike Carden, product manager for WorkWave's Real Green Systems, takes a client-centric approach when tackling the problem of software underutilization in the landscaping industry. He starts by understanding where contractors spend their most valuable time and what their efficiency goals are.
“Many companies still build their customers manually because they don't understand or are unaware that software can do it for them,” he says. “Often it starts with route planning and route building, and then we show them the tools (in the software) to dynamically build routes on the fly and automatically handle all of the nuances that are involved in routing.”
Contract renewal
Manually creating new service agreements and renewals is outdated – most modern business software suites will generate this automatically for landscapers.
“If you're a maintenance landscaper, you have a lot of seasonal contracts, and many of them create those contracts manually every year,” Rightmire says. “That's just not necessary. Software has the ability to give you a pricing matrix that can, and should, control pricing by a number of variables, such as square footage, (irrigation) zones, slope, gates, difficulty of landscaping, etc.”
The software evaluates, compiles, and mass-generates contract renewals with just a few clicks. Another underutilized feature that is essential for contract renewals is calculating client profitability.
“It's easy to not realize you have a property that's actually costing you more than the profit you're making on the contract, or at least the profit on that property is very small,” Rightmire adds, “so running reports in the software can save contractors the time it would take to review properties, compare contracts, and determine if they need to adjust their price or say goodbye to the client.”
Keep your settings
Another strategy to combat software underutilization is what Carden calls regular software “sanitation.” He advises landscapers to schedule regular reviews of their software settings to ensure they’re configured optimally for their specific needs.
“Every quarter, make sure your workforce settings are correct, your vehicle constraints are correct, your business constraints are correct,” he says. “If your software configurations and parameters aren't set correctly, you might not realize you're wasting time.”
Labor Saving
Finding and retaining skilled labor has been a major challenge for green industry contractors.
Fortunately, landscaping software, when properly configured, can be a powerful aid: It can provide accurate estimates and job costs, making operations more efficient and profitable, and reducing contractors' reliance on manual entry and back-office paperwork.
“Make sure your software supports or is configured with modules that allow for accurate estimates,” Carden says. “Knowing exactly how many man-hours a service will require and how much you should budget for the property throughout the season is paramount and foundational to any (landscaping) software package.”
Mastering Mobile
Mobile apps accessed on phones and tablets are not just back office tools; they're also tools that empower your field workers. These apps streamline operations with features like precise timekeeping and improved payroll accuracy. They also help workers better manage tasks and responsibilities by optimizing schedules and assignments, and getting real-time data to improve decision-making.
“We need to review all the details of the property to make sure it's accurate and up to date,” Rightmire says. “For example, if a client has just put in a fence they might not be able to fit a large lawn mower in the backyard and need a mower with a smaller deck. We can capture those details and send them back to our office.”
Training and more training
Once the software is set up and operational, training establishes the client-vendor relationship, but that connection often gets lost.
“We have a wealth of industry knowledge and can advise (contractors) on any issues they may have or questions they need answered.”
Entrepreneurs often struggle to balance their pride with the need to ask for help, but Rightmire challenges this view.
“If a customer has a real problem, we work with them and show them tools they didn't know about. That solves everything. If there's a problem, we know how to apply technology to solve it. It's easy to learn how to use new tools, and we can teach those skills.”
