The landscaping industry is dominated by small business owners, who mostly manage every aspect of the business by themselves. But as the business grows, operational complexity takes over the business. 

Another frustrating aspect of the landscaping business is that most people associate landscapers with hobbyists. This perception often takes a toll on customer management, operations, branding, and marketing. In such a scenario, how can landscaping companies optimize their operations and win more customers? 

It needs strong measures and sincere efforts to optimize operations. But the problem is the landscapers are mostly not aware of key problems, such as what part of the process is leaking profitability, who in the team needs a helping hand, what training would help landscapers to perform a job more efficiently, and so on. 

In our experience of working with landscaping companies, we have found these 5 critical factors, improving on which could reboot your landscaping operations.

1. Resource Utilization

Proper resource utilization is the key to a successful landscaping business. Landscaping involves a number of structures and equipment such as ornamental plants, water, walkaways, lighting, ground cover, and so on. As the cost of these structures directly influences the operational cost, it is important that you utilize the resources carefully. 

Most times it has been observed that resources are wasted or underutilized. Often tools and equipment are purchased in large stock, which keeps on lying in the warehouse which also increases the inventory management cost. 

Besides, the landscaping business is seasonal. It is possible that the equipment you need in peak season might not be helpful in the off-season. Plan your stock in such a way that every piece of equipment is fully utilized. You might want to build a strong network of landscapers with whom you can share or exchange equipment at a cost to reduce the burden. 

2. Focus on Productivity

Individual productivity driven by a positive mindset, talent, and willingness to improve customer relations could increase your operational output. A great way to improve productivity is to assign the right task to the right individual at the right time. Here you need to assess the skill set of your field teams and optimize scheduling and dispatch processes to build a strong alignment between jobs, skill, location, and field service person.

A landscape scheduling software can automate your scheduling and dispatch processes, along with that enable you to track and monitor field activities. The right software can make a big difference to your operations, by allowing your team to schedule and dispatch field teams faster and more accurately. Also, as you can track and monitor your teams, you could measure the productivity level of each individual and figure out who needs a helping hand and who needs a raise.

3. Strengthen Your Professional Relations

Professional relations are a critical factor in landscaping operations. Your people relations should be very strong, be it with your employees or with vendors or customers to get the job done on time. This is mainly for two reasons: the first is seasonality. 

During the off-season, you might not need certain people, but during the peak season, the very same people become critical to your business’s success. The same goes for tools. For example, you might need ice scrapers in winters but the tool lies in a warehouse the entire season. And you need the same tool for the next season. 

If you will not develop strong relationships with people or vendors during the off-season, they might not want to work during peak season. Unavailability of resources could derail your operations. An effective way to deal with such landscaping business problems is to nurture the relationships so that people are readily available to you.         

4. Plan your time

Landscaping operations are mainly time-oriented. If you can effectively manage when you buy equipment, when your field team starts working on a project, when the project is completed, when your team visits the client location and when they leave, and where they are now; you could actually keep your operations on track. 

In order to keep a tab on how your employees spend their time at work, in the office, and in the field, you could explore landscaping services solutions to keep your teams in sync and manage their schedules. 

5. Get Actionable Data Insight

No business is untouched by technology today. There are many tech solutions that could help you capture your business data, such as team activity data, invoice, and payment-related data, customer details, and so on. A landscape work order software powered by emerging technologies could help you capture a variety of data and generate insight into the business. It could help you make informed decisions in business such as which part of the operations needs more attention and what parts are your strengths to capitalize on.

The Final Words 

Operations are getting complex day by day because of rising customer expectations and the growing maturity of emerging technology. But the challenges can help you optimize your operations and win more customers for your business.