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By: Ron Hall
It\'s a simple, direct selling proposition. There\'s no room for misunderstanding or compromise.
Founder Blake Crawford and the rest of his management team at 19-month-old Crawford Landscaping, Naples, FL, have been building operating and administrative systems into their young company. They\'ve also been scrambling to meet the challenges of remarkable growth. And, in spite of the damage that Hurricane Wilma caused to customers\' properties this past fall, they still confidently tell customers, \"we do what we say we\'re going to do.\" Then they deliver that promise.
Crawford and his team have found the golden ticket — their unique selling proposition.
If you\'re not familiar with the term, also known as USP, you should be. Matt Shooner, founder with his wife Irene of the Cincinnati-based Focal Point Communications, a Green Industry marketing and advertising firm, encourages landscape companies to find their USP and capitalize on it.
So what\'s the definition, you ask?
\"It\'s that definable \'something\' that your company offers customers that distinguishes it from competitors,\" Shooner explains. It\'s a claim of uniqueness, supported and reinforced by advertising and marketing that delivers an over-riding easy-to-understand customer benefit.
Crawford Landscaping\'s USP — \"We do what we say we\'re going to do\" — meets Shooner\'s top criteria: \"It must be believable,\" he says. \"You must be able to deliver upon the promise of the USP.\"
Consider your own company. Is your USP your low, low price? A claim to great service (with testimonials)? Client retention? Awards received?
Shooner says the USP concept is critical to any marketing strategy and basic to clear, effective advertising.
It\'s All in the Delivery
Crawford\'s message is resonating in Florida\'s Collier and Lee counties. This year it\'s budgeting revenues of $3.5 million. Early renewals and sales show that $4 million might be closer to the mark.
How has the company turned its USP into profit-generating action?
\"Doing the things the way that we have promised to do has created great word of mouth,\" says CEO Crawford. \"It\'s catapulted our business. Our promise is to offer best-in-market, quality service, and so far the market has responded.\"
Crawford, like so many other transplants to Naples, one of the fastest growing cities in the country, came from the industrial north. In fact, he\'s a decade removed from a career in Detroit\'s automotive industry, with a stop in between to manage apartment communities in Bloomington, IN, and Orlando and Tallahassee, FL. These experiences taught him many business lessons, but he puts two to use in particular in the day-to-day operations of his landscaping company.
Lesson #1: Companies with efficient systems to perform repetitive, time-sensitive services will out-perform companies without similar systems.
Lesson #2: It\'s not enough to strive for quality and customer satisfaction; you have to constantly monitor and measure it as well.
But he wanted to see how they\'re implemented in a successful landscape company before he started his own. He and Timothy A. Felts, one of the first people he hired two years ago, spent months \"benchmarking\" a successful Detroit-area landscape company. Felts, a graduate of the North Carolina State Turfgrass Management Program and former golf course superintendent in Florida, now serves as president of business development for Crawford Landscaping.
\"We started with one account, a hotel. We\'re now up to nearly 300 clients, counting all bundled communities,\" says Crawford of his company\'s start in Naples.
How\'d they do it?
Crawford Landscaping\'s distinctive red trucks are a common sight in the region\'s multi-family communities, commercial properties and even many single-family homes.
\"We said, \'If we simply do what we say we\'re going to do and do it to the best of our abilities, we will differentiate our company and people are going to be impressed\',\" Blake says.
That\'s USP talking.
Crawford Landscaping is a full-service landscape company, offering turf maintenance, horticulture, pest control and fertilization, irrigation maintenance, small and large scale landscape installation, as well as landscape lighting and water features. Included among its offerings is one that\'s unusual, at least for a landscape company — home services.
This particular division has been a wonderful relationship builder with customers, many of which are property managers, says Felts, who spends 80% of his time in the field meeting and working with prospects and clients. Home Services, staffed by several uniformed experienced tradesmen, performs a host of property services, from home repairs, to power washing and installing holiday decorations.
\"To get this quality of service in such a timely fashion is really unheard of here,\" says Crawford. \"Customers call, we get the job scheduled on a work order and completed within a few days. Customers love it because we get it done fast and done right.\"
Move it Forward
As Crawford Landscaping continues to grow, its managers are focused on applying the concepts that form its USP into new business benefits.
The CEO estimates he spends 50% of his working day going from job to job and meeting with clients. \"My responsibilities right now are divided between administration and leadership,\" explains Crawford. \"There\'s no substitute to actually being out in the field, being able to see how things are working and auditing the quality end of the process.\"
While he\'s on the road, he\'s also implementing the company\'s \"quality operating system,\" which he describes as very similar to a ISO 9000 Quality Management System (www.iso.org).
\"Basically everything we do will be reduced to a procedure with supporting documents, which are called quality system documents, QSDs. I want to make sure that when I do extract myself more from the field that we have the right procedures in place that can ensure that what we do is repeatable and measurable,\" Crawford explains.
\"We\'re looking at our company as a long-term investment. When you take the long approach, you devote the time to develop and implement comprehensive systems. You realize that the only way to ensure quality and service is to incorporate solid operating systems.\"
Nothing\'s Guaranteed
In spite of the rapid start, or maybe because of it, Crawford Landscaping faces some big challenges.
So far the company has met its managerial needs by promoting from within. Felts says that will remain the preferred method to build the company\'s management team. However, he admits the company will have to begin recruiting supervisory talent if it continues to grow as planned. He\'s looking at partnering with schools and universities, hosting student interns and participating in job fairs, such as PLANET\'s Student Career Days.
Another possible hiccup in Crawford Landscaping\'s continued growth is the availability of quality plant material. Crawford and Felts expect the number of plant nurseries in their market to dwindle as rising land prices cause owners to cash out. Partly for this reason and partly because it would complement the landscaping business, Crawford is considering buying property and starting a company -owned garden center and nursery.
Neither of these cause company management sleepless nights. In fact, they\'re confident they\'re building the right kind of company. They realize that management\'s role is to support its employees in servicing the company\'s customers. That means responding to the employees\' need for quality equipment, professional training and adequate staffing. It means the implementation of standardized systems and procedures that document and measure performance.
\"Tim and I are accessible to our employees and to our customers. We\'re there for our workers every morning; we start the day with them, and we certainly end the day with them,\" says Crawford.
What does the future hold for Crawford Landscaping? Opportunity, Crawford says. Southwest Florida is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.
For Crawford Landscaping that means many more promises made — many more to keep. | 
