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Pinellas-area professionals who understand the Florida landscape industry is a tough gig, we certainly don’t encourage you to give your landscape crew a hard time without cause. Florida is hot, humid, and salty — combination that isn’t necessarily ideal for the greenest, lushest, most gorgeous landscape around. That being said, creating, developing, and maintaining a beautiful landscape in Florida is definitely doable, and if your current landscape provider isn’t getting you where you need to be, you might need to consider working with another company.
Perhaps your lawn isn’t as full-of-life as you’d anticipated it to be. Maybe you’re paying more for services than you’re realistically getting. Possibly, you’re not getting return calls, or your flowerbeds are ragged and unkempt. Whatever the issue is, if you’re unhappy with your landscape maintenance provider, you need to take care of the issue.
But how do you handle this type of situation? You don’t want to chew out your landscapers and you certainly don’t want it to all boil down to a misunderstanding, so it’s necessary to take some vital, appropriate steps in order to figure out the breakdown of what’s happening. Check out our list of steps you should check through if you’re unhappy with your landscape maintenance company. Hopefully, this can help you boil down the issue, communicate it properly, and make an informed, unbiased decision about how to best spend your landscape maintenance dollars.
Communication is Everything
Before you decide that continuing work with your current landscape managing company isn’t going to work out, try having a direct and honest conversation with then. Explain why you’re unhappy, dive deep into the details, and let them know what’s bugging you.
It could all be a misunderstanding, a communication breakdown, a matter of perception, or an honest-to-goodness mistake – no matter what the problem ends up being, what’s the worst that happens? An honest talk with your vendor could solve all your problems, or it could reaffirm that maybe you two just aren’t the right fit.
Having that first conversation about what’s bothering you is going to be the determining factor for your landscaping decisions, so it’s important that you’re clear and direct when you discuss with them.
Contracts Matter, But Only to a Point
We’re sure when you signed on with your landscaping management company – for a year, two years, three years, or more – you were excited about the commitment. Now, as you’re seeing issues pop up and here and there, you’re probably feeling less confident in your leap of faith. That’s okay! Landscaping contracts are binding, to a degree, but if your provider isn’t giving you the services you requested or dealing with your issues appropriately, you don’t need to feel pressured to keep them on. All clauses will likely have a place in the contract that stipulates cause for eliminating a contract (and you can bet that underperformance is going to be have a place there).
Take a look at your contract after your initial conversation with your landscape management team. If you find reasonable evidence that they’re not meeting the terms of your contract, have an open discussion about terminating your contract based on the reasons you’ve listed.
Look for a New Candidate, But Be as Picky as Possible
If you’ve decided to eliminate your contract and start over with new candidates for your landscape management team, congratulations! You’ve just opened the door to a whole new host of possibilities. Unfortunately, that means that you’ve also opened the door to a whole new host of disappointing opportunities, too.
Now that you’re back to square one, go into this process a little wiser than the first time around. Understand what you’re looking for, what each company claims they can offer you, and take a thorough look at the work they’ve already done. Essentially, be as picky as the you can afford to be. Check and make sure all their credentials make sense for you and your landscape, take your time choosing the right candidate, and ensure that you’re not going to be dealing with the same issues you dealt with before.
We even recommend talking with the current clients of each company you ask to bid on your business. Ensure that each client is happy with not just their finished products, but the services they offer as well as their customer relations. Is this new company responsive? Does this company take care of issues immediately? Does this company often have customer issues? Find out the answers to these questions and more before committing to a new landscape management company.
Get Down to Business and Be Thorough
It’s RFP time, guys.
If you’re not familiar with an RFP, it’s simply an acronym for a request for proposal. This is just a document that you’ll put together that essentially outlines (in detail) what you expect from your new landscaping management company, what kind of services you are looking for, and what kind of prices you’re hoping to meet.
Writing out a detailed RFP is going to be your saving grace when it comes to collecting bids from different companies. Consider this the controlled element in your landscape management hunt – each company will get the same RFP and they’ll come back to you with a list of prices and services, allowing you the opportunity to compare and contrast and decide which company works the best for you.
We suggest breaking down every service into detail with an ideal price for each section. Want to include mowing? Good, write down your requirements and a price. How about mulching or fertilization? Annual check-ups? Flower replacement? Good, good, and good – add in details of what you want and don’t forget ideal prices.
Remember: The Lowest Bid Isn’t Everything
You’ve created and distributed your thorough RFP, you’ve vetted the best of the best, and you’re down to the top few bidders with the best services. Now what? We implore you to consider more than just the bottom line price. We know, this can be hard to ignore. A deal is a deal, and if you’re looking to save money, a budget company is going to be awfully tempting.
We don’t mean ignore the price altogether, you need to ensure that you’re keeping within your budget, but we also ask that you don’t look solely at the price. Consider the contractor – do they understand your wants and needs? Do they get the scope of your project? Are they a small or large enough company to handle what you want? Are they reliable? Caring solely about cost is going to leave you disappointed and –likely – enduring this process again and again.
Get Real with Your New Crew
Right off the bat – before you even sign the new contract — explain, in depth, the issues you faced with your past company. This is one of the best, first steps you can take to ensure that the company you’re choosing to work with won’t be a repeat of the same issues you faced last time.
Be open and honest, describing in detail what went wrong, what you wanted to see, and how you feel the last company could have fixed it. Ensure this new company understands and is ready and able to accomplish your goals, as well as solve any problems that pop up in the process.
We hope these tips for dealing with a less-than-satisfactory landscaping management company were helpful! On that note, we’d like to let you know that you can always count on Landcrafters to offer you the most communicative, ideal landscape management services in the Pinellas area. Want to talk to us directly? Give our offices a call at (727)-201-3947.
Want more tips on how to make your landscape the best it can possible be? Check out our blog here to get inspiration, find answers to your questions, and hear our expert advice!
Michael Tomaino
