 Once you have learned the fundamentals of the business, there is a shift in focus. Your concerns transition from simply getting customers and getting the work done to learning to building a winning Spring-Green team and managing the business for growth and profitability. Ongoing support is provided in the following areas:
Hiring and staff development –Building and coaching a winning Spring-Green team can be a critical part of your long term success and your ticket to achieving your lifestyle goals. As entrepreneurs, leadership may come naturally but creating the proper structure with checks and balances along the way will help ensure your growth does not stall because of the potential loss of one or more critical employees. This can be the difference between spending that month in the Caribbean or having to step back into the business to keep it running. (or anywhere in between)
Technology support – Times continue to change and the rapid infusion of technology into our business can be challenging to keep up with. We are a very progressively minded, technology savvy organization so we must provide continuous support in this area. Support in using our business software to extract the data we need to make intelligent decisions, use of our web based financial performance reporting tools, marketing analysis tools, and our print on demand mail selection tools are just the beginning.
Financial support – Moving from purchasing a few bags of fertilizer at a time to determining when to by a truckload may sound simple but the impact on your cash flow or determining the value of taking discounts versus leveraging your credit , all can have a direct impact on your bottom line. It is safe to say that at different times in the life of your business your decisions may need to be different. Spring-Green’s operational support representatives are there to help guide you in your decision making providing information, examples and often comparison data from your peers to help you along the way.
Agronomic support – After your first full year in operation it is likely you will have learned the majority of what you need to know in order to identify weeds and treat lawn diseases. However, as your business grows you will continue to expand your range of services to both your current and prospective customers. Both you and your staff will need ongoing agronomic training. This support will come from a mix of onsite visits, webinars hosted by our strategic vendors or staff and regional meetings each year.
Equipment support – By design our new franchise owners start with new equipment so they do not have to worry about maintenance. However, the importance of properly maintaining that equipment and getting the needed productivity from it starts day one. As the business grows you will naturally look for ways to improve on your productivity and profitability. Equipment can play very heavily into that decision making and it is not always the best option to simply outfit another production vehicle or just purchase another piece of equipment. As a franchise owner you will have direct access to an equipment specialist who can help make recommendations on a variety of new and field tested equipment and your support representative can help you pencil out the needed ROI to make such an investment. We also maintain a rapid response parts delivery program and a library of informational videos on how to properly maintain and refurbish your equipment to make sure it lasts as long as possible.
Marketing support – Acquiring new customers in local markets through cost effective marketing programs is priority #1. Spring-Green takes this responsibility very seriously and offers support in a variety of ways that you will thoroughly explore during your Spring-Green franchise investigation. But marketing does not stop there. Following the spring acquisition season, the focus to add customers takes a back seat to selling additional services to existing customers. These additional services can be very profitable and often performed at the same time a lawn application visit is scheduled. Throughout the year we have several key touch points with the customer and want to make sure we properly time and utilize each one building on our relationship.
Step 1: Know where you want to go. The Spring-Green support center will help you develop an annual marketing plan that will start with a new customer goal and a revenue goal.
We are very fortunate to have a high recurring customer base. These same customers often prepay for their services. Those prepay dollars are a significant part of your annual marketing reinvestment and your marketing plan will dictate how you need to allocate that money in order to reach your growth goals.
Step 2: Utilize Spring-Green’s industry leading technology platforms to create your local, personalized direct mail programs. These programs will account for a significant amount of your new spring customers each year.
In addition to direct mail in the spring, Spring-Green will work to drive both web leads and sales back to the local market through our online marketing efforts. Currently we support major initiatives to optimize our franchise owners local home pages as well as geo-targeted paid advertising campaign through the major search engines.
Step 3: Utilize our national call center to maximize your spring selling season. Spring-Green recognized that each spring our franchise owners are at their busiest trying to respond to their current customers needs and maximize their spring selling season. Unfortunately, one of those has the potential to suffer. Since we put our trust in the franchise owners ability to provide Spring-Green’s Higher Standards of Quality, Service, Professionalism and Value we felt it was appropriate to do our part and help answer phones and make the sale. Each year we have a significant part of our organization utilize this resource so we have continued to reinvest in software, staff and a state of the art facility to meet the franchise organizations growing needs.
This year we began offering outbound calling services for franchise owners. Calling was extended to: past customers who had cancelled the previous year with an effort to win them back, current customers following their mid season property evaluations and to sell additional services behind recommendations that we left by the Spring-Green field service professional.
Step 4: Get local. What you can do at the local level utilizing the Spring-Green marketing arsenal is the difference between working to create a good business or a great business. These activities can vary dependant on market but they include short run targeted mailings to competitors customers, new neighbors, networking with lawn mowing, maintenance and landscape companies, establishing commercial accounts, door hanging and neighborhood canvassing, home and garden shows, newspaper advertising, yellow pages, radio and television ads and local sponsorships.
Step 5: Sell additional services to existing customers. Our marketing activates do not end after the spring rush. We will quickly focus our efforts on selling additional services back to your current customers. This will include a well orchestrated series of touch points that educated the customer on the benefit of our service recommendations. By utilizing our marketing technology platform we are able to automate and integrate several of these services on your behalf.
As an example of where we are headed: When a Spring-Green franchise owner provides service today for a customer, on the invoice a promotional message is left suggesting an appropriate additional service that they may need and that they do not already have scheduled. An informational insert is left with the invoice to explain the benefits of that recommended service. This insert references web links to both audio and or video descriptions of the service. From these web pages the customer can easily navigate through online shopping cart. Additionally, this invoice triggers an electronic postcard and or a printed postcard to be mailed within 24 hours. The printed post card will arrive at the customers home within 3-5 days offering a promotion on that service. It too will offer web links and the franchise owners phone number as the call to action. From here the list can be directed to the national call center for follow up within a few days of the post card arriving.
Step 6: Impress the customer and renew the customer year after year. Throughout the year you will have several opportunities to impress the customer outside of just providing them a great looking lawn and landscape. The Spring-Green marketing arsenal includes tools for you to build brand loyalty, show a personal interest in the customer’s lawn and to promote the positive environmental benefits of healthy turf and trees.
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