4 Reasons To Use Technology For Your New Landscaping Business

Landscaping is a well-established industry that has been around for centuries. In recent years, the demand for landscaping services has increased as typically, more and more homeowners do not have the time or the skills to take on landscaping jobs themselves. As a result, there’s been a rise in companies offering these services. 

“The landscaping business is competitive and demanding, and companies have found innovative ways to evolve.” 

Technological advancements have enhanced this competitiveness and have shaped operations such as marketing and customer management. As a result, companies that have adopted technology have gained an edge over those using more traditional and manual operating models.

Why Technology

Just like any other business, using technology in landscaping has numerous benefits, not least in impacting and improving the bottom line. So, no matter how small your business is, by embracing smart technology you can be confident that you will be taking the step to scaling your business in a more sustainable and productive way as follows:

• Better tracking and scheduling 

Running a landscaping business means having most of your team out in the field and not in the office – there may likely not even be an office. This can make it hard to manage everyone. As a manager or business owner, you need to know where your team is, what they are doing, and how productive they are. Without the right technology, this is impossible, and managing your team will become a problem. (1)

One of the first steps is therefore to get landscaping management software such as Jobber to help you track and communicate with your team from one central place. Apps such as this have appointment scheduling features to ensure all team members are allocated work at the most optimal locations. Double bookings are a thing of the past and missed appointments are greatly reduced. (1)

• More growth with digital marketing 

Marketing is a crucial part of any landscaping business as you have to put your company in front of your audience and tell them about your business, in order to win business. While some traditional marketing tactics can still be effective, they need to be combined with modern methods, primarily digital marketing, as most customers are now mainly online. Encouraging your team to adopt new technology is a crucial part of this to present yourselves as a more professional enterprise and remain competitive in the space.(2)

Technology enhances your marketing through the following ways: 

Through social media: Most people have embraced social media not only as a communication platform but also as a place to search for services. So, as a landscaper, you can connect with existing clients and reach new ones. For example, you can post photos of work you’ve completed to get approvals or run contests to get more engagements and drive more traffic to your business. (2)

Through a professional website: Technology has changed how people look for services, hence people are likely to look for landscaping services online. So, you should have a professional business website that ranks well so people can find you. Your website is an excellent place to showcase your work, customer reviews, write blogs to provide adequate customer information and add contacts to reach you.(3)

By having a website, you can leverage the power of search engine optimization (SEO) to rank higher and drive more traffic to your business. More traffic could translate to more conversations for your landscaping business. Also, your competitors probably use a website, so you should, too.(3)

• Provide better customer relationship management 

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an essential tool for your landscaping business. As your business grows and you get more customers, you’ll be collecting more data on them, the jobs you do for them and their preferences. You need to be able to actively manage this to enable your customers to have a good experience with you.(4)

With CRM software, you have a range of tools that facilitate proper customer data management, interactions, and relationships. It acts as a centralized hub that is accessible to all parts of the business so everyone is empowered to really understand and know the customers at each touchpoint. This is incredibly helpful for customer satisfaction and management. Any insights gained can be hugely valuable to use for marketing.(4)

While all tasks in your landscaping businesses are necessary, some can be time consuming and repetitive. Often, adopting task automation will help handle these repetitive tasks, freeing your team to focus on more productive work that may in turn bring in more revenue to the company. (5)

By cutting down on menial work time your business will benefit in the following ways: 

Optimize workflow allocation: Automation will help free up your human resource from repetitive work and place them on tasks that’ll benefit the business. Jobs will be allocated to people at the most suitable locations, reducing over-allocation and double booking. Using data to manage a workforce is becoming increasingly important for companies to be able to deliver the service that is promised at any given time.(5)

Minimize errors: Cases of human errors in invoicing, bookkeeping, and inventory management can be expected in any business. The same applies to landscaping companies that depend on human beings to record, upload, and transfer data. 

Automation will help minimize and even eliminate such errors that may arise from duplication and negligence when handling tasks and data. For example, the CRM software will ensure minimal errors with customer data, while scheduling software will ensure minimal errors with field team management. (5)

Conclusion 

Adopting technology for your landscaping business is not optional, it is essential if you are to compete in the market and achieve sustainable growth. As the demand for landscaping services increases, more companies are joining the sector, which means more competition. Technology can give you a competitive advantage by shaping how you operate, making you more productive and enhancing customer experience.

Reference Links

1. “How to Know Where Your Landscape Professionals Are During the Day”, Source: https://blog.hubstaff.com/best-landscaping-management-tips/
2. “How to Grow Your Landscaping Business With Digital Marketing”, Source: https://www.revlocal.com/resources/library/blog/how-to-grow-your-landscaping-business-with-digital-marketing
3. “8 Reasons Why Your Landscaping Business Needs a Professional Website”, Source: https://www.webconfs.com/1938/8-reasons-why-your-landscaping-business-needs-a-professional-website/
4. “5 Reasons your Business needs a CRM System”, Source: https://customerthink.com/5-reasons-your-business-needs-a-crm-system/
5. “12 Reasons Every Small Business Needs an Automation Strategy in 2019”, Source: https://www.business2community.com/small-business/12-reasons-every-small-business-needs-an-automation-strategy-in-2019-02216750

Also, Read Why Business Need AR Strategy