SingleOps Helps Empower Turf King’s Growth
The Customer
Turf King and Turfscapes has been providing residential, commercial, and industrial solutions to the Sudbury, Ontario community for over 25 years. As a locally owned and operated lawn care and lawn maintenance business, Turf King uses only the highest quality products, expertly applied, and serviced by professional technicians. Turf King’s SNOWFORCE division offers commercial and residential services including mid-sized tractor snow blowing, walkway shoveling, and plowing.
The Challenge
“We’ve been through a few software apps over the past seven or eight years. Most recently we were using Landscape Management Network (LMN), which didn’t have a scheduler or many mapping features. Additionally, it didn’t have great Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and was overall very limited in what it could do.”
“LMN worked well with landscaping, but we have a few divisions, and it was difficult finding something to work with all the applications and services we offer,” explained Alyssa Jeffery, Lawn Care Manager & Office Administrator, Turf King.
The Solution
“We searched for a new solution and compared a few different applications, including Jobber. But SingleOps focuses on lawn care and landscaping, knew what kind of work we were doing better, and was the best fit.”
The Results
“We set a very aggressive timeline to complete our implementation, which we successfully achieved. The whole SingleOps team was so great throughout the process, answering our questions, guiding us to the next steps, and booking appointments any time we needed help.”
Saving Multiple Hours Every Day with Easy Map Scheduling
“The feature we were most excited about, which we’d never had before, was a mapping scheduler. We can see everything that needs to be done on a map and select from different filters,” said Alyssa.
When asked, “Does the scheduling save you time?” Alyssa replied, “Oh my goodness, it definitely has. At the end of each day, I was responsible for planning routes for each crew and each technician. It could easily take 6 hours each day to plan the next day’s route and call customers to inform them. With SingleOps, we now have it streamlined, and it takes less than an hour to make 10-12 routes for all the technicians.
“SingleOps also saves time for our technicians by creating routes that place their destinations in an optimal order. I did it before and I think I was close, but no one can ever do it as good as a computer. With SingleOps we can also preplan recurring weekly services.”
Source: Turf King and Turfscapes Facebook Page
Streamlined Estimating and Improved Customer Service
“Emailing customers was something we really wanted to do and do easily. Our lawn care division used to leave paper notices on the door listing what we did and any instructions. We wanted to switch to emails and be more modern. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic began at the same time we switched to SingleOps, and we wanted to continue serving our customers as remotely as possible,” said Alyssa.
Accelerated Proposal Development & Delivery + Customer Convenience
Turf King enters new leads into SingleOps, immediately assigns them to an estimator, and can then track progress to ensure prompt follow up. Previously, the company would send someone out to view the property and leave a paper proposal at the door. Now about half of proposal requests can be done by viewing the size of the property online and discussing options on the phone, then emailing the quote via SingleOps, all within minutes. Turf King emails proposals on a daily basis and customers can accept proposals in the new online portal. QuickBooks integration enables Turf King to accept online payments, as well as quickly generate and send invoices.
“We could never accept online payments before. With SingleOps, we can send new prospects an email that includes a section where they could book on their own. The ability to book online saves time, since they don’t need to make another phone call when they’ve made a decision. Some customers prefer booking online. They’ve said, ‘It’s awesome that I can do it all online. I can think about it after kids go to bed.’
“We used to send someone out, which required 30-60 minutes, depending on the location. Once they booked, we’d have to manually enter it. With SingleOps, we save 60-90 minutes overall with each new booking.
SingleOps Empowers Turf King’s Growth
“Several years ago, we sold off our maintenance grass cutting division. Around we switched to SingleOps, we also had the opportunity to reopen that division, which includes 4 additional grass-cutting crews. Last fall, we also added 5 snow tractor routes. We would never have been able to schedule and book all of this work with our old provider. Especially with tractor and snow blowing, we use SingleOps so much, that I don’t think we’d have been able to do it without it,” explained Alyssa.
Automatically Provide Customers with Advanced Notice via Text
Turf King’s customers often want advanced notice that Turf King is coming. Previously, this was done via phone call and required at least 60 minutes every night. Now the company uses the tag function to identify customers who want advanced notification. Turf King is able to text ahead using automated templates informing customers of their upcoming arrival, and to contact the office with any questions.
Improved Accuracy
“Our pricing is based on square feet and now with SingleOps’ new property measurement tool you can size properties and then that square footage measurement goes directly into our pricing matrix. The process is now even more streamlined, and we know there are no pricing mistakes,” explained Alyssa.
Carefully Monitor Profit Margins & Inventory with Reports
Turf King frequently views the Visit Profit Margin and Job Profit Margin reports. With grass cutting, margins are much smaller and it’s important to ensure crews aren’t spending too much time on each property. Turf King also uses reports when ordering supplies to view what’s in stock and the projected needs for the remainder of the season.
“Having the info in SingleOps on how long each job takes and who was there has been really important. I honestly don’t think there’s anything I do not like about SingleOps,” concluded Alyssa.