Pros share their go-to technology to keep their operations running smoothly

From invoicing, texting to answering inbound calls, learn how different software solutions help these operations do more in less time.

Crew Control

Benjamin J. Christlieb

Benjamin J. Christlieb, owner of CTX Mowing in Georgetown, Texas, uses the scheduling software Crew Control for his 75 percent residential, 25 percent commercial maintenance and design/build operation.

Christlieb says he found Crew Control out of the necessity to communicate with the clients of his growing business, which jumped from 60 clients in 2018 to 400 at the end of 2021. He says he would spend an hour a day after work sending invoices and would send reminder texts manually to the customers scheduled for the day.

“We did that through all of 2021 with all our customers. So, it was a lot of text messages,” he says.

In 2022 Christlieb rolled out Crew Control’s automated text messaging function to alert clients to an upcoming service call and deployed the software’s automated invoicing. He says what used to take him an hour now takes him 5 minutes to send out 60 or 70 invoices during the busiest part of the season. 

“There’s no way I’d have the time or ability to send that many text messages for invoices and reminders,” he says.

Arborgold Software

For Jay Maier, general manager of Sargent’s in Rochester, Minn., adding Arborgold Software, a field management software system, to his operation helped streamline inventory and project management for the primarily residential design/build, garden maintenance and tree care operation. Sargent’s also operates two garden centers in the Rochester area.

While the company managed nursery inventory through Counterpoint POS software, it used spreadsheets for contract renewals for its maintenance services, Maier says. The company wanted a CRM that could manage Sargent’s design/build and maintenance jobs. 

Arborgold’s ability to tie in with the nursery’s Counterpoint POS is invaluable, Maier says. Designers select the plant species for each project, and it ties to the point-of-sale system to inform the nursery that the plants are committed to a project.

Maier recommends that companies evaluating different software programs should consider how well the platforms will accommodate their growth. 

“Arborgold can easily handle probably five times the business we’re doing now,” he says.

Jobber

Brandon Brubacher

In the three seasons Brandon Brubacher, owner of Brubacher Property Care in Elmira, Ontario, Canada, has been in business, he’s seen his workload double year over year. Now up to around 55 clients, he says he got to a point where scheduling routes and invoicing clients became a time-consuming task for his primarily residential maintenance business. 

So Brubacher sought a smartphone app to help with scheduling routes and invoicing clients. After adding field service management software Jobber last season, batch invoicing and route optimization helps his team be more efficient. He has one full-time employee and one part-time employee. 

“The guys look at their phone and they know exactly what they have to do,” he says of the scheduling function. 

Brubacher encourages smaller operations to consider adding CRM software to help take some of the pressure from the day-to-day functions of the business.

Slingshot

George Louvis

George Louvis, marketing director for Go Organic Lawn and Tree Care in Oakland, N.J., added Slingshot’s lead response service because of the operation’s successful marketing initiatives for its primarily residential tree, lawn and shrub care and vegetation and pest control business. The phone wouldn’t stop ringing, and Go Organic’s receptionists struggled to keep up with inquiries. 

“Within a week or two of having it set up, we had our first sale through Slingshot,” he says. “We have it set up so that our staff answers the phone first, but if all our lines are busy, then it goes to Slingshot.”

While Slingshot doesn’t provide quotes for clients, it does direct calls to the proper department, and this frees up Go Organic’s team to make sales calls.