Get Ready For Spring: A Brief Guide for Planning Your Landscaping Operations Better

Winter has bid adieu and the harsh weather can often leave behind damaged, unkept outdoor areas—pavement, trees, hedges, and flower beds. Your customers are in need of long-overdue maintenance of their properties and it’s time to take action on those won bids. The hour has come to gear up for all the work the spring season has in store for you. 

Now is when you put your crew to work and tick off all the spring projects you had painstakingly secured last season. We have got a brief guide to help your landscaping operations teams handle the abundance of work that is waiting for them. 

Tracking your Inventory

For Spring, we know you have to start a lot of work from scratch and the equipment needs to be ready. To avoid costly downtime, you should make sure that the timely maintenance of equipment should have been done before the season starts so that you can minimize the risk of maintenance-related cost leaks.

The weekly supply of raw materials to the crew should be ready and replenished on a timely basis. Being able to accurately plan and budget for these recurring purchases in advance is daunting yet very crucial to avoid any last-minute discrepancies. Manually keeping track of inventory is not an easy feat. This process can be streamlined with automation which ensures minimal errors and misses.

“Material Cost” tracking through a properly placed inventory tracking system allows you to keep tabs on the current stock. Having visibility on your stock right from the first purchase from the vendor to the allocation of the inventory, to it being assigned to a job ticket ensures minimal to no last-minute cost leaks. Having stock purchases, allocations, returns, and reconciliations at your fingertips can be a game changer for your operations.

Crew Management 

Now that you have made sure that your inventory is prepared for the season, it’s time to pay attention to the crew that will be handling it. To avoid any unprecedented problems, it’s important to make a note of their clocked hours. After all, every minute spent on-site by your crew is money out of your pocket.

Timely dispatch of the estimated crew size and the right allocation to their corresponding jobs will ensure smoother operations. Keeping an eye on the clock will guarantee that the job gets completed on time and you won’t have to pay for extra clocked-in hours. 

This micro-tracking is taxing for the crew leader, who passes the info to the operations manager, who then passes it to you; the business owner. And the chances are, a lot of data gets lost in translation. Labor costs can burn a big hole in your pocket and we want to make sure that you don’t have to overspend on landscape management. Real-time tracking of your crew will bridge gaps that you probably didn’t even know existed in your business’s operations.   

The Dispatch Process

During a peak season like Spring, there can be multiple large-scale commercial projects running simultaneously. This means that your crew members would be deployed for work in multiple batches at different locations. The time of dispatch is crucial as it sets the tone for the day. The crew managers have to make sure that the right crew is leaving for the right site. They should ensure that the crew is carrying all the equipment required and the work is completed in the pre-estimated time. It will eliminate the chances of time mismanagement and waste of money. 

The dispatch team should ensure that all workers are informed about their tasks for the day and keep them updated about any changes to ensure efficient and effective ops planning. You can avoid cost leaks here by maintaining timesheets & having an efficient communication system in place for the entire crew—a consolidated place to find all job details, routes, inventory requirements, etc. This will prove to be handy for the times when the need arises for any last-minute shuffling of the crew or to tackle misplaced inventory. 

Site Audit for Landscaping Operations

Before starting the work, it’s really important to have a detailed analysis of the site your crew will be working on. You need to identify any site detail that may have been missed in the original estimate and also highlight the areas that need more attention or need to be finished on priority. Site audits, apart from helping plan the ops better, also ensure the safety of your crew members during the job—tagging areas that are possible hazards can reduce the risks of injuries and also nettlesome lawsuits that follow. 

Having site inspection notes accessible to your entire crew will result in optimized operations. Technology can help you mark the hazardous areas of the site your crew will be working on, without having to dedicate an entire team to it. You can navigate through your mobile device, inspect the whole site, drop geo-tagged notes, and highlight issues. You can now finish the job with minimal risks. Proper knowledge of the landscape will also give you the opportunity of upselling and cross-selling. 

These were some of the valuable tips to get you started for spring. As hectic as this season can be, if you can grab the opportunity well-prepared, the peak season will never overwhelm you again.

From all the aforementioned points, we can conclude having an in-depth view of your business functions results in proper planning and better implementation. With better implementation, you get minimal obstructions, which translates into optimum customer satisfaction. 

If you want to learn more about how to gain more visibility into your landscaping operations, get in touch with us. 

So, get started with the spring checklist and we wish you luck this season!

FAQs

How do I prepare for spring landscaping operations?

Review your landscaping plan for the upcoming spring season. Make sure it aligns with your business goals, and the plan takes into account any changes in the weather, new plants, or materials.

How to audit the sites for landscaping operations in spring?

Auditing a site for landscaping operations in spring for commercial landscaping involves a comprehensive assessment of the current condition of the property and the specific needs of the landscape. Determine the budget and scope of the project. This will help you prioritize the work that needs to be done and ensure that the landscaping work aligns with the client's expectations.

How to manage the crew during spring?

Create a detailed plan of the tasks that need to be completed during the spring season. Prioritize the tasks based on their importance and assign them to your crew accordingly. Make sure you give them proper training and orientation to your company's policies, procedures, and safety protocols.