Our new Green Industry Greatness blog brings you advice and insights from some of the best that the Green industry has to offer. This week features Chad Galloway who is the Operations Manager from Landscape Workshop. I hope you enjoy!
What is the most important lesson that the green industry has taught you?
How important relationships are to business. Relationships are important in any industry but in my opinion, they are that much more important to the green industry. Without good customers, fellow employees, and vendor relationships I wouldn't be in this industry. The relationships are what make what we do enjoyable and worth getting out of bed at the crack of dawn for every day.
What is the biggest mistake you have made and what did you learn from it?
Not returning a customer's phone call. When I was brand new to account management, I had a customer that drove me crazy. One day I decided not to respond and my assumption was that the problem would just go away. BIG MISTAKE! I didn't hear back from them for 3 months until I received a cancellation letter. I learned that no matter how busy I may be or how unimportant a situation may seem, every situation is important to the customer. Lack of communication is a deal killer.
What is the biggest mistake that you see people or companies make?
Slow response time. One thing that I hear often in the landscape business is how much our customers appreciate our quick response and, in some cases, the fact that we respond at all. The saying that you have to strike while the iron is hot couldn't be more true. This is especially true in today's society where we have any information we need at our fingertips in a second. Waiting hours or days to hear back from someone you are trying to get in touch with just doesn't work for most people. When it's on our mind we want an answer right then and there. Your customers are no different. If they have something on their mind and want to discuss it a small problem can get bigger in their mind, or the money they wanted to spend with you just went to another lunch for the office staff.
What is the best way to have happy customers?
Be more than a service provider, be a friend. It's easy to get caught up in the grind of daily life. But where you can make a big difference in someone's day is to ask them how they're doing outside of the office. Stop by with no intentions other than to say hello and to see how things are going. Breaking the barrier into their personal life is a big step that will create a much stronger bond. A trust is built that will afford you to make a mistake every now and then because the customer will know that without a doubt you will take care of it. We often hear "It's hard to fire a friend" when discussing customer relationships, but it also makes a day at the office that much better for both parties.
What is the best way to drive profitability?
Visibility. A good team that has visibility into their financial results can see where mistakes were made and will alter course to the right direction. Incentivize a good team on that profitability and they'll find every inefficiency in the business while looking for ways to expand and grow.
What is the best way to drive growth?
Take care of your existing customers. Plain and simple. If your customers are happy they'll tell others, and if they're really happy you won't need to make a single cold call.
What is one thing that differentiates you or your company from the competition?
Our team. From top to bottom and across our entire footprint Landscape Workshop has one of the most complete teams you'll find.
What is the most important attribute of a leader?
I honestly don't think I could simplify it down to one attribute. There is a lot of great information out there on what it takes to be a great leader. Courage, honesty, confidence, positivity, kindness, humility, and so on. But one of these attributes without the rest is a moot point in my mind. A real leader is the whole package.