5 Key Considerations For a Seamless Transition

You’re already responsible for managing the staff, food and beverage, housekeeping, human resources, finances, quality controls, promotions, special events, and, most importantly, guest experience. Why make managing the grounds more complex than necessary? 

Your ultimate focus is on the guest experience. Any distractions could result in losing a return stay, a bad review, or social media rant. 

1. Dedicated Landscape Team with Multi-Tiered Oversight

You and your commercial landscape partner must be unified. They need to understand your expectations, and you need to understand how and when they plan to carry out your vision.

The team that brings your vision to life is the key component to your property looking and feeling the way you envisioned. This team will work with you to develop an implementation plan. This plan will outline clear expectations including: critical milestones, completion dates, goals, performance metrics, and key stakeholders.

The ideal team will have multiple layers of oversight. This will allow for: 

• A dedicated account manager who “owns” your property and is your primary contact.
• A secondary manager who is as familiar with your property and can stand in for the primary manager and helps manage equipment and labor resources.
• A crew supervisor who leads his/her team to ensure documented tasks are carried out as agreed upon.
• Always having adequate coverage to complete all the documented tasks.
• Several sets of eyes on your property to look for areas of improvement.

Not all commercial landscaping companies have the resources to provide this type of service and oversight. When understaffed, tasks can get overlooked or pushed to the next visit. 

Completing the job right the first time will keep you on budget and be one less line item you need to fret over. Unexpected delays due to poor planning or account management will cause you to overspend and cut costs elsewhere.

2. Clearly Documented Commercial Landscape Plan

It starts with an initial brainstorming strategy meeting to discuss your vision for your property - both immediate and long term.

You will want to include the following in your discussions.

• How to enhance the appeal of the property for your guests and employees
• How to improve the safety of your property to reduce the risk of costly damage, accidents, and injury. 
• Landscape maintenance schedules (including weeding, mulching, and trimming bushes)
• Asset management for trees and irrigation
• Seasonal design ideas

As you transition from managing the landscape on your own to outsourcing to a professional landscape management partner, you will want to fully understand the onboarding process.

Will you want to keep your current staff? If so, what is the process for transitioning them to the commercial landscape company? What does the interview process entail so you can share it with your current team? 

If completely transitioning over to a commercial landscape partner using their experienced staff, you should ask the following: What is the plan to learn your current processes? Will they be able to shadow your staff, and for how long?

Your commercial landscape plan will not be complete without clearly defined goals and measurements, identified roles and responsibilities, and scheduled progress checks. You should have a well-documented 30-60-90-day plan. 

3. Communication Strategy

Having a clear communication plan will be critical to your being able to relinquish the landscape responsibilities and gain that valuable trust, which means time back on your calendar for other tasks.

An ideal communication strategy will include: 

• Annual strategy meetings to identify priorities and budgets. The outcome of these meetings should align expectations between the partners and formalize a detailed statement of work.
• Continually assess the state of your property utilizing a formal process - e.g., Quality Site Assessments - to identify and resolve issues before they become problems. This is also a great tool to identify areas that could benefit from enhancements.
• Regular progress meetings to discuss results based on predefined goals.
• Pre-season, post-season, and business reviews.

4. Consolidated Vendors

Managing multiple vendors, their on-site personnel, and their schedules can be extremely difficult and time-consuming. The goal is to reduce the number of things that pull you away from the guests. Having one vendor that can bundle multiple services and streamline processes for you means less paperwork, fewer contracts to negotiate and manage, fewer invoices to process, and fewer vendors to manage. 

Here are some commercial landscape services to consider bundling:

• Landscape Design
• Landscape Maintenance
• Seasonal Color Management
• Water Management & Irrigation 
• Water Features - fountains, pumps
• Golf Services - course analysis, continuous improvements
• Tree Care
• Snow and Ice Removal
• Parking Lot Maintenance

5. Qualified Experts to Reduce Risk

Qualified experts reduce the risk of damage to your property and the loss of plantings and trees, one of your most expensive and valuable assets. The lack of experience and appropriate training can cost you thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. It is a costly mistake that can be easily avoided with the right partnership. 

When choosing a commercial landscape partner, check for credentials and experience in the following areas: 

• Horticulturist 
• Certified Arborists
• Pesticide specialists for plantings, trees, and ground cover
• Certified Irrigation Technicians
• Certified Snow Professionals
• Landscape Design Architects

When outsourcing your commercial landscaping services is done right, it can be seamless and have a positive financial impact on your business. Colonial Williamsburg is a great example of how partnering with professionals with the right knowledge and resources increased curb appeal, occupancy rates, and savings. 

BrightView’s Tips to Overcome Commercial Landscaping Challenges for Hotels and Resorts

BrightView understands the complexities of managing commercial properties. We aim to help you create a hassle-free inviting environment to attract and retain guests.  

• Clear, concise, and proactive communication
• Detailed and comprehensive contracts for all your services
• Clearly identified goals captured in a QSA and measured against our 7 Quality Standards of Excellence
• Best-in-class service teams with local knowledge and expertise
• Certified experts for your more complex services

About BrightView Landscaping Services

Managing your properties is a balancing act. Increasing the visual impact of your property must be weighed against the cost of maintaining and protecting your investment. Our partnership ensures your landscape needs are covered, from landscape maintenance, fertilization, water management, weed, and pest management, tree care, snow removal, storm preparedness, and response.
 
BrightView partnerships have provided high-quality, cost-effective, and consistent commercial landscape services since 1939.
 
Our commercial landscape professionals provide you with the services your property needs while allowing you to focus your time and resources on the many other challenges of running your business.