A TOPsider customer called the other day to let me know that one of the industry suppliers has a web site  where they sell decorative containers and other interiorscape supplies to end users at the same price they sell to you.  It  is not the same web site they use for the industry but one aimed at YOUR customers.  To me, that is unethical.  Sorry, its like paying for your enemy’s weapons so they can shoot YOU.  This is a small industry so what might not have much impact in the larger world has great impact with you.  Beware. Check out the www.interiorscape.com site.

Tale #1     Many years ago I was fortunate to be in Italy with my daughter.  We visited the "museum" cities  and every morning when I looked out my hotel window I was shocked to see a Bottega Veneta store on the corner.  I began to fantasize that overnight they had built the store just to tempt me.

Now Bottega Veneta is the world’s premier leather goods manufacturer and I wanted their black briefcase so badly I could taste it.  Trouble is it was expensive…very expensive.

I fought the urge to buy at all three corner stores in the first three cities but, finally,  in Rome, I succumbed.  I bought the brief case.

That was over 16 years ago and over the years I have loved that briefcase so much, I named it "Baby".  I carry it almost every day and it has become my good luck charm.  You can imagine my grief after a four years of wear and tear when I noticed that "Baby" had a frayed strap.  Knowing I woud be in San Francisco and they have a store there, I took it in. 

The manager, Dan, welcomed me and listened to my long story about "Baby".  "Barb, he said, (we were now on a first name basis), leave everything to me.  I will see that "Baby" is taken care of.  And he did.  4 weeks later "Baby" showed up beribboned in Bottega Veneta ribbon and pouch, in a Bottega Veneta Box  and with an enclosed note from Dan thanking me for allowing him to take care of "Baby" and there would be no charge!

A few years passed and "Baby" needed a facelift again.  Again I called Dan, the BV Manager and he told me to "send "Baby" to him.  Again, she came back to me beautifully repaired and wrapped and again with a note from Dan.  By now he knew all about me and we were friends.  In fact, the next time I was in SF I stopped in just to say Hi and the minute I walked in Dan recognized me and called me by name!

Then, just a few months ago, I broke the handle on "Baby".  Immediately I called the SF store only to find that Dan was no longer there but Brian was the new manager.  I told him about "Baby" and her history. He told me to send her to him.  I enclosed a letter with return address but also all about how much I loved this beautiful product and about the exceptional care she had received from them over the years.  He called me a week later and told me that there would be a one hundred dollar charge and I should receive her in about two weeks.

Two weeks went by, no Baby.  I waited a few more weeks and then called.  Brian was thrilled to hear from me.  Seems he had been so taken with the letter I had written he had carried it around with him for weeks, showing it to everyone who came in the store and had inadvertently lost it along with the address for the return.  Then he remembered the TOPsider logo on the top and looked me up on the internet.  He said he was so impressed with my bio and the photo and the TOPsider story and he would love to meet me when next I  am in SF.  Oh, and by the way, forget the hundred dollar charge, there was no charge for Baby.

Now, this is a long story but one of those perfect customer service examples.  Over the years I only was able to buy one item from Bottega Veneta but they treated me like I was the Sultan of Brunei.  If I am ever in a postion to buy again, guess who I will buy from? 

The motto is, every time you come up against some minor concern from a client, remember "Baby".

The current Poll on an Industry website asks if Interiorscape companies are consolidating routes in order to save on fuel since gas prices are so high.  Hmmmm.

Seems I recall the Inner Circle members were advised to do just that several years ago as Routing is one of the Black Holes that can suck up dollars faster than you can say Bromeliad.  In fact, one Inner Circle member just told me that after I visited his company and pointed out some routing problems, the fixes he put in place saved him thousands.

Finding Solutions that Make a Difference.  That’s what we do at the Inner Circle.  For those of you who read these blogs and are not members, great but you just don’t know what you are missing.

Darn it.  You didn’t get the sale.  Usually when this happens, a salesperson is too embarrased, rejected, or angy to make a follow up call.  Big mistake.  How can you hone your sales skills if you don’t get some feedback?  Yes, it’s a hard thing to do but it is so important.  Strike while the iron is hot and make that call. 

First, thank the contact for giving you the opportunity to submit the bid.  Ask what was the determining factor for their decision.  Was it price?  Design?  Some other factor?  They may not tell you but if you let them know that the information will help you in the future, you just might get an answer and it might, even, be the truth.  If the determining factor was price, ask how much lower was the other quote.  Maybe they won’t tell you, but maybe they will.  This is critical information for you about your competiton. 

Whatever their reasons, keep the door open.  Make your dicussion brief unless they  want to talk further and always ask if you can contact them in nine months or so to bid on the next years contract.  Make a note on your calendar to do so and follow up.  If possible, I would also walk thru the account after six months to see if the other company is  doing a good job or if they are leaving the door open.  Manys the time you hear about a job that got away that comes back home.  Bottom line?  Its never over til its over. 

 Now go out there and get ‘em, Tiger.

That’s right.  Here it is almost Fourth of July in Ohio and I’m thinking about Holiday…and so should you. 

It goes without saying that Prelit trees and wreaths are the way to go.  That large ornaments take less time than the itsy bitsy ones and that, while we all love hot new colors, your customers will still fall back on red and gold, burgundy and gold and gold and gold.  You get the idea.

There is one new twist you should be aware of however, and that is the evolution of LED lights.  LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights have become ubiquitous.  They are on keyrings, in flashlights, hanging in closets and on the front end of cars.  Everywhere.  And why?  "Cause they are longlasting (anywhere from 100,000-400,000 hours), bright, and low energy users.

For interiorscapers, trees prelit with these babies will last 10-15 years.  Once installed to outline a building it would take decades before they have to be removed and reinstalled.  They are an opportunity to make your Holiday life infinitely easier. 

Check them out for the coming Season.  You’ll be so glad you did.

At the Grocery they call them "loss leaders". Other marketers call them "freebies". For most of us it is the perception of getting something for nothing. Whatever you call them, these freebies or loss leaders are incentives. A reward to  take some action.

For Interiorscapers the actions we want to incentivize may be signing a contract, renewing a contract, going for a lease option rather than a purchase with service, or agreeing to some other action. Incentives for our industry might be First Month Free, Second Month Free, Thirteenth Month Free, Percentage Discount, and so on. At first glance, all of the above may seem equal. Not so. I contend that if I am going to give away a free month of service that the most beneficial to me, the interiorscaper, is the Thirteenth Month Free, then the second month free and lastly, the first month free.  Why? Because the thirteenth month free means that they are signing a second year of service and this puts us in the position of giving away one twentyfourth of the contract not one twelveth as the first or second month situation does.  And the second month free is better for us than the first month becauseat least we would have one month cash flow in place and it gives the client a time frame to set up the bookeeping.

Other incentives might include an extra ongoing blooming plant.  Nice touch.  Not terribly expensive and very showy.  Another incentive is to charge the client an up front fee for, say design, and then mark your proposal with the statement that the design fee is negated if you are the successful bidder.  Not easy to pull off for smaller jobs but seems to work more often for large scale projects.  I bid on a Shopping Mall once and the design specs were written by a large IP company.  They stated that their $3,000 "design fee" would not be charged IF they were the successful bidder.  Wanna guess who got the job?  Yep, they did.

The worst incentives are Percentage discounts UNLESS you have marked up prices in advance and then discount to return to the appropriate level.  In the world of Percentage Off, discounts off of  a one time Sale of Plants/Planters is far better than a percentage off of a monthly recurring charge like guaranteed Maintenance.  With a percentage off a one time charge you have only shot yourself in the foot…..once.  If you discount a monthly recurring charge, you have shot yourself not once, but 12 times that year, 12 times the next year and so on.  And, since we tend to keep clients for several years, this could well end up costing you tons of dollars.  And, try to avoid at all costs taking a fixed percentage off of everything in one fell swoop.  Start with the discount off the one time and so on.

So, incentives can be a bad thing, a good thing , or a great thing.  It’s all about how you structure it and your upfront understanding.  Lay your options out on paper and choose the one that does the least harm to YOU.  And, last of all, keep it simple.  Incentives are not like Chocolate.  Six are not better than two.  Sometimes we get so carried away at our cleverness we go way overboard.  So, Keep It Simple.  No more than two incentives to a customer please.

Now get out there and get ‘em, Tiger

There’s a new word in the lexicon.  It is "Greenwashing".  Nope, it doesn’t mean washing your veggies and friuts to rid them of pesticides, nope, it refers to the practice of some manufacturers, builders, and others to make "Green" claims that are false.  The problem is that you the consumer, have practically no way to verfiy claims.

The real problem is that because Greenwashing exists, some people use this as an excuse to negate everything "Green".  This is equvilent to throwing out the baby with the bath water.   A big mistake.  Going Green is a journey and everyone is traveling this road.  No one is 100%, perfectly Green.  But we are all at different points along the trail and learning as we go.

In a few years there will be agencies that will document and verify every product and service as to its "Greenness".  Yep, at some point every product will be certified as to how much of its composition comes from recycled origins, is recyclable, is from sustainable materials and so on.  It will read much like the Nuitrition Code on Packaged food products.   Remember, this is all new and kinda new and it takes…time.

Until then, just keep learning and keeping up with all the changes. 

If Labor, driving time, vehicle costs and fuel are 4 of the largest costs your business has, then it is obvious that  extending the time between visits, or  lowering the number of people that go to the account, will have a huge impact on your bottom line.  True, most companies visit accounts weekly.  That is the way the system was originally set up some 60 plus years ago.   Why was every 7 days the magic formula?  No one seems to know, but the first company did it that way and everyone from that day on followed suit.  Even after the first subirrigation product s showed up, the majority continued to go weekly.  Over the years, I’ve tried to get companies to look at this practice.  Most argue that if they switch there will be dire consequences.  Oh, I’ve heard all the arguements.. "The clients expect to see me every week, the techs think they’ll have their hours cut back so they argue against it, every week service is what the clients are paying for, there will be higher plant death, clients complaint calls will skyrocket with the extra yellow leaves", and so on and so on.  Yep, I’ve heard it all before and then some.  But, truth is, there is nothing else you can do to make/keep more money than to lengthen the time between or spend less time on visits.

The Plants.  Truth is more plants are killed by overwatering than underwatering, so those every week visits are not only not needed, but hastening your foliage to an early demise.  Every other week is just fine.  Saves Gas and saves Plants. 

Teach Anticipation.  You do have to teach your techs to "anticipate".  If a leaf is yellow on the tip, trust me, it will not turn green in 11 days.  Pull before not after. Once techs start doing this, they get really good at anticipation and client calls are negligible. 

There are lot of other tips on 2  Week Maintnenance Strategies.  Inner Circle Members will find them all in their next Inner Circle Newsletter and we will discuss when next we have an Inner Circle Conference Call.  Its all in how you implement and how you manage the expectations of your client.   Now, Go Out There and Get ‘EM, Tiger.

What Will We Wear?   Most small interiorscape companies wear coordinated outfits.  These may consist of no more than a "golf" shirt with a name tag or company name and  logo on front or back, or they may be a fabric shirt with a collar.  Usually the bottom half sports khaki or navy slacks.  Jeans may be permitted but make sure they are clean, unstained, and have no rips or tears.

Other Options     Some companies make a statement by wearing brightly colored tropical shirts.  These can still have name tags and logos on them.  Everyone in the field wears the same shirts and they become a visual "icon".  And, in areas that have cold, colder climates, employees are provided with an outerwear jacket  in a coordinating or matching color so the "uniform" look is carried through completely.  Make sure these items are well made and provide adquate protection from the elements. 

Never, Nevers   Regardless of the climate, sleeveless shirts are never appropriate and low cut tops the same.  Keep your look clean, identifiable, and professional.  I have always like the short or long sleeved cloth shirt with epaulets on the shoulders. 

The Agony of Da Feet   One of the areas usually overlooked is the shoe.  Yes, sports shoewear is OK as long as it is clean and not falling apart.  Flip flops or open sandals are a bad thing not just from an appearance standpoint but also as a safety issue. 

Summing Up      One company I know, keeps a full length mirror next to the warehouse facility door that most techs use when exiting.  As a matter of course, everyone passes it a couple of times a day.  Not a bad way to reinforce company policy regarding the non uniform uniform.  Now go out there and get ‘em tiger.

Now Go out there and get ‘em Tiger.

In tihe most recent Green Lodging News (www.greenlodgingnews.com), it was reported that "Florida Governor Charlie Crist-a potential running mate for Sen John McCain-issued an Executive Order requiring all state agencies and departments to do business only with Florida Green Lodging Program participants.  The executive order went into effect Jan. 1 of this year and eventually will become a law.  Faster than you can say "Go Gators", hundreds of hotels got moving."

The article goes on to quote Karen Moore, Program director for the Florida Green Lodging Program . The guesstimate is that  500 properties  will be part of the Program. by 2009.  This means that 10% of all lodging properties and 12% of all rooms will be "green". 

An opportunity for the smart interiorscaper?  I think so and, up the road, will this be the template for other states?  Probably.  To learn more about the criteria, check out the green lodging news web site to get a sneek peek at the future.