Every other Friday at Grunder Landscaping, we text a new video in our Team Builder series to everyone on our staff. Just a few minutes in length and usually presented by me and/or members of our leadership team, the videos are a simple but effective way for us to reiterate our mission and core values, communicate useful information, and celebrate professional accomplishments and personal milestones.

In this past Friday’s video, I reminded my team of the power of small acts to exceed client expectations and distinguish us from the competition. If you’re delivering quality landscaping, it often doesn’t take a whole lot more to surprise and delight your customers. Take their trash cans in. Pick their newspaper up. Say hello, please, and thank you. Park in the street and don’t block their drive. Answer your phones with enthusiasm. These are all small acts, but they have the power to pay big dividends. 

Now, many of us who are owners or managers know this and teach our teams to do this, but how many of us regularly and reliably apply this same approach internally? How many of us look for and remember to practice small acts of appreciation for our team members? Do you bring them cold water and cold towels on a hot day at a job site? Do you surprise them with doughnuts in the morning? Send a thank-you note for a project done well? Say hello, please, and thank you? Answer their calls and respond to their e-mails with enthusiasm?

Just as with clients, it does not take a whole lot to perform these small acts of kindness. More than anything, it’s a mindset you have to adopt and an awareness you have to consistently cultivate in yourself as a leader. But it’s well worth it—studies have shown that one of the most frequent reasons employees cite for leaving an organization is that the leadership failed to care or recognize their efforts.

So if the temperature spikes in your area this week, you know what to do: Load up on cold water and cold towels, get yourself to job sites, and say thank you.

See you next week!

2019 NALP Field Trip: Frank & Marty’s Excellent Adventure

Don’t Miss Out on a Truly Rare Opportunity

We’re heading to sunny San Diego August 6–7 for the fourth annual NALP Field Trip with Frank Mariani and Marty. Join us and go behind the scenes of the San Diego branch of LandCare, a national powerhouse with a local focus. This is a rare opportunity to see how a major company that’s figured out operations, training, and culture on a large scale applies that knowledge at a $6M branch and how you can too at your business.