Our team was in Birmingham, AL this week for our Field Trip at Landscape Workshop in partnership with NALP. What a great event: I have pages and pages of notes I brought home with me that I'll be sharing with my team at Grunder Landscaping Co. 

Landscape Workshop's Christianna Denelsbeck Rudder, CFO, and Joe Socolof, COO, shared during one session the importance of finding both leading and lagging indicators in your business when deciding which metrics to track. 

For example: maintenance client retention is a lagging indicator. The action that causes a client to search for a new landscaper happens before they actually leave, which means we may not know we have a problem until it's too late. 

To make sure they're keeping a pulse on client satisfaction before they lose a client, they conduct Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys twice a year. They've found that the NPS is tied to client retention: branches with high NPS have high client retention too. 

Are you already surveying your clients? There are many ways to do this, find one that works for your team and stick with it. 

Another leading indicator: The number of enhancement proposals sent out. Branches with higher numbers of enhancement proposals also had higher retention. What they've found is that clients want to know about improvements that can be made on their property, and these proposals show that their account manager is on the property and paying attention. 

This is an exciting leading indicator because it's easy to take action on. Build a process to stay consistent with it, but walking properties and suggesting enhancements can both help you fill your schedule with work and can also result in happier clients. 

If you didn't join us in Birmingham, I hope these two tips can help you move your business forward this week. And remember: we have plenty of other opportunities to learn with us later in the year. Will I see you in person sometime soon?

Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.