Taking great care of their customers is what has made Sebert Landscape so successful in the Chicago market. They've grown to $60M+ in annual revenue and yet still manage to keep up the same level of service even with teams spread out across Illinois and Wisconsin. In my recent conversation on The Grow Show with company owner, Jeff Sebert, he shared three key tenants to their approach to customer service:

1. Call people back. This is so simple in principal, but is something that frankly a lot of companies aren't good at. I'm always amazed by the amount of work we win at Grunder Landscaping Co. simply because we were the only contractor that got back to someone. 

The Sebert team has expectations in place for when their team must return phone calls by, ideally calling back clients and prospects within the same day. Setting these expectations helps your team deliver on promises made to clients. 

2. Do quality checks. Auditing properties to ensure the quality of work being done is up to the standards your sales team is promising goes a long way in taking care of your customers. If you're meeting their quality expectations to begin with you can avoid issues down the road. 

For the Sebert team, the company owner, Jeff Sebert, conducts quality checks alongside branch managers regularly. This helps the centralized office keep a pulse on the quality of work being done and identify any issues that need to be trained on.

3. Survey your clients. We've said it before in this forum, feedback is a gift. Ask your clients what they think of your services and what they feel you could do better, but as Jeff Sebert wisely reminded us: always dig deeper into the results. Do some investigating before making any rash changes - sometimes the issue is more about expectations or communication than it is service. 

The Sebert Landscape team will lead a session on customer service while we're all together in Chicago on September 17-18. They'll share what they do to manage accounts well, and the systems they have in place to catch problems before they have a chance to grow larger. We have a great event planned, check out our agenda and sign up to join us!

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