If there is one thing that all clients have in common, it is the desire for consistent results. As a landscaping company, achieving this requires structure in several areas: training, performance, communication, etc. In an industry as busy as this one, it is easy to lose consistency on site. You can’t depend on your all-star employees forever, the ones who remember every detail about each client. They might call out sick, or eventually leave the company, and you need to have a solution for their replacement. Or maybe your company doesn’t run specific routes, so the Crew Lead is constantly changing. In both situations, it is easy for consistency to take a toll and your clients will feel the pain.
One way to close this gap and improve consistency is to utilize the several types of Notes Aspire has built into its system. These notes are stored at the property, opportunity, work ticket, etc. When used correctly, you can provide information to the right people and have it saved in a common area.
Estimator Notes
Estimation Notes are found within individual opportunities. They are created by the Sales rep or Account Manager (depending on the type of sale). These notes should include the scope of work with detailed notes and customer expectations. The purpose? Providing the Estimator valuable information to consider when estimating.
Property Level Notes
Notes made at the property level allow for consistency across the branch. Property Notes are not visible to the frontline team and should include notes that would be helpful to Account Managers (such as the history of property management companies).
Operations Notes and Snow Operations Notes should include information applicable to all opportunities within the property. These are viewable to Crew Leads in Crew Mobile App. They might include miscellaneous property information such as gate codes, on-site contacts, property-specific instructions, etc. Snow Operation Notes are only viewable to Crew Leads when in Snow Mode and clocked into work tickets tied to an opportunity in the Snow Division.
Work Ticket Notes
Notes made at the work ticket level are visible to the frontline team through the Crew Mobile App. For example, Service Notes are made specific to the service within an opportunity – in which case they will be visible on every service occurrence. Ticket Notes are made within a work ticket and will be visible on every visit that occurs. Visit Notes are designed for the frontline team to communicate updates to their manager. This is a one-way communication that is beneficial when working on a project that will have several ongoing visits.
Invoice Notes - Subject to the template layout
Invoice Notes are found on the opportunity screen. These are notes that will be printed onto all invoices for this opportunity when sent to the client. They might include irrigation notes for T&M irrigation repairs, or ACH Notices for reoccurring maintenance contracts.
When each of these is being utilized, there will become a flow of communication from the client to management, and then to the frontline team. In addition to notes, issues can be created. We suggest you use issues rather than notes in situations where you need two-way communication between the frontline team and management. If you are just providing information to them then ticket notes, for example, will work fine.
Two Twelve Advisors provides services that will help you implement procedures to include the utilization of Notes in Aspire. If you are curious about what this might look like, please schedule a consultation today.
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