BRIEFCASE-MEDIUM: Bright Days for Bryant

The phone number emblazoned on the vehicles and employee uniforms of U.S. Lawns of Memphis, Tenn., and U.S. Lawns of Northwest Mississippi doesn’t direct customers to a switchboard or an answering service. That’s because it’s owner Bryant Jernigan’s cell phone number. And it’s just one of the ways the franchise owner sets his business – one of the most successful U.S. Lawns franchises – apart from competitors.

Less than a decade ago, when Jernigan was working to build a small residential landscaping business during the day and moonlighting as a manger in FedEx’s worker’s compensation and disability department, he probably never imagined he’d be a U.S. Lawns franchise owner. But the skills and knowledge he acquired from these two previous – albeit disparate – lines of work helped him reach his present status.

“Since high school, I’d always cut grass in the residential market,” Jernigan says. “As things began to change at FedEx, I wanted to expand on that and get into the commercial side of landscaping.”

But Jernigan also decided he didn’t want to start from scratch.

“I wanted something that separated me from every other person driving a truck, pulling a trailer,” he says. “Was there something out there that could be beneficial to me from the beginning and continue to support me throughout?”

There was, Jernigan discovered after a bit of research. It involved opening a U.S. Lawns franchise in an area that didn’t yet have one – and expanding to cover not one, not two, but three territories in the Memphis area, making Jernigan’s one of the company’s most successful franchises.

The Right Fit

“I wanted to continue owning a business, but I was really fond of having the support of a nationally recognized company, something property owners or managers moving from state to state would see and recognize,” Jernigan recalls. “I learned a lot about benchmarking at FedEx, so I was looking to see if there was something in other parts of the country. That’s when I came across the U.S. Lawns products.”

After meeting with U.S. Lawns representatives a number of times, Jernigan and his wife, Edna, decided the company was the right fit.

“I knew there’d be support along the way as I grew and my needs changed,” Jernigan says. So Bryant and Edna purchased their first territory in 2002 for $30,000, then they proceeded to invest another $40,000 to $45,000 in equipment.
Early on, Jernigan focused on educating himself about commercial maintenance and building his client base. “Obviously, when you’re starting out, getting that first contract is one of your primary goals,” Jernigan says. “But then you have to take that and do something with it. I’m happy to say that six years later, we still work with some of our first customers.”

Customer Service Cues

Jernigan’s U.S. Lawns franchise offers commercial maintenance, irrigation and installation services. And there’s a reason customers keep calling Jernigan’s company back: He knows how to care for his clients as well as he cares for their grass.

“One of the things that sets us apart is customer care,” Jernigan says. “Everything – the employees’ uniforms, the trucks, the trailers – has my personal cell phone number on it. Whether that’s to complain or compliment, people can see that number on the side of the truck and call me.”

Jernigan says it’s a step toward dispelling the image of the “evil contractor” he believes people often have in their minds. And it also ensures he’s available.
“In working with Bryant over these four years, I know I can get a hold of him at night or on weekends,” says Frank Cable, facility manager for 63 Regions Banks and Jernigan’s customer. “He’s a devoted family individual, but he still finds time to work with the customer.”

And, as Cable can attest, Jernigan’s willing to work to meet customers’ unique needs. For Regions Bank, that includes addressing security-related standards set by the local and state government, as well as requirements set specifically by the corporation dictating plant type and height, among other things. “Bryant makes sure he maintains those security-related issues so when we have inspections, there are zero incidents in which he’s not meeting those standards,” Cable says. “He just goes above and beyond.”

As much as Jernigan knows about what it takes to treat customers right, he also knows how to build relationships with his suppliers, as Dalton Howell of Ripley Outdoor Equipment Inc., Jernigan’s primary supplier for mowing equipment, can attest. “He’s very professional and loyal to his suppliers,” Howell says. “If I do something wrong, he tells me and we straighten things out. And if I’m doing a good job, he lets me know that.”

Howell also appreciates the way Jernigan takes the time to listen to his equipment recommendations – not something every customer does. “My job is to direct you – not to oversell you, not to undersell you, but to give you a product to do the job,” Howell says. “Yet a lot of customers don’t take my advice. But Bryant listens.”

Smart Management

The principles of customer care were ingrained in Jernigan’s mind when he was with FedEx, and that’s not the only thing he learned during 15 years with the company. Jernigan also regularly relies on the managerial and cost-efficiency expertise he acquired there, two of the most challenging aspects of his business.

“When I was a courier and managed couriers, I would set up routes and manage the employees,” Jernigan says. “Now it’s understanding how to route your crews if a customer has a particular need for a particular time or day.”

Smart management strategies also help soften the blow that high gas prices and the current state of the economy have had on Jernigan’s business. “I think a lot of the commercial customers are tightening up and really watching where they’re spending money,” Jernigan says. “Their fuel costs and their energy costs are rising at the same rate mine are, so I understand.”

Not surprisingly, Jernigan says business is slower as a result of the economy. “We’re in good shape for the future, but are definitely experiencing a bit of a slowdown this year.”

For a company that relies so heavily on fuel, such a slowdown makes managing fuel costs, en route to work sites as well as while on the job, all the more vital. Jernigan does a considerable amount of planning before crews leave the shop each day, determining the best route they should take to each site to minimize backtracking or traveling out of the way. He also relies on GPS tracking and company cell phones to keep tabs on where crews are and how much time they spend on each job.

On-site, asking employees to turn off equipment such as weed eaters and mowers when they’re not using them makes a considerable difference. “We make sure that we’re not sitting in the truck at lunchtime with the air conditioner going, that we’re sitting under a shade tree or somewhere else cool,” he says. And it also means taking time to secure job sites. “We’ve had several occasions where fuel tanks or cans have been stolen off trucks,” Jernigan says.

Ensuring that all these cost-saving expectations are met requires buy-in from employees – something Jernigan works hard to obtain. “This year I sat the employees down and explained to them: We might be asking you to go this route rather than the route you’re used to taking, and here’s why. They have to understand where we’re coming from so they don’t think we’re just fussing about something,” he says.

It’s a mentality that helps with more than fuel savings. It also ensures Jernigan is able to recruit and retain quality employees. His workforce has grown from four to 14 people, many of whom are H-2B workers and return each year from the same community in Mexico, and Jernigan relies heavily on operations manager Jerry Rochelle to assist him in hiring and managing employees. “We’ve been fortunate enough to be growing so the employees we’re putting through the training process actually get to see themselves move up, not only in salary, but also in responsibility,” Jernigan says. “If somebody who’s been in the truck wants to be a crew leader, he’s going to get that opportunity.”

Beyond offering advancement opportunities, Jernigan strives to treat his crews well. “They have to understand that I want to have a future here and I want each one of them to have a future here if they so choose,” he says.

It’s not uncommon for the company to take a crew out for lunch or allow employees to leave on an occasional Friday to enjoy some extra time off. In addition, the company rewards good behavior. If employees end the month with the inventory they started with, they might receive a gift certificate to a restaurant as a thank you. “I want them to know that I appreciate what they do for me,” Jernigan says. “I tell them that I’ll defend them with every breath but if they mess up they have to be ready to face it. They know they can come to me and work it out. After they see you defend them, that helps tremendously.”

Customers and suppliers alike recognize how hardworking Jernigan’s employees are. “His crews are probably one of the better crews in the industry,” says Howell, who visits Jernigan’s work sites when delivering new equipment and making repairs. “As they’re coming back off their routes they will stop and pick up paper in the parking lots. They’re very professional, very customer oriented.”

A Successful Approach

Jernigan’s focus on customer service and employee management has helped the company’s sales grow from $200,000 in the first year to $1.2 million last year. And Jernigan’s business now encompasses multiple territories: Jernigan purchased an additional territory in 2005 and a third in 2007.

He hopes that the quality of his company’s work and the positive image the company projects speaks for itself. But earning a few awards along the way certainly hasn’t hurt. Jernigan was named U.S. Lawns Franchisee Rookie of the Year in his first year with the company and has also won the Superior Achievement award (in 2004 and 2005) and the All-American award (in 2006 and 2007). Locally, the company was named 2005 Lawn & Landscape Company of the Year by the Hernando, Miss., Chamber of Commerce, and Jernigan was a finalist for the Memphis Business Journal’s 2008 Executive of the Year.
Despite the rewards and accolades from those who work with Jernigan, there is, of course, always room to grow. “I’d like to do more site work, where the guys are at one location throughout several days or an entire week, now that we’ve established ourselves financially and we’re educated to where we can handle it properly,” Jernigan says. “That’s the direction I’ve been headed from the very beginning.”

Julie Collins writes about all things green. She is pursuing a master’s degree in business and environmental science. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening and golfing.