Numbers know all

Mike McCarron reminded Lawn & Landscape Technology Conference of one key adage that’s often lost in this age of data and technology — the rearview mirror is smaller for a reason.

Yes, it’s nice to have data informing our decisions. But McCarron, the founder and CEO of Image Works Landscape Management in Virginia, believes the focus on data needs to be how it informs the future. He offered one critical number in his own data that may be applicable to landscapers nationwide: 18.9% of your customer base is draining your profits.

McCarron says finding out how to find where that drainage exists is key. Maybe it’s in more obvious spots like clients who don’t pay nearly enough for their property’s work. In other cases, maybe it’s in route density. Wherever it may be, McCarron says it’s not magically going to appear as clear data — it takes a lot of gathering to find changes worth implementing.

“You have to start somewhere,” he says.

Who cares?

McCarron says software can produce all sorts of metrics that don’t ultimately matter to the end user. Plus, employees in different departments might be measuring success in different ways. McCarron likened it to watching the news once and seeing a broadcaster who determined the wind factor not by miles per hour, but whether it flipped a trash can lid or blew the can down entirely. He thought it was a genius way to depict measurements that actually mean something to those hearing the data.

“It just goes to show everyone uses things differently,” he says. “There needs to be a gold standard. What is the standard of our company, and how will we measure it?”

Finding the right numbers can help sales and production operate in harmony with one another is important. He recommends sending them out in the field to develop the benchmarks that’ll drive their decision-making processes.

McCarron also says it’s important to be clear about what the data suggests to the whole team. He says they run meetings in full English and Spanish for its employees, plus they put numbers up on a board so there’s no he-said, she-said. Crews can see everybody’s information and statistics, all measured by the same vital numbers.

Once you’ve developed your key performance indicators that can be effectively measured by employees, McCarron recommends building out your “SEAL” team — the ones handling the biggest, most profitable properties. He tries to find out who his best three-person, four-person and five-person commercial technicians, plus finding specialists like the person on staff who’s best at diagnosing issues with irrigation systems.

“They’re going to produce completely different statistics,” he says. “Benchmark your employees…because certain people do not fit in certain crews.”

Executing the jobs

Job bidding has changed dramatically since COVID-19, McCarron says. The increase in remote workers has left commercial properties cutting high-margin work like flower enhancements, so the relationship between client and company has changed. If those companies were previously the most profitable but no longer are, it’s important for landscapers to recognize that.

Data can also inform users about monthly trends that can help executives better plan how to route their employees. McCarron operates so close to Washington D.C. that traffic’s always particularly busy, but he’s also seen that high schools all graduate their seniors every two hours or so during the day in June. Between that and higher annual rainfall in June than other months of the year, and McCarron’s looking at an annual number between 500 or 600 hours of traffic and travel. Those factors need to be considered when planning jobs that month, he says.

McCarron’s used data to determine that he should put his least profitable jobs on Mondays, where no employees are going to be working overtime, either. He’s also noticed that higher-level clients want everything looking nice at their complexes over the weekend, so they book that work for Thursday and Friday.

Plus, his sales and production teams know which zones are going to have production losses per route based on the time of the year. Sales needs to keep in mind that zones near airports are going to automatically induce more traffic, but so are areas that often host big city events like marathons.

“When you get down there, you need to charge for it or know how to manage it,” he says.

Using data properly can even help leadership make their companies safer. “In my market, we’ve had nothing but 100+ degree heat this summer,” McCarron says.

Well, in drawing up its zones for the team, he noticed that Zone 1 employees were working harder than those in Zone 4 because there’s more properties. They were exposed to heat much longer than those who spent more time in the truck to reach their destinations. So, McCarron shifted some of his employees around, rotating them so they were exposed to the heat less than they would’ve been otherwise.

“Employees will start to talk about it if you don’t ensure everyone gets equal treatment on heat index days,” he says.

The author is digital editor with Lawn & Landscape.