Moisture Management, a Profitable Solution

Editor’s note: This Whitepaper, developed collaboratively between Lawn & Landscape and the product experts at Ecologel, explores the core components of a successful moisture management program, and how this add-on service can improve your bottom line.

After installing landscapes on commercial properties, the real challenge began for Michael MacLeod and his business Precision Landscape Maintenance in greater Orlando.

“The properties we maintained were starting to show drought stress shortly after installation,” he says, noting how water restrictions in his county have intensified during the last few years.

MacLeod would talk to the water management boards of homeowners associations, his primary client base, to find out if there was more he could do for the property. But usually, he ended up having to go back to customers with bad news. “It’s difficult to tell a client, ‘Work with it,’” he says.

And that’s no way to retain business either. “We had to find an alternative,” MacLeod says.

Moisture management was the answer: Providing customers a service using a product that reduces the water requirements of turf and plants. That’s what Ecologel’s Hydretain does.

MacLeod discovered that beyond keeping customers happy, Hydretain provides a brand-new revenue stream that earns him about a 75 percent profit. The referrals keep rolling in. He can retain existing clients by providing them a valuable service – and it’s an easy sell.

“People’s homes are their greatest investments, and this is a long-term solution that can help protect their investments in light of where water restrictions are today and where they are headed,” MacLeod says.

Moisture management is smart business for landscape contractors who are under constant pressure to reduce water usage, conform to stringent restrictions and please customers who want to lower their water usage and utility bills, particularly in regions where the cost of water is exorbitant.

Also, landscape contractors can grow their bottom lines and protect their client base by offering a moisture management service using Hydretain.

“Hydretain can provide a whole new revenue stream for landscape professionals, and the product is unique in its ability to pay for itself, reduce customer callbacks and lower water bills,” says Rick Irwin, president of Ecologel, the Ocala, Fla.-based company that makes Hydretain. “In areas with high water costs or where water restrictions are in place, it’s a no brainer.”

And in areas where water savings is not yet an issue, Hydretain minimizes drought-stress cycles between rainfall or irrigation, promotes healthier plants and ultimately delivers a better quality landscape. “Hydretain reduces wilt and isolated dry spots that are many times the source of customer complaints,” Irwin points out.

Does it really work? That’s the question Irwin gets from those who are newly exposed to Ecologel’s Hydretain technology and wonder how it could enhance their landscape businesses. Irwin’s advice: Try it on your own lawn and monitor the results. “That way, you can grow a comfort level with the product,” he says.

Exclusively sponsored by Ecologel.