Sometimes the smallest gestures can have the biggest impact.
Like the gift of coconut bread and jam, which were given to ArtistTree Landscape Maintenance and Design as a unique way of thanks. The company had been asked to help transplant fruit trees that were being removed from the future site of a sales center. The landscape chairman serving on the HOA board didn’t want to see the trees destroyed, so he asked ArtisTree to transplant them around the community.
“To thank us, he and his wife made us the homemade bread and jam,” says Debra Morrow, vice president of marketing for ArtisTree. “When they presented it to our account executive, the bread was still warm.”
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Get involved ArtisTree is hoping other companies will jump on the program and start making people around the country aware of it. Interested companies can contact ArtisTree and say they want to put the image of Orlando on the website. And when it comes to Thank A Landscaper, it’s not about beating the competition, but working together, because every company is different and has its own niche, Morrow says. |
The bread and jam were made from the trees and Morrow called it “one of the kindest gestures we ever received.”
This gesture was the thought process behind ArtisTree’s new program, “Thank A Landscaper,” which was launched in the spring. It gives people the chance to thank any person or group of people that has had a significant impact on their experience with the green industry.
“There are times where, when we perform work for clients, sometimes we feel invisible, and I don’t think we’re unlike many of our competitors,” says Morrow. “We’re supposed to be invisible. We want to go quietly into neighborhoods and transform their properties and maintain them well, but it would be nice to be acknowledged.”
The company decided to start an initiative to thank landscapers for the work they do. A photograph taken of Orlando Otano Ramon, one of ArtisTree’s crew members, was turned into an artistic card by Randy Padorr-Black of Randy Padorr-Black Design, and given out to people to raise awareness to the program.
The website (www.thankalandscaper.com) was launched and includes a tab where people can go on and thank any individual or company that has helped shape their awareness of the industry. You can select any option from parent to residential maintenance company to environmentalist. People can choose between pre-written thank you’s, or opt to write their own. The thank you is then posted on the home page of the website for everyone to see.
“If people have a more positive perception of landscapers, whether degreed or not, designers or not, manufacturers or not, we can all go down the river together and benefit from the positive perception,” Morrow says.
