Mike Andes argues that actively competing with other landscaping companies raised standards of professionalism across the industry. He lists concrete customer expectations—answered phones, credit cards on file, wrapped trucks, uniformed employees—and says adopting standard systems and competing directly prompted broader change.
Well, I realized is that people really started to pay attention when we would compete with them. I look at Augusta Long here, like, our whole mission and goal is to change the level of professionalism in the landscape industry. To do that, I think that certain systems need to be adhered to and become commonplace because the customer expects it. The customer expects their phone to be answered. They expect a credit card on file. They expect professionalism. They expect a truck that's wrapped and uniformed employees. They expect these things. And so in order for that change actually to happen, I saw the best way to do that was to simply compete with every landscaping company.
