App prevents lost sales opportunities, keeps customers informed

Workers in the field can create service reports quickly with the Cappsure app.
Photo: Cappsure

There are plenty of apps out there that are designed to aid you in some way but not many of them have been created by a landscaper for landscapers.

Cappsure was created in early 2014 after landscaping company owner Mike Martinez lost a client because his foreman kept walking past a dead tree but he wasn’t able to inform Martinez about it.

“He was dumbfounded that they weren’t able to report what they were seeing in the field,” said Michael Cohen, director of business development for Cappsure.

Martinez had met two software designers while working at a software company in the early 2000s. One had went on to work on cloud streaming services for Netflix while the other handled online content for Universal. When he approached them with his idea for Cappsure, they both quit their jobs to work full time on the app.

Close to three years later, Cappsure is now being used by landscaping companies in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada as well as Martinez’s own company, Newtex Landscape, based in Las Vegas.

The app works for any size landscaping company, but Cohen says the companies most interested in it right now are those who are wanting to communicate more with their customers. The landscape company’s clients can log in to their portal and see photos of all the work that has been completed.

It is especially beneficial for landscaping companies that often work with homeowners associations that want to know exactly what work was done that week. With Cappsure, those working in the field can send service reports that use GPS maps to pinpoint where and what work was done. These reports are either sent straight to the customer’s email or the back office for approval.

The other obvious benefit of Cappsure is it helps generate revenue that would have been lost otherwise. Small opportunities, like removing a dead tree, can be quickly turned into a proposal by a field worker with the app. The proposal is then sent to the customer’s email for approval or to say they aren’t interested.

“It will remind the customer if they haven’t approved or declined the proposal,” Cohen said. “Over 65 percent of the approvals come from reminder emails.”

Cappsure helps users track small irrigation parts.
Photo: Cappsure

Another module on the app that helps landscapers save money is the irrigation feature. This allows users to drop a pin identifying what part was installed, keeping track of exactly how many small parts were used. The company can then bill the clients over a month, quarter or a year for the small parts.

Once Martinez started using the irrigation feature for tracking what small parts were used, he doubled the amount he was billing for because of the new-found accuracy.

“The main focus of the product is making it relevant for the field workers,” Cohen said. “It was built for an individual with low digital literacy skills and low English skills so anyone out in the field can use it.”

The learning curve for the app is fairly simple, but Cohen stresses that the company has to make using the app a priority for it to be a useful tool that is a regular part of employees’ workflow.

“The difference is it’s less about micromanaging and more about putting power in the hands of those in the field every day,” he said. “If a person is on site and understands the business they should also be able to provide extra sales opportunities.”

Cappsure charges a monthly recurring fee per property, and can offer competitive deals for smaller companies.

Users can access the property and see what notes are made so it doesn’t matter if different crews are working on the property, anyone can go out to the site and know where the major assets are.

The software company is currently working on adding a work order module so clients can create requests to their landscape contractors quickly and easily.

“Software never stops evolving,” Cohen said. “Every day as our customers use Cappsure in the field our development team continues to come up with unique solutions to make reporting from the field that much easier.”

For those attending the 2016 Irrigation Show and Education Conference in Las Vegas from Dec. 5-9, they can check out a demo of Cappsure there.

Cappsure can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. For more information, go to their website here or contact Michael Cohen directly at [email protected].