“Landscaping is very personal. Some of our best friends are our clients,” Whitacre says, noting how one of her clients called just to wish her a safe trip before she embarked on a several-week trip to Australia. Another customer called Whitacre after her cat, Maxie, had to be put down.
And another customer, whom Whitacre had given a bottle of Opus wine several years ago, called just to say “hello” after the client had gone to a nice dinner and ordered the same wine. “The client called because it brought back memories,” she recalls. “He wanted me to know how much he enjoyed that wine and to just thank me again for everything – how beautiful the yard was and how much it is being enjoyed. It’s wonderful just out of the blue to get a call from a client.”
This “Customer First” service and work ethic has created loyalty and trust with clients and has led to some unexpected job requests. Marshall recalls a client whose basement completely flooded with water up to the top of the stairs. The Smalls Landscaping crew rushed right over. “I guess they [the client] were thinking we could sandbag it because water was rushing in through the basement windows,” Marshall remembers. “It was like a whirlpool in the backyard.”
“This is when clients become more than clients. It’s where they become friends.”
They brought in pumps and pumped out the entire basement. When this was completed, the Small’s team then carried up everything from the basement and took it all outside. “We didn’t charge them anything,” Marshall says. “We had six people there all day. It was a horrible experience for them, so we helped them. It happened again about three months later and we went back in and did it again. This is when clients become more than clients. It’s where they become friends.”
To read more about Smalls Landscaping and their award-winning work, check out “Landscapers of the Year” in our January issue.
To learn how to become a finalist in Total Landscape Care’s Landscaper of the Year program, click here.
