Landscape Management, October 2010

BUSINESS PLANNER 2011 CASE STUDIES ON GROWTH Competitive pricing Working with customers on their biggest pain point price brings renewed growth for Cagwin Dorward BY LINDSEY GETZ in 2009 Novato Calif based Cagwin Dorward was down around 14 in lost revenue Like so many other companies they were hit hard by the economy and experienced lost accounts and lots of scaling back Since then the company has rebounded greatly and is currently looking at a little more than 4 growth for 2010 What that diffi cult year has allowed the company to do says Steve Glennon vice president and COO is to become more competitive on pricing We were a little slow to react to the economic situation he says Weve never typically been a company with a reputation of being a low price leader In fact we have a reputation of being on the higher side However we do provide a lot of value with that price But in this economy were fi nding people are no longer looking for the Mercedes Benz level of service anymore They want good work but price has become critical So weve gotten a lot more competitive This solution was born out of one of the companys biggest challenges losing customers solely on price We were getting termination letters in which they told us wed done an outstanding job for a decade or more but they were hiring someone who charged much less Glennon says Its diffi cult to lose a contract when we were doing a good job they just couldnt afford us anymore So were working The Cagwin Dorward management team GROWTH PROFILE Cagwin Dorward Novato CA 2010 Growth 4 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2010 100 closer with our customers on pricing now In addition to scaling back pricing the company whose two biggest areas are maintenance 615 and installation 232 has also put more emphasis on what they call customer centricity Its about staying connected to the customer Glennon says Customer retention is probably one of the most important elements of our business and we put a lot of emphasis on it One of the things we implemented last year was going out to our top 25 customers and just talking with them Asking how the economy is affecting their business and letting them know that we understand Of the companys growing areas tree care which accounts for about 88 of overall services has been strong with about 25 growth over last years numbers Glennon says thats one area where customers are willing to spend their dollars particularly when it comes to safety and liability issues so hes put some more focus there We are making more of an effort to address safety issues and hazards with our clients he says When you bring those types of things to the clients attention theyre willing to spend the money The company has also put an emphasis on water conservation education which is a growing need for Northern California an area thats dealt with many drought issues We pulled a lot of new contracts simply based on the premise that we felt confi dent we could reduce their water consumption and their overall cost Glennon says The combination of several key strategies namely competitive pricing customer centricity and a focus on growth areas like water conservation has helped grow Cagwin Dorward in 2010 We knew when we were budgeting that this would be another tough year says Glennon who originally put growth around 6 We felt if we could have a conservative goal and grow despite the economy that wed be happy with that success LM getz is a freelance writer with experience covering the lawn care and landscape industry