SCAPES NEWS
Solutions Center: Be Our Guest
By Leigh Gangemi
Landscape Management (landscapemangement.net) Nov. 1, 2006
Click here to read full article on the Landscapemanagement.net website.
"Thinking like a guest and not a service provider is the key to high-end resort work," says James Boynton, president and owner of Tampa-based SCAPES Environmental Group, Inc., a full-service landscape management, pest control, irrigation and renovation company.
Boynton should know; his ability to think like a hospitality manager has landed him many large resort and vacation community accounts in three Florida cities in just three years.
When he was working on his business plan in 2003, Boynton decided to focus on what he did best — landscape management of high-end resorts, homeowners associations and vacation communities. Focusing on this niche has paid off. He launched SCAPES with just six employees and a couple of accounts, and now runs a 7-figure, multi-branch operation with 53 employees. But the challenges are great, even for someone with Boynton's almost-20 years of experience.
"Resort work is extremely demanding and it's certainly not for everyone," says Boynton. "But I enjoy the uniqueness and challenges of each job. Plus, I enjoy educating and motivating staff to exceed our customer expectations."
Hospitality pays
At the Coconut Plantation Resort in Bonita Springs, FL, SCAPES employees find a way to beautifully maintain complex water features and hard-to-reach foliage.
SCAPES' high-profile accounts include Tampa's Grand Hyatt Resort, the Plantation Palms resort community, the Bayport Plaza office park and the Coconut Point Ownership Resort & Spa in Bonita Springs. Boynton has worked to understand the psychology of hospitality management. A particularly helpful mentor was the former general manager of the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort and Spa in Orlando. Boynton often accompanied him as he "walked the property," learning to look at the grounds as a general manager and guest, not a lawn care operator.
"He was a photographer, and he taught me to look at properties from that perspective," explains Boynton. "He had me ask myself, 'Where would guests want to pose for pictures?,' 'How can I make this vista more appealing?' and 'How can we hide that service area?'" In addition, he learned how vacationers and conventioneers behave—what they like to see, hear and smell, where they congregate and, most importantly, what bothers them.
Boynton and his team make suggestions to managers to improve the overall guest experience as well as hotel operations. "For example, if the hotel wanted to build an outdoor coffee stand, we would work on how to landscape the area to lure guests to that spot," explains Boynton. "By becoming more than just a maintenance company, we became indispensable to the client."
Customizing each program to each site is also important. "You must be ready to mold and adjust your service philosophies for individual properties," adds Boynton. "You simply cannot boilerplate a 'mow-and-go' program on a high-end property."
But customization also means being flexible enough to adjust to each site's daily schedule. At some jobs that require SCAPES employees on-site every day, employees will "pull a daily" for each property. Dailies are hotel/resort reports that detail guest occupancy, the type and timing of events, what groups are on-site and more. For crews like Boynton's, this information is vital to providing efficient service.
"You have to know, for example, that at 7:30 a.m. you must finish mowing an area because by 8:30 a.m., guests start arriving at the pool," he explains. "Or if a special event is planned for Friday, it must look perfect on Thursday."
In addition, Boynton spends a lot of time training employees on their attitude and appearance. "You are always being watched; it's almost like being on stage," says Boynton. "My employees know it can come down to the littlest things: how they look, how they walk, eye contact, a smile, those things."
The problem: Chinch bugs
Though Boynton claims 80% of all account problems are because of customer service issues, technical expertise is also important. That's why he is always searching for solutions to old problems.
Recently, Boynton and his team won two new accounts because they solved long-term chinch bug problems. In Florida, chinch bugs are one of the most damaging and pervasive pests, creating large brown or yellow patches on turf during peak feeding times. And with four to six generations per year, most lawn care experts agree they can be difficult and expensive to control.
"We were seeing resistance to the products we were using, and therefore a build-up of chinch populations," says Boynton. "We needed to break the resistance cycle, but in a cost-effective way."
The solution: Contact and systemic insecticide
An early start: SCAPES employees at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay maintain beds prior to when guests begin to arrive and depart.
At an industry event, Boynton learned of a new insecticide, Allectus, a formulation of pyrethroid and chloronicotinyl chemistries designed to work both on contact and systemically.
Boynton set up trials for Allectus insecticide impregnated on fertilizer on four properties, using the labeled rate on two to two-and-a-half acres. He quickly saw results. "Previously, I was only seeing about 20% to 25% control," says Boynton. "Now, we probably see about 90% to 95% control."
Boynton plans to incorporate a yearly rotation of Allectus among his usual applications of other chemicals. "If I apply the product in April or May, I'll control the grubs and see about 7 to 12 weeks of control on the chinch bugs."
Boynton,right, discusses placement with Operations Manager Bill Conrad during a property inspection.
Taking a chance on the new product ultimately meant more clients for SCAPES, as well as greater operational efficiency: "Repeatedly sending a spray technician to treat these problems isn't cost-effective. Labor is much more expensive than the material itself."
For Boynton, business success — whether managing a 500-acre resort or a two-acre home lawn — comes down to operational efficiencies.
On vacation, he tries to forget about lawn care for a few days by sinking his toes in some island sand. But it's not easy for a guest expert to just be a guest. "When I'm on vacation, I'm always watching the guests and checking out the grounds," he says. "You never know where an idea will come from."
Resort work: Tips for success
Want to add a resort client to your roster? James Boynton, president and owner of Tampa-based SCAPES Environmental Group, Inc. offers the following tips:
- Tour as many resort properties as possible.
- Think like a guest, not a lawn care operator.
- Customize each program to fit a property's long-term goals.
- When pitching a new account, know the property and its challenges better than the manager.
- Search out new solutions to old problems; the answers you find will lead to new clients.
- When starting a new account, seek out a relationship with the site's general manager.
- Make contacts by joining local hotel/motel, industry and tourist associations.
— L.G.
— The author is a Philadelphia-based writer who knows the Green Industry.
