Schill Grounds Management Blog

Another growing season is here, and because it’s still a bit too early to install flowers, many property managers’ attention is focused on the part of their property that starts thriving first: turf. Because winter weather in Northeast Ohio tends to linger, we don’t plant flowers until the danger of a spring frost has past. So it’s understandable that our clients want their green space looking great ahead of spring color. To help, we’ve put together a list of common turf myths so that our customers will have a better understanding of how to keep their lawns healthy.

Not having to worry about things like maintaining curb appeal is one of the big perks of living in a homeowner’s association or condo property, but that doesn’t mean that as a resident you can be completely hands off. HOA landscaping comes with it's own set of challenges and complications, so while it is your landscaping company’s job to be familiar with your property, there are still some things that are important to communicate to make sure things go smoothly.

It’s that time of year again. You’re thinking about changing your grounds management provider and you’re collecting bids.

Maybe you’re compiling them to submit them to a board of advisers or trustees for review, or maybe you’re just doing your due diligence to make sure that your property is getting the best value.

Over the years, we’ve heard from a lot of property managers that comparing bids from prospective vendors is one of the most difficult and time-consuming things they have to do. Unfortunately, comparing landscaping contracts is often not any easier, as bids differ depending on the scope of work and service offered. But beyond the ins and outs of what’s included in your contract, it’s also important to make sure (to the best of your abilities) that whichever company you choose is going to do the work to your satisfaction. After all, depending on the length of the agreement, you might be in bed with your grounds maintenance provider for multiple years.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about what we think are the most important factors for delivering great customer service. This series on C.A.R.E.—our four part recipe for providing an exceptional experience for our clients—is finally coming to an end as we discuss the last piece of the equation: expertise.

Consistency, accessibility, and reliability are all important values, but without expertise none of them matter. A company who is not adept in the landscaping space can’t be consistent or reliable. And what does it matter if your landscaping or snow removal contractor can be reached at all hours of the day if they don’t know what they’re doing?

Below, we take you through several questions to ask to determine whether the grounds management provider you’re considering are truly experts in their field.

Trust: it's something that can take years to build and just seconds to destroy, and it's the glue that holds people together in both personal relationships and professional ones. So, it makes sense that when you’re looking for a landscaping or snow removal company for your commercial property, you want them to be reliable.

We think reliability is important too, which is why it’s the third component of our C.A.R.E. customer service philosophy. Long story short, we take our customer’s trust very seriously and know we can’t operate a business without it. If you're looking for a grounds maintenance provider, this article has some questions you should keep in mind while searching that will help you figure out if a landscaping or snow removal company is reliable. And if you're a long time customer of ours, this post will show you how the Schill team works to win your trust every day.

If you’re a current Schill customer, then you probably have a strong relationship with your CCS, or Client Care Specialist. We assign everyone a CCS when they become a customer, and they’re ultimately responsible for making sure our clients get the service they deserve.

But doing that wouldn’t be possible without the Operations Managers that work alongside them. These unsung heroes are on the front lines of your property every day, making sure it receives the service it deserves.

We’re proud of our company structure and we want our current and potential customers to thrive.

For these reasons, we wrote this article to help current and potential customers learn what an Operations Manager does here at Schill Grounds Management and how to get the most out of the one that’s assigned to their property. Jake Koglman and Justin Graber, two of our Operations Managers, sat down to give us their take on how our clients can get the most out of their Operations Managers.

When it comes to causing damage, Mother Nature can be dangerous and unpredictable; as sophisticated as our weather prediction systems are, you’d need a crystal ball to tell you if a branch will come crashing through your window or whether the wind will be blowing just right to fell a powerline.

Nevertheless, there are some aspects of storm damage that we can predict and therefore prevent.

And with 2017 being one of the worst years on record in the US for storm damage, it’s understandable that many people to want to know how prepare their properties for seasonal storms. So, this article discusses some common questions we get about storm damage, and how your grounds management provider can identify risks on your landscape to help you prevent some of the most common types of damage.

If you manage a commercial property, your concerns for your landscape go far beyond what the average homeowner has to think about. You have to balance the competing demands of keeping expenses under budget and creating memorable experiences for tenants, customers, and employees. And sometimes you might be doing all this for multiple properties at the same time.

The staff here at Schill Grounds Management has well over a century of combined experience in helping property managers and owners meet their goals and build landscapes that allow people to create meaningful memories. In this article, we thought we’d share some of the biggest landscaping trends we see commercial property managers adopting.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had an amazing dish, only to go back and be less than impressed when you order it again at a later date? It’s not a fun experience. And when you go to your coffee shop and order your favorite morning libation, we assume that you do so expecting that it’s going to taste just as great as the last time you had it.

Consistency in customer service means a lot to us as a culture. We want the experiences and goods we spend money on to be great every single time.

So, when you choose your grounds management provider, it goes without saying that you expect them to perform well week after week and year after year, through spring rains or winter snow.

When people think fall, leaves are generally the first things that come to mind. They’re beautiful as they turn from green to shades of yellow, red and burnt orange, but can start to become a nuisance as they start to drop and litter your landscape.

So, it probably comes as no surprise that each year we receive calls from our customers about the leaves on their property as fall begins to wrap up. Because we believe in transparency and education, we decided to list some of the most common questions we get about Fall Clean Ups.

Because every company operates a little bit differently, this article is going to be more focused on the way that we do things here at Schill Grounds Management. Nevertheless, if you live outside the Northern Ohio area and use another grounds maintenance provider, this information will still be useful as you get your property ready for the end of fall and colder the weather to come.