Schill Grounds Management Blog

With winter weather being so unpredictable and the cold slowly creeping in, here at Schill Grounds Management our number one priority is safety and preservation.

The harsh cold can take a serious toll on your property if unprepared, which is why we’ve compiled a list on preparing your property for the harsh cold in Northern Ohio. If your property is located in the Midwest or eastern United States, then you know how rough winters can be.

Safety is the ultimate goal of snow and ice management. At the end of the day, snow removal services secure the well-being of people who drive and walk on your grounds and prevent major liabilities for property owners. That’s why we spend most of the year thinking about and actively planning for the upcoming season.

Whether or not you hire Schill to manage your commercial property throughout the winter threat of inclement weather, we think it’s critical to share industry information that helps you make the best decisions for your grounds and your budget.

Here are four factors to consider that will help you maximize your snow and ice management budget and plan your strategy for the coming winter.

Now is the time to secure your snow removal contract for this winter. And you might be wondering, “What’s the best way to pay for the service?”

Should you pay “per push,” every time a snow event requires the contractor to plow your property? Or, is a seasonal contract a better way to budget and keep your Northeast Ohio parking lots and walkways clear and safe?

Basically, do you want to pay only when it snows and the contractor clears your site? Or, do you prefer to secure a fixed price for the five-month winter season so whether there are 40 snow events or 100, your cost is the same?

At Schill, we like to give our commercial clients payment options so they can select the best fee structure to suit their budget. Here’s a closer look at the three types of snow removal contracts we offer commercial properties in Cleveland and the rest of Northeast Ohio.

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.

January 19^th, 2018 marked 25 years that Schill has been in business. On that date in 1993, three brothers set out with the simple mission to make Northeast Ohio landscapes look their best. Since then, the business has changed drastically, and we know that we wouldn’t have made it to where we are without our customers, our rockstar crews, and the community this business operates within.

So, over the course of 2018, we’re going to be unveiling a variety of projects and charitable giving to show the people and communities who have had the biggest impact on our success just how much we appreciate them.

Here’s what we have planned:

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.

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.

As the weather turns colder and the days grow shorter, holiday lighting and decorations will soon start popping up on commercial properties throughout Cleveland and beyond.

Here at Schill Grounds Management, we’ve installed holiday décor everywhere from major retail parks to senior living facilities, so we know what it takes to make landscapes and buildings look their best in a safe and festive manner. Because we love to spread holiday cheer, we wrote this article to help you avoid some common mistakes that people make when decorating for the holidays and to let you know what you might be missing if you decide not to use professionals for your installation.

Winter is coming, and the Schill team is busy getting prepared for whatever may come. Part of that preparation means partnering with other great companies in the area to make sure that we have the equipment and labor force to tackle winter weather the right way.