With over 10 years of experience providing residential landscaping services to our clients in Massachusetts, our team at Highlands Lawn & Landscape has been very fortunate to have wonderful clients that we have. We’ve built our business by always focusing on the needs of our customers and always by delivering amazing experiences at every step of the way. With all our experience we have also met with lots of potential clients and we have observed that there are a number of items that seems to top the list for “How to Hire A Massachusetts Landscaping Company” and we’re very happy to share some of our own observations on this subject.
Whether you are in our direct marketplace (Wellesley, Weston, Natick, Wayland, Holliston & Ashland) or not, we hope that these tips will help you make a great choice when it comes time to hire your next landscaping company.
1) Can Your Landscaper Do the Job You Need?
When interviewing potential landscaping companies it is important to consider a simple fact – can they do the job you need them to? Some property owners have very specific needs in terms of what their landscaping needs are. Some property owners might be focused on a particular landscaping schedule. In some communities there might even be local variances that the landscaping company has to adhere too. Some landscaping companies focus on a particular aspect of landscaping rather than approaching the space on a broad level. Whatever your needs are, it is important to make sure the landscaping companies you are talking with can properly handle the needs of your property.
Another factor that is important to consider, particularly here in Massachusetts is our extreme weather and also the need for constant seasonal cleanup in the spring and fall – not to mention the occasional severe storm that seems to roll through our area on occasion. If your property has a heavy tree line this is certainly another factors to consider in terms of “getting the job done.”
Tip: Whatever your particular needs are, consider putting a list together in advance of meeting any potential landscapers – that way you’ll be prepared to ask the questions that are most important to you.
2) Do You Want To Work with A Company or An Individual Landscaper?
This one is a tricky one. There are nice benefits with either choice of landscaping company. A factor that might weigh into how to best answer this question have to do with the size of your property (if you have a big property you are probably better served with a full service larger landscaping company only because they will be able to do the job consistently at the level you’d like.) Another factor may well be what you are personally most interested in.
Some home owners prefer to work with smaller operations as it provides them with instant access to the owner every week. They also feel that by working with a small company, the value of their account is going to be much higher in relation to the overall revenue of the landscaping company. All true.
On the other hand some property owners like to work with bigger landscaping companies because they feel that their property will get treated in an ultra professional manner and they will never be left thinking “why hasn’t the landscaper come this week…” Another benefit of working with a larger landscaping company is that while perhaps the owner is not arriving directly on your property every week, the owner is likely still active in the business and should you have any issues with the performance of a crew working on your property a larger landscaping company will have the resources on hand to remedy whatever situation might arise. Another benefit of a larger landscaping company is versatility – larger landscaping companies tend to have more tools at their disposal, and in particular when looking to hire a Massachusetts landscaping company this is a real factor to consider as we tend to have some pretty extreme weather scenarios.
Bottom line is this is one of those great questions that often leaves you with a great answer. We have great relationships with a large number of landscaping crews around the state (both large and small) and we are consistently impressed by so many of them – no matter what the size of their teams. Perhaps it has something to do with that amazing New England work ethic people are always talking about…
3) Are You Comfortable With Them?
When a truck shows up on your property, in many ways that truck and those in that truck provide a direct reflection on you as a property owner. Things like attire might not be important to you, or they might be very important to you.
Another factor to weigh in is simple professionalism. Just because you meet the owner when it is time to discuss your lawn care needs, be mindful that the owner, or the salesperson might not be on the crew working on your property. If this is a concern for you, it is also something you’ll want to address up front. If you’ve had the opportunity to observe how the crews behaves based on seeing them in your neighborhood than you are already well on your way to having a good answer to this question.
As you are going through the hiring process, is the landscaper you are considering working with taking the time to understand your needs and to actively listen to make sure they can deliver on whatever is most important to you?
Bottom line – it is your money so you should feel comfortable with whatever company you invite on to your property. At Highlands we stress that the way our team conducts itself on our client’s properties is important. We take great pride in the cleanliness of our trucks and gear. We also wear company colors when we are on a client’s property so that our clients and their neighbors can clearly identify our team.
4) Do They Have Experience?
This is a real factor that all too often does not get the attention is should. Sometimes people elect to focus purely on costs with not enough attention devoted to experience. Good crews and state of the art equipment really do make a huge difference in how well your lawn will get tended and maintained. Often times with inexperience mistakes are made that could easily be avoided, and the result is that by the end of a season a lawn has taken an unnecessary amount of abuse leaving it looking tired and worn out. Whereas an experienced crew will make better decisions and will also likely be much more proactive in making suggestions that will add value and long term enjoyment to you as a property owner.
5) Can They Provide Work Samples?
This one speaks for itself. But most landscaping companies tend to be “local” so they should be able to provide an address or two that is relatively close to you. Sometimes a short ride in your car, or even a walk down the street can be a very informative trip. Also don’t be afraid to ask for references – most landscapers should be very happy to oblige this request.
6) Is the Price Right?
Sometimes price can be the only factor, but be wary of anyone coming in too low as if one bid is so far below the others that you are seeing it might be a good sign that either they are not investing enough in their own business, or even worse that once they close on your business there will be no way that they can ever get the job done at anywhere near the level you expect. When your expectations are not met you are naturally included to complain, and this is not fun for anyone.
On the other hand don’t be afraid to solicit a few bids. And while the price might be a factor in your selection process, we’d also recommend putting some serious weight behind other factors as well.
7) Can They Grow with Your Needs? Full Service versus Limited Service?
We alluded to this one earlier when talking about the extreme weather, but it is true. When you are considering how to hire a Massachusetts landscaping company, a factor you might want to consider is if the company you are talking with can grow with your needs. Perhaps a year or two down the road you might want to add a garden? Maybe you are considering adding some stone work? Maybe at some point in the future you might be considering something more – can the company you are working with handle a full-scale landscaping redesign?
Obviously everyone’s needs are going to be different, but the ability of a landscaping company to be able to grow might be important. Then again, this particular issue might be less of an issue for you, and instead you might be more focused on items like dependability, professionalism and experience.
8) Does the Contract Make Sense?
This one really should not be too complicated. If you are pretty far down the road and are actively negotiating with a landscaping company, they should be presenting you with a contract that is pretty straight forward. To be clear, we are not offering legal advice here as we are not qualified to do that, but the contracts we negotiate with our clients are very straight forward, and unless your property is specialized in some particular manner you should not feel shy about expecting to see a very easy to read contract that you are in full understanding of.
Many landscapers are willing to go forward on a handshake, but that is not something we’d recommend. That is not in the interest of the homeowner and frankly it is also not in the interests of the landscaper. People too often will hear the exact same thing in two different ways – when it is in writing it is better for everyone involved.
9) Are They In Good Standing With the Community?
Google before you buy. Chances are those in your own community have had an experience with the landscaping company you are considering and there are likely a few reviews out there. Good news travels fast. Bad news travels even faster. On the internet both statements are very true.
You’d be surprised by what you can learn by going online. Certainly a negative review shouldn’t automatically disqualify a potential landscaping company, but if you start to see a very clear pattern in all the reviews than you might want to think a little harder before engaging that particular company.
Also, in reading the reviews pay attention to the feedback – perhaps a company you are considering is extremely pro-active in one of you biggest areas of need – if so suddenly those glowing reviews might really give you a big assist in the decision making.
Better Business Bureau is another potential resource, as it is a good signal that a company is committing to business ethics (and yes, we are registered with the BBB.)
10) Do The Landscaping Company Have Liability Insurance?
This one feels like a non-starter – we debated listing it at the top, but we didn’t want to give you the wrong impression about priorities. Competency, professionalism, experience, list of services and price are all what we’d consider critical factors. That said, allowing a company to enter your property without having liability insurance is clearly a personal decision but it is not something we would recommend doing.
Just remember, a landscaping company is not obligated to divulge if they are in possession of liability insurance to you unless you ask for it. So if you don’t ask, and they don’t have liability insurance and one of the workers were to get hurt on your property you might potentially be liable. Further were they to in some way damage your property, without that company having liability insurance your only legal recourse would be through a court room. Again, we are not lawyers and we certainly don’t want to needlessly get you worked up about this, but allowing any service provider on your property to render services without them having liability insurance is a recipe for trouble.
And yes…. We are very proud to say that Highlands Lawn & Landscape does have a very extensive liability insurance policy – we’ve done this because we care about our crew and also because we know how important it is for our clients.
Conclusion
Hopefully the above list will provide you with a great resource as you are getting ready to hire your next Massachusetts landscaping company! Again, these are all tips we’ve experienced in various facets throughout our 10 plus years in business and we’re very happy to now be sharing them with you.
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