About a month ago, I wrote about “SWGKC, Day 1″ - and we’ve been patiently waiting to tell you the rest of the story…  We’re excited and enthusiastic about the launch of a sister company, Southwest Greens of Kansas City.  Our launch of this new company was around the install of a professional grade competition synthetic putting green in the backyard of my friend and MLB Hall of Famer George Brett.  We’ve got final photos of the install, and posted them to our Project Portfolio.  Click here to see some photos from the install and the final product.

Southwest Greens of Kansas City has been an exciting road to have gone down the last year or so.  Please visit our new website (although, at this time, not 100% complete) at www.swgkc.com.  If you’re interested in the story of how Highland Outdoor got involved in Southwest Greens, and specifically George’s role in asking me to start the business, you can read it on the SWGKC website, under “About Us”…

Southwest Greens has an impressive list of pro endorsements - from Vijay Singh to John Smoltz to Jim Fuyrk to name a few… And now, Kansas City’s own George Brett can be added to the list of Pro Atheletes who have the golf product at their personal residence.

Out Southwest Greens team at Highland (Highland Outdoor is the exclusive installer for SWGKC) has been thoroughly trained to install these putting greens, and we are excited for our formal launch soon.

For more information on Southwest Greens of Kansas City, visit our website, or email us here.  We hope you enjoy the photos…  And the product!

It never ceases to amaze me how fast the seasons change in Kansas City. Autumn is here, and soon enough the cold blistery winter will sweep over Kansas.

It’s time to start thinking about a few things.

Have you called the office to set up a winterization for your sprinkler system? Here in the next few weeks we will have our first freeze. You can call the office and speak to Natasha to get your name on the list!

Many of the tree’s are starting to turn colors and drop leaves, which means you may need a fall lawn clean up. If you are like me, you want to get those pesky leaves off of the lawn for a fresh clean look.

And, last but not least have you scheduled Highland Outdoor to design and construct your holiday décor? Many of you took advantage of this great service last year, and we have your décor in our storage. Which I think is great, how nice to have one less thing in your personal storage spaces. We will be sending out our annual information sheet in the next few weeks, in case this is a service you would like to start! Why not, one less thing you have to worry about for the holiday season!

If there is anything else we can do to help you prepare for the winter please give us a call at the office Natasha or I would be glad to help you!

Cheers!

-Abby

From the October 6th Kansas City Star:

Meeting customer expectations keeps them coming back

By ROBERT COLE

The Kansas City Star

The pre-dawn ritual at the North Kansas City Community Center is a familiar sight at many fitness and indoor recreation centers throughout greater Kansas City.

About 50 to 80 early birds kick off the day swimming laps, lifting weights or playing a quick game of pickup basketball before showering and heading to work.

Which means a really early start for the center’s staff.

The facility must be ready for business at 5:29 a.m. to serve members who want to be at their job by 7, said Greg Hansen, center director.

Providing the preferred hours and offerings to customers who thrive on getting a daily dose of health and wellness is common at area fitness venues. But such adjustments to customers’ needs and desires also is increasingly important for other businesses.

“Customer service is the biggest make-or-break in business,” said Jason Cupp, president and CEO of Highland Outdoor, an Olathe-based landscaping firm.

It is not only being honest and treating every customer like gold, it is also identifying what their needs are before the customer has to identify them, he said.

How area companies and municipalities choose to define quality products and service can result in expensive, time-consuming improvements. Yet they also can relate to more basic customer expectations, including cleanliness and accessibility.

Olathe Toyota spent nearly two years upgrading its facility, said Kenny Thomas, company president. The dealership’s service department is now open seven days a week, primarily to serve families who often are too busy during the week to come in for oil changes and basic repairs.

In May, the Gamber Center, an 18,000-square-foot multigenerational facility, opened north of downtown Lee’s Summit. The center is programming more daytime activities for the city’s senior population, including instructional programming in its arts and crafts and computer rooms, said David Dean, the department’s superintendent of recreation services.

New workout equipment designed for the body types of preteens and an older, smaller-size population also was added in May to the city’s Legacy Park Community Center, he said.

Despite the expense of recent additions and physical improvements, the department focuses on customer expectations every day. Dean said staff members walk the grounds of fitness centers and ball diamonds to talk with patrons about their experiences, particularly cleanliness.

“It’s the number one priority,” Dean said. “If the facility is not clean, then we know they won’t come back. We have to make sure that they’re all in tip-top shape.”

Cupp, of Highland Outdoor, writes a blog focused on landscaping trends, but he often posts pictures of company team members when they attend fundraising events.

“It makes us more real to our clients,” Cupp said. “When we build relationships with them, they see us as real people and not a company. It actually allows customer service to be a lot easier.”

In harsh weather, Cupp posts information to the company’s Web site to reassure clients how their trees and plants may be affected.

“It sends a consistent, timely message to our clients,” he said. “It helps us build relationships with people.”

Despite the rain today, we completed the portion of our first project that we planned to.  We hope the rain subsides tonight and we have a good day tomorrow.  Some photos from our first day…

More tomorrow - hopefully, NO RAIN!

If you haven’t been to the SWGKC website yet, visit it here…  Full update next Monday/Tuesday overnight….

I have some exciting news… but I can’t quite share it with you - yet.

Check back next week on our blog for updates relating to this awesome news, but in the meantime, visit a new website we will be launching:  www.swgkc.com

We wanted to begin to reveal here for our website visitors, as well as our existing clients before we make a formal, public announcement…  Check back next week!

Highland Outdoor was recently featured in an article in the Kansas City Star on Customer Service and Expectations:

Meeting customer expectations keeps them coming back

By ROBERT COLE

The Kansas City Star

The pre-dawn ritual at the North Kansas City Community Center is a familiar sight at many fitness and indoor recreation centers throughout greater Kansas City.

About 50 to 80 early birds kick off the day swimming laps, lifting weights or playing a quick game of pickup basketball before showering and heading to work.

Which means a really early start for the center’s staff.

The facility must be ready for business at 5:29 a.m. to serve members who want to be at their job by 7, said Greg Hansen, center director.

Providing the preferred hours and offerings to customers who thrive on getting a daily dose of health and wellness is common at area fitness venues. But such adjustments to customers’ needs and desires also is increasingly important for other businesses.

“Customer service is the biggest make-or-break in business,” said Jason Cupp, president and CEO of Highland Outdoor, an Olathe-based landscaping firm.

It is not only being honest and treating every customer like gold, it is also identifying what their needs are before the customer has to identify them, he said.

How area companies and municipalities choose to define quality products and service can result in expensive, time-consuming improvements. Yet they also can relate to more basic customer expectations, including cleanliness and accessibility.

Olathe Toyota spent nearly two years upgrading its facility, said Kenny Thomas, company president. The dealership’s service department is now open seven days a week, primarily to serve families who often are too busy during the week to come in for oil changes and basic repairs.

In May, the Gamber Center, an 18,000-square-foot multigenerational facility, opened north of downtown Lee’s Summit. The center is programming more daytime activities for the city’s senior population, including instructional programming in its arts and crafts and computer rooms, said David Dean, the department’s superintendent of recreation services.

New workout equipment designed for the body types of preteens and an older, smaller-size population also was added in May to the city’s Legacy Park Community Center, he said.

Despite the expense of recent additions and physical improvements, the department focuses on customer expectations every day. Dean said staff members walk the grounds of fitness centers and ball diamonds to talk with patrons about their experiences, particularly cleanliness.

“It’s the number one priority,” Dean said. “If the facility is not clean, then we know they won’t come back. We have to make sure that they’re all in tip-top shape.”

Cupp, of Highland Outdoor, writes a blog focused on landscaping trends, but he often posts pictures of company team members when they attend fundraising events.

“It makes us more real to our clients,” Cupp said. “When we build relationships with them, they see us as real people and not a company. It actually allows customer service to be a lot easier.”

In harsh weather, Cupp posts information to the company’s Web site to reassure clients how their trees and plants may be affected.

“It sends a consistent, timely message to our clients,” he said. “It helps us build relationships with people.”

Highland Outdoor is pleased to be named, along with several of Kansas City’s other incredible landscape and design/build firms as one of the “Best Landscaping Companies in Kansas City” - see the article below, or a direct link at here. Thank you Associated Content!  We are honored to be on a list of such reputable firms…

Here is our column from the September 2008 issue of Kansas City Home Improvement Resource:

We are pleased to announce that Highland Outdoor CEO Jason Cupp has been named the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado Keynote Speaker at their Fall Landscape Business University.  Jason will be speaking on last years Crystal Ball Report, which he helped Co-Author, along with 17 other green industry professionals.  This is Jason’s second Crystal Ball Report, and he has already been selected to be part of this years report.  ALCC’s event, held October 29th and 30th in Loveland, CO, is the premier landscape business educational event for ALCC.  With hundreds of landscape contractor owners and manager, the event promises to give tools to those in attendance to grow their business in these uncertain times.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29

8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.

Opening Keynote: A Look Inside PLANET’s Crystal Ball- Time is the Currency of the Future
Jason Cupp, CLP

What does the future hold for green industry companies? PLANET’s President, Jason Cupp, CLP, will walk you through how PLANET gazed into its crystal ball to see how the industry will change over the next decade and came up with recommendations for your company’s future course. Find out why lawn and landscape companies need to plan for the future, see how today’s business world has changed, what is threatening the industry’s future and look at the opportunities landscape business owners will have in 2020.

For more information this event, click here, or to learn more about ALCC, please visit their website here.

Plants and flowers can be so gorgeous at their peak, and there is nothing better than smelling their aroma throughout the summer breeze in the middle of summer.  Most people enjoy watching their plants and flowers grow.

With typical Kansas summers, plants and flowers are going to need extra water.  If you don’t have an irrigation system then you probably need to water them yourself or find someone to water them for you. The best time to water is in the early morning or in the evening.

I have had a few plants this summer that just don’t look healthy and have wondered if I have been doing something wrong.  It is important to know that each plant has specific weather needs and those should be considered.  Be aware of these factors and if you are not one who likes to give attention to your plants, a better route might be low maintenance plants.

Plants that don’t need a lot of water and like to be in full sun or full shade might be an easier route.  Keep in mind the dimensions of your yard and shade vs. sun so that you can plant things in the areas of your yard that will give them the shade or sun that they need.  If they are getting the sun, shade, and water that they need and still are not doing as well as they should be, a soil sample might help.

If you have questions about your plants, don’t hesitate to call us here at the office.  A designer would be more than happy to talk to you about the health of your plants to ensure you are getting the optimal growth and results out of your plant.