This was given to Turf Appeal Account Manager, Dan Gill from Oklahoma City University in recognition for Dan's Awesome Customer Service and Leadership Skills. 

(Pictured Left to Right: Jeff Castleberry, OCU Associate Dir. of Facilities, Turf Appeal Account Manager, Dan Gill, and Brian Holland, OCU CFO)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, October 31, 2009 - Turf Appeal Inc. is proud to announce it has been awarded a Distinction Award for Oklahoma City University in the 40th Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Program sponsored by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET).

The Oklahoma City University campus is located on 103 park like areas in the heart of Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City University provides education opportunities to a very diverse number of students from 46 different states and 49 countries. Oklahoma City University is the only Oklahoma institution consistently ranked in the top tier of the regional, master's level university category, by the US News and World Reports magazine. They were also listed in "America's Best Christian Colleges" and "100 Best College Buys".

We made an instant impact on improving the environment on campus, with our campus manager and 5 employees. We focused on removing outdated and overgrown shrubs. We trimmed over 500 trees up to 5 feet and removed limbs that were crossing or damaged, and established weed control program for all turf areas. We removed weeds and grass from all flowerbeds and cracks in the sidewalks. We have completed phase 1 of 4 installing water wells and irrigation systems on campus. Our daily challenges include the safety of the pedestrians that walk through campus, keeping the campus clean of trash and debris, utilizing reduced volume equipment.

The university looks a lot better now, so good that our Account Manager for the university recently won the OCU employee of the month award for his dedication and hard work in improving the campus grounds. Our enthusiasm has made a big impact on campus, and it has spread to the university staff and students. There have been over 400 volunteers that have helped to replace annual mulch in landscape beds with colorful gravel, sod bare areas, plant annual flowers, native grasses, painted curbs, etc. This has also helped build a stronger relationship with our company, students, and staff.

"We have helped the University become more environmentally friendly with low maintenance, drought tolerant native plants. We have eliminated the high cost of changing our seasonal flowers and mulch every year. We have also placed LED lights on tiers and shrubs for the University's 'Light The Campus' Community Light event, which is held during the Christmas season." Matt Doerr, President of Turf Appeal.

"We are constantly striving to improve the environment on campus, bu eliminating cost, saving money, and therefore building a stronger partnership with the Oklahoma City University staff and students." Matt Doerr, President of Turf Appeal.

Turf Appeal is a member of PLANET (Professional Landcare Network) who is committed to setting the standards for professional management service companies. We are committed to environmentally responsible practices and products while always evaluating new products and equipment to provide better service for every landscape. We use only the finest materials and trained certified specialists to manage and maintain your lawn and landscape. Turf Appeal is locally owned and operated in Oklahoma City. We have been managing services for Oklahoma landscapes for years and are committed to setting goals to exceed your expectations.

Turf Appeal is a member of Project Evergreen. "We want to make lawn mowing easier for military families." If you are aware of a military family in the Edmond area, separated due to a love one overseas and needs help with their lawn, pleas give us a call to nominate them for a free lawn mowing services.

PLANET's Environmental Improvement Awards Program reflects the association's commitment to creating and preserving the beauty of our landscape. The program is designed to reward independent landscape, lawn care, and interior plantscaping professionals who execute superior projects. PLANET strives to increase public awareness of environmental improvement through contracted landscaping, lawn care, and interior plantscaping and encourages the consistent use of quality materials and workmanship.

PLANET represents approximately 3,200 green industry service-provider companies and suppliers nationwide that specialize in lawn car, design/build/installation, interior plantscaping, and landscape management. These firms and their employees represent more the 100,000 green industry professionals.

Employee Of The Year goes to:  Dan The Man!

After the awards assembly we chose teams and played soccer. 
(Matt is still feeling a little bitter and says his team was cheated.)

Oklahoma City contractor's effort to make his company a fixture in the business community and pay big dividends.

The word professionalism gets thrown around a lot in the green industry, so much that its meaning can become diluted and distorted. In one extreme it's reduces to mere appearances, such as shiny trucks and spiffy uniforms. And in other instances it's inflated to lofty but largely meaningless abstractions like "quality service."

Matt Doerr has shiny trucks and provides quality work. But for him, professionalism is more than just logos and lip service. It's a business model, a blueprint for operating his company.

Doerr focuses his attention as an owner and manager on the innumerable things that communicate professionalism to current and potential clients, and constantly on the lookout for what counteracts that message.

"When I meet a potential client I figure I have two minutes," he says, "two minutes for them to size me and my company up, and also for me to size them up. I have to get across that we're trustworthy; that despite all the stereotypes about small companies we're uniquely capable of getting the job done right and that they're trust in us will be well placed.

Most importantly, Doerr says, that message has to harmonize with everything the customer has ever heard and seen about the company. He says that means paying attention to all the signals, both large and subtle, the company is sending. "We have to maintain our focus and be as close to a 10 as possible in everything we do."

Taking the long View

Doerr had a very specific vision for what he wanted his company to be when setting out three years ago, due in large part to his experience as an account manager for a larger company.

"I knew I wanted to focus on maintaining larger commercial properties, where we could focus our efforts on a relatively small number of accounts. I think we do our best on bigger properties, and we avoid a lot of drive time. And I didn't want to compete on price in the residential market," he says.

He continues to provide both commercial and residential application services, which he says has provided high margin and good cash flow. He had planned to grow the application side more, but with rising fuel and product costs he's put more of his effort toward growing maintenance. He also added $160,000 in off-season revenue since last fall with seasonal decorating and snow removal.

Although the company did perform residential maintenance in its first season to establish itself, Doerr worked diligently to break into the commercial market. For efficiency's sake he clustered residential work around a handful of commercial accounts, gradually drawing back from the former.

He invested considerable time in networking with the local business community, both as a means to meet potential clients but also as a source of support and advice. He continues to attend a business breakfast club on Thursday mornings, and a Christian business leader meeting Thursday afternoon.

"I think many get the wrong idea when they hear the word 'networking,' that it's about glad-handing and name-dropping. But it's not about that at all. I went into wanting to develop genuine relationships and learn from others, and that's exactly what has happened. It's amazing how much business leaders have been willing to listen and help out on all kinds of issues."

He also signed his company up with the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), through which he obtained his Certified Landscape Technician (CLT) status and is currently working toward passing the Certified Landscape Professional (CLP) exam. "It's a great source of information and contacts, and the certification is a crucial credential for a company of our size."

Intelligence work

Doerr's contacts have also given him invaluable insight into the market. "I was able to quickly learn who my potential customers were, who the contact is and when properties cup up for renewal."

Such intelligence gathering helps him choose the right accounts for his company. "I bid where we can make a profit, but the property also has to be a gem and it has to be the right fit for us. It has to have irrigation, for example, and I have to know the other contractors who do any other work that will affect the appearance. I consider every account to be a calling card; we're putting our name on the line."

He says he avoids the temptation to dive inot other services for the sake of landing extra business. "We'll find other high-quality providers for other services and manage everything, if that's what the customer wants. But if we fly off in other directions, we'll lose our focus."

Doerr says he maintains a list of properties that fit the bill, and submits a proposal on bright yellow paper—the company's trademark color—each season. "We know what customers we want, and that we'll get them eventually. But we're not going to take the shortcut and go for the lowest bid. I've learned to be patient, and not jump on the first opportunity that comes around."

He explains that a previous employer did exactly that: bidding low for a massive, multi-contractor account. "They tried to shoot for the golden ring," he says. "But the terms were terrible; no one could get paid until all the work was done to exact spec. It threw cash flow into a tailspin and eventually the whole company unraveled."

A big opportunity

When Turf Appeals' golden ring appeared, in just its second season, Doerr knew it was the right opportunity. His networking efforts had turned up an opportunity to bid on Oklahoma City University's entire campus.

The relationships he had established also laid the foundation of trust needed to win the the account, which had been held by a national firm. "I think there would have been a lot of trepidation awarding this to a company as young and as small as we were," Doerr explains. "But I was able to explain that the level of service they had been given and the quality of work they had been paying for was unacceptable and precisely how we would improve both."

Winning the account, Doerr brought in a full-time, experienced account manager who had managed grounds for the city—another payoff from his networking efforts—and established a dedicated crew for the campus. He also negotiated the use of a large dumpster for waste disposal and a shed for on-site equipment storage.

He then spoke with the dean of every building on campus, as well as numerous office workers, to determine what improvements and adjustments were needed. He continues to seek their input.

"I try to speak with those people who are impacted the most by the work we do—like the secretary who sees a hedge every time she looks out the window. She may like to see a hedge hand-pruned as opposed to trimmed, or vice versa. If she's satisfied with the quality of the work, or hopefully impressed, we've won an ally. It's so easy to overlook the influence people like that have, negatively and positively, even if they don't ultimately make the decisions."

A big test

the university account was a plum prize for Turf Appeal, not just financially but also as a reputational building block. It was also a basket holding a lot of the young company's eggs.

The improvement to the campus environment was noticed almost immediately. "We were thinking how much needed to be done when a student walked up to us and said how big a difference we were making to their daily life," he says, noting that work on the campus has also brought him into contact with a number of prominent alumni.

The improvements also won praise from administrators. But suddenly a high-ranking office changed hands, and the new administrator suggested bringing grounds maintenance in-house to save costs.

"That's always a risk we run," says Doerr. "It's tough because the new person can't compare our work to the previous company. And more often than not, they're looking for ways to put their mark on the budgeting process and cut costs."

But in this case, the chief financial officer, who'd been skeptical of the young company at first, went to bat for Turf Appeal and convinced the new administrator of the contract's true value

The CFO would come through again in the winter, when a freak ice storm struck the city. "The storm left 6 inches of solid ice on the ground," explains Doerr. "The university was determined to remain open, because of their commitment to the students, their customers. So the pressure was on us."

He says Turf Appeal's crew did a great job of clearing the sidewalks, but without heavy equipment the roads looked hopeless. "We were ready to bite the bullet, but the CFO made a call and a wrecking crew showed up with its monster equipment-at no cost to us."

Professional jujitsu

For Doerr, such instances reveal what professionalism's really about, and the leverage it can provide an emerging company. "It's about making that connection and establishing a mutual sense of trust," he says.

That sense of trust is what big corporations strive to convey through branding with the implied message that "bigger means better." And while that may be the case, Doerr says it can also work to his advantage.

"When I worked for a big national company, I was a number. Literally. My manager would call me into his office by saying, 'Hey, 4841, get in here.' Those companies often treat their customers the same way.

"I've found that, if I can just get over that initial hurdle of people's 'small company' perceptions, I can turn that around. Where a big company's inflexible, we're adaptable. Where they try to cut corners, we go the extra mile."

All he needs is that two minutes, he says.