BREAKTHROUGH SERIES: Profession or Professional?

Because few homeowners and property managers are up to the task of fertilizing their own lawns, identifying their own pest problems or building their own retaining walls, they hire contractors to make improvements to their outdoor living spaces. Their areas of expertise – from entomology to horticulture to maintenance – make green industry professionals among the most sought-after contractors in the service industry.

However, unlike other services in areas like medicine, law or education, green industry contractors are not required to be certified in order to perform their often technical work. Certainly, individuals or companies who work with pesticides generally are required to be licensed by the states in which they operate. Still, voluntarily earning certifications such as certified landscape professional (CLP) or certified landscape technician (CLT) designations remains an industry rarity.

As such, national industry associations are making a push to bring the values and benefits of certification into the limelight. Hoping to increase the number of contractors carrying credentials from 4,600 now to 7,700 by the end of 2006, the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) and the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA), which officially merged this month, are promoting certification’s personal and business advantages to members and nonmembers throughout the industry.

But while more contractors are sitting for certification exams every year, the vast majority of business owners remain uncertified. Lawn & Landscape delved into the world of industry certification to learn why this is the case, how contractors can effectively reap certifications’ rewards and what the industry stands to gain as more contractors aim to add industry certifications to their lists of credentials.

GRASSROOTS PUSH. Currently, 24 U.S. states and all of Canada offer certification designations, such as CLT and CLP, through national industry associations. As such, becoming association members is the first step toward certification for most contractors. "I’ve always been a member of my state association, but my big concern was that there was nothing outlining what qualified me to be a member of that association," says Chris James, president of Chris James Landscaping, Midland Park, N.J. "If I wrote them a $100 check for dues, did that mean I was qualified?"

James, who currently holds CLT and certified snow professional (CSP) credentials, says his worries were confronted in the late 1990s by a colleague who became president of the New Jersey Landscape Association. The state association was looking into offering certification through ALCA, and James saw an opportunity to validate his experience. "I basically became New Jersey’s guinea pig for the CLT exam as a chairman of the CLT committee and as a candidate for the exam," he says. "I took the CLT exam in 1997 in Maryland because New Jersey wasn’t offering it at that time. Besides solidifying the fact that I was proficient in the maintenance areas I was trained in, earning that certification really let me put my money where my mouth was. By this time in my career, I was running my business full time and was out of the field. It’s very enlightening as a business owner to take that exam and revisit the techniques you’re selling as a company."

Currently, James is one of only about 2,500 CLTs in the industry. Moreover, ALCA reports that there are only 500 CLPs industrywide. While these may seem like strong numbers, 500 certified contractors is less than 1 percent of all contractors.

"Even though testing for the CLT started in California in the 1980s, there are still roughly only 2,500 CLTs in the industry," James says. "Right now, it’s more of an exclusive group from an industry standpoint and when you look at the hundreds of thousands of people in the industry, being one of the few who is certified is special. Still, certification is one thing that raises professionalism in the industry, which is one of the reasons we wanted to get involved with it in the first place and why we’re working to get more people certified all the time."

Matt Triplett agrees. "If we offer professional, upper-end services with qualified, uniformed people, we can upgrade the status of the industry and be more prosperous," says the vice president of Willamette Landscape Services, Tualatin, Ore. As a CLP, CLT, certified landscape irrigation auditor and current chair of the ALCA International Certification Council (ICC), Triplett is in the thick of the association’s push to raise the visibility of certification opportunities. "As an industry tool, certification is one of the only places where the national organization connects on a grassroots level with the state organizations. And it’s one of the only functions that crosses state and international lines to bring competitors together. We’ve formed a certification community of people who recognize it as a win-win opportunity."

BUILDING PERCEIVED VALUE. Arguably the largest impact certification has on the green industry as a whole, advocates say, is its ability to advance the level of professionalism in the industry as seen from within and without.

"This is still a relatively easy-entry industry and certification is something that can help illustrate to our customers that we’re highly trained at the work we do," James says. "Just because someone has a license or insurance doesn’t mean they’ll do the job up to the right standards. But because employees at our company carry professional certification, it’s clear that we have the knowledge and the techniques to provide our customers with services they’ll be happy with."

Among contractors, Jason Cupp adds that the professionalism inspired by certification creates camaraderie among industry colleagues. "Our business has grown in the right ways because certification provided me with access to like-minded contractors – people who aspire to the same levels of quality work, customer service and employee relations that I do," says the CLP and president, The Kincaide Co., St Louis, Mo. "When I get stuck on a problem or business challenge, I have a whole list of other CLPs with the same understanding of green industry business practices who I can turn to for some candid advice."

Cupp says by sharing ideas and learning from business mistakes, contractors can help each other succeed, thereby increasing the professionalism existing customers expect and the appreciation that potential customers have for landscape service providers.

Triplett says contractors like James and Cupp have the right idea and that national associations have a responsibility to increase the perceived value of certification throughout the industry. "As contractors use these exam opportunities to prove their aptitude and expand the certified community, we can increase professionalism in the industry just by virtue of wanting to better ourselves and be the best at what we do," he says.

Still, Triplett comments that many industry members have not, until recently, put their full effort behind promoting these and other potential benefits to industry certification. "Not everyone is told that certification is the way to go," he says. "It takes a fundamental appreciation of the credential in order to get the most out of it, and that’s one place the industry has fallen short. One of our challenges now is to work with the contractors, specifiers, vendors and business owners who don’t necessarily see the value in certification and provide them with more education to that end, so we may ultimately create a predictable marketplace for our certifications."

While definite plans are still being ironed out, Triplett notes that the importance of certification is on the front burner of each association committee – an effort to truly boost the association’s appreciation of certification internally so as to reflect the credential’s values throughout the industry.

"When ALCA initially adopted certification, it was kept an at arm’s length from the board – it was a potential opportunity, but not something that was necessarily marketed strongly," Triplett says. "We’ve brought it back into the fold because we realized there was a slight disconnect in terms of the importance of certification. Our new, merged association’s strategic plan has certification as a key component with representation on every committee, as well as a huge marketing budget. This is in effort to make more people aware of the opportunities."

Cupp, ICC’s current marketing committee chair, notes that in addition to CLT and CLP certifications, PLCAA’s legacy certifications, including certified turfgrass professional, certified ornamental landscape professional and certified turf professional for cool season lawns, also are on his radar screen for promotional opportunities.

REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS? While national associations hope to introduce more contractors to certification through upcoming marketing campaigns, Triplett notes that it remains the responsibility of contractors themselves to promote the topic to potential clients. "A national organization can’t make as strong an impact in a municipality as it can when working with another organization, perhaps at a state level," he says. "There’s not the same level of understanding there. The inertia has to be built up at a grassroots level by the people who are in the field every day in order to make an impact locally. This type of marketing really has been underutilized."

John Palasek, owner of JonKar Design Group, Long Island, N.Y. agrees, noting that, in his area, homeowners know little if anything about professional green industry certifications. "I do think that the CLT and CLP programs have some merit, but in my experience, they aren’t yet applicable in the real world," he says. Palasek is licensed in his state, but is not currently certified. "My opinion has always been that there should be more media emphasis on certification and what it means if the industry wants to make it understandable to homeowners and other potential clients."

Palasek explains that most landscape customers are trained through news sources to ask contractors if they’re licensed, insured and can supply references. However, no media outlets have insisted on learning whether a contractor is certified or what level of training accompanies such a title.

"The training is good," Palasek says. "But the work I do even without a certification speaks for itself and brings in a great deal of word-of-mouth advertising for my business. When you’re flashing business cards with a CLT or CLP logo, right now it’s not reaching many more people than other contractors who attend tradeshows and exchange cards. The solution is to lobby the media and explain the importance of certification to them so the media can enlighten the public."

James adds that while certification has been beneficial for his business, many of his customers are still uninformed. "As a company, we still advertise our certification and try to promote it to our customers, but for a lot of people, ‘CLT’ doesn’t translate to anything," he says. "My business card used to say ‘Certified Landscape Technician,’ and ‘Certified Snow Professional,’ but when we redesigned our logo and streamlined the business cards, I took that off. For most of my clients, the fact that my card says ‘President’ below my name is enough to tell them I’m qualified to be on their property."

Triplett acknowledges that public education regarding green industry certification has been lacking until recently. He notes, however, that some clients, such as property managers or developers, are getting the word and reconsidering certification credentials as part of their specifications. "One reason we’ve found that more contractors aren’t buying into certification is because hardly anyone is specifying it yet," he says. "In some instances, it’s starting to be built into job specifications and in those cases certification has a very true value."

Triplett says within five to 10 years, he expects to see more management and development firms request contractor certification. This could be a problem for contractors like Palasek, who realize they could be hurting themselves by passing up certification.

Still, Triplett says the industry has yet to reach the "critical mass" of certified members that would allow it to lobby property managers and insist they hire certified professionals.

POWER OF PROMOTION. Most certified contractors agree with Triplett’s assessment that promotion of a company’s certifications is, at its heart, up to the company.

"Outside of what may or may not be on our business cards, we recognized that in a commercial marketplace, our customers are asking for licensing, insurance and sometimes even MSDS sheets and labels, but it’s up to us to tell them about our certifications," James says. "ALCA produces a CLT flier with information on the exam and what the designation means, so we use that in a lot of our marketing materials and it’s helped us to start educating some of our customers.

"I also make sure to promote my CSP certification, especially when I’m acting in a consultant capacity," James adds. "Those customers need to understand that I’m qualified to be on their property and give them advice about how to handle their snow and ice problems. Why should they pay me $1,200 a day to look at their property if they’re not convinced that I know my business?"

James says he proudly displays this CLT and CSP certifications, as well as memberships in national and state trade associations, on his Web site. He also sends marketing materials provided by ALCA to existing and potential clients for education.

Likewise, Booth Hemingway, owner of Piscataqua Landscape Co., Eliot, Maine, notes that his company "constantly bombards" clients with certification information through the company’s newsletter and by including certification logos on all printed materials. "We find it’s really important to keep the certification message in front of the client," he says. "We know that certification helps us separate our company from all of the pick-up truck operations around, and over time our clients have come to understand that – it’s part of our presentation package. We explain that we’re a little more expensive than the other guys, but they realize because of our explanation of certification that our staff is better educated. Anything you can do to add credibility to your company is important."

Cupp also applies the CLP logo to all the letters, design plans and contracts that cross his desk. "All of the plans that exit the company are reviewed by me, and I personally stamp all the plans that leave our office with the CLP logo," he says. "Also, any contract that goes out the door – regardless of whether I wrote it – is reviewed by me and I write a cover letter to the client explaining why we do the things we do and what our certifications mean to us and to them."

Moreover, Cupp takes his CLP logo on the road by using the "CLP On-Staff" images on the company’s trucks and trailers. "Right now, especially in our area of the country, certification is not widespread, but our company does our best to cast a wide net with the credentials we have earned," he notes. "The education and the CLP designation follows me as a company owner, but I also want it to trickle down to the rest of the staff so they understand what it means and how important it is."

Though Cupp, James and other contractors note that quantifying the benefits of industry certification is difficult, both note that their training and credentials have provided their companies with more leverage in the marketplace. "Depending on the type of work and the client, our jobs might be priced 10 percent higher in the commercial arena and 20 to 30 percent higher on high-end residential," James says. "In the neighborhoods where I work, I know my clients can associate our pricing with our experience and the quality of our work, which stems from certification."

Cupp agrees. "Certification is part of a package that allows us to gain a competitive advantage in our market and thereby drive up the standards that people will expect from our industry and will pay for."

In the industry, certification is beginning to take hold and delineate between the idea of landscape contractor as a profession and that of a landscape contractor as a professional. "As our industry becomes more professional, certification will become a major focus," Cupp says. "There aren’t a lot of folks out there doing it right now, but as it gets more attention in the association, the industry and the media, it’s something that contractors will need to look at more seriously."