In a new direction

Not quite five years ago, Yocelin Reynoso Prado stepped into SouthWest Landscape without any experience or knowledge of the green industry. Today, she is running the Los Angeles branch — one of the fastest growing in the company.

“I actually worked in finances, workman’s comp and medical billing before,” Reynoso Prado recalls. “I came in very green and didn’t know much but I really worked hard to ask questions, learn how things are done and see how and what clients actually need.”

Paul Hansen, vice president of client services, remembers interviewing Reynoso Prado back in the COVID era and immediately being blown away.

“I was very impressed by her communication skills and the way she carried herself,” he says. “I was very excited to get her onboard, because with her customer service background I thought it’d be a really good fit.”

Hansen says immediately, Reynoso Prado came in with a determination to overcome her lack of experience within the field and learn everything she could.

“Sure enough, when she came on board, she did a wonderful job of being a sponge,” he says. “She wanted to learn all about the landscape industry, all about what her expectations were and how to be successful. That was really impressive from Day 1.”

He adds that it wasn’t long before the property managers and other clients of the $11-million maintenance company began taking note of the new superstar.

“It feels like from right away she was making an impact on her clients,” Paul recalls. “The feedback I was getting from clients was that she was very responsive and very proactive. That really became the theme of what we began to expect from her and what she was giving her clients.”

One of those clients, Samantha Chott, remembers meeting Reynoso Prado very early on, adding it’s very impressive just how far she has come.

“I’ve been working with the SouthWest team since 2014,” Chott says. “I actually walked a building with Yocelin her first week of being at SouthWest.”

Doing her due diligence

What Chott, Paul Hansen and Bryan Hansen, SouthWest’s vice president of operations, all appreciate most about Reynoso Prado is her diligence and her tenacity.

After starting out as a client representative, Reynoso Prado was promoted to branch manager almost two years ago.

“What’s propelled her is her diligence,” Bryan says. “She’s extremely organized and methodical when it comes to constant contact with her clients. Her skills in that aspect are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s why the clients enjoy working with her so much.”

Chott agrees, saying she can call Reynoso Prado about anything and enjoys having her as the single point of contact.

“She’s the most on-top-of-it person I think I’ve ever met,” Chott says. “I can call her about properties she oversees or one someone else on the team oversees, usually she’s familiar with it but even if she doesn’t have the answer, she gets back to me super quickly.”

Paul says in a business where customer complaints usually garner the majority of attention, it’s great to get nice notes back on employees like Reynoso Prado.

“It seems like more often than not in this business, we don’t always get compliments — but it felt like we were consistently getting compliments about Yocelin,” he says. “Whether it was through a survey, or just getting an email from a client saying, ‘We’re really seeing a difference with Yocelin on board.’ That really made a huge impact on the business.”

In fact, Paul says Reynoso Prado has played a major role in the company’s growth since coming on board.

“One of the biggest impacts we saw was we were getting a lot of referral business just from her doing great work,” he says. “For a time period it became our highest driver of new business.

“She’s super committed and loyal to the business,” he adds. “She very much has that drive inside her to know she’s representing herself and her character but the business as well, and she wants what’s best for the business.”

For Reynoso Prado, that drive to better the business has trumped a lot of things — and kept her going through some of the darkest times in her life recently.

After marrying her husband, George, in January, Reynoso Prado suffered a medical emergency.

“Going through all that I used work a lot to try and not think of those things,” she admits. “Even though my entire team, my bosses, the owners — everyone was encouraging me to take as much time as I needed but I always felt like I needed to be back. Mentally, it helped me more to get back into the game than to stay at home.

“Alongside those hardships, I’m learning how to be a branch manager,” she adds. “I’ve loved getting to see my teammates winning things and doing a good job, getting really good feedback and getting compliments from our clients.”

The biggest compliment Chott can give Reynoso Prado is how great she is at following up.

“Her ability to follow up and keep things front of mind for property managers is huge to me,” Chott says. “I obviously care about the irrigation leak that might be going on, but sometimes I have a literal fire at another building, so I get distracted. She’s super patient and continues with the follow up so we can get a resolution for everything.” Bryan says that this is what SouthWest instills in Reynoso Prado and others to make the most of their relationships with clients.

“We always promote the aspect of not being a service provider but a service partner — we’re the eyes and ears for our clients,” he says. “We’re on these properties at least once a week and some of these managers don’t have the ability to tour their properties on a regular basis… We try to go above and beyond and look out for graffiti, trash that’s dumped, lights that don’t work and all those things that have nothing to do with landscape but go a long way with these property managers that are spread thin.”

Paul adds that Reynoso Prado’s drive for organization, and her attention to details, has also helped him in the way he leads.

“With so much client service… You have to be very resourceful and organized and that’s something Yocelin has even helped me with as I’ve built up this customer service position at SouthWest,” he says. “She’s helped redefine some of the processes and SOPs we have for people to be successful.”

More than a mentor

And ensuring everyone is successful is Reynoso Prado’s favorite element of her role at SouthWest.

“Our yard is Orange County and LA and technically, my team is LA, but if someone from Orange County comes over and has questions, I’m very open and willing to help,” she says. “I want them to succeed just as much. I’m a big believer that if they succeed and we succeed the company is only going to get bigger and better and make us even stronger. It’ll just give everyone even more opportunities.”

As a complete newcomer to the industry herself, Reynoso Prado says she knows how intimidating it can be coming into a new environment. That’s why she likes to prioritize getting to know SouthWest’s newest employees.

“I try to really be there for newer employees and show them that I’m here and willing to help in whatever way I can,” she says. That could be something as simple as a software issue.

“Whatever I can help with I enjoy doing. I find it very rewarding. If someone’s unsure of how to get something done and I show them step by step, and they’re like, ‘Wow! That wasn’t so bad.’ Things like that really pump me up and energize me.”

Paul says just how deeply Reynoso Prado cares is evident to everyone on her team, and leadership as well.

“To this day, she makes it a daily intention to be outside with her maintenance crews when they come back from their routes,” he says. “Her field staff, down to the newest employees know who she is and that she can offer assistance and is somebody that cares.”

Reynoso Prado credits a lot of this back to Bryan and Paul — who she says lead with integrity as well.

“The culture at SouthWest stems from leadership,” she says. “Paul and Bryan are the VPs and are so willing to help. They’re always there for the good and bad. They’re believers in everyone can make mistakes, but it’s about what you do afterwards and what you take from it. Having people in higher positions acting that way makes you more comfortable and makes everyone feel like they can do more and not be shamed if they make a mistake.”

But it’s just not the SouthWest staff that Reynoso Prado is mentoring — her clients are relying on her, too.

“I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet the property managers and their assistants or whomever it might be. Working with them and getting to know them not just as a property manager but on a more personal level,” she says. “They now have the confidence to call me in case there’s anything. They are all comfortable with speaking to me directly.”

Chott says she now relies on Reynoso Prado to help make the calls that are right for the properties she manages and their tenants.

“She came in with no landscaping experience, and throughout this time she’s become someone I turn to if I have a question about a property or what to do,” she says. “I’m always looking for her suggestions.”

A diamond in the rough

Having a hard-working woman, like Reynoso Prado, in the branch manager role is electrifying, Paul says.

“It’s so exciting for me. SouthWest hasn’t had a lot of female leadership in our history,” he says. “Yocelin came on board, and she earned respect so quickly. I think that’s because she has a relatability about her and genuinely cares about people.”

Reynoso Prado remembers being the only female as she rose through the ranks.

“From the start, I believe I was the only female in our side of the business when I was working with property managers when I first came in,” she recalls. “It was kind of scary at first. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t — just being in a male dominated room where everyone knew what they were doing and I was still pretty green. But after some time, I learned the game and learned what clients wanted and what the company needed.”

Nowadays, Reynoso Prado is hoping to inspire other women to not only enter the green industry, but climb the corporate ladder within it as well.

“I know we’re slowly getting more women into this area of landscaping and it’s really nice to see it growing and getting better,” she says. “We women can provide so much as well.”

A fruitful future for all

In addition to rising the ranks at SouthWest this year, Reynoso Prado also married her husband, George, and gained a new stepdaughter, Charlotte.

Those who know her best agree that there’s nothing Reynoso Prado can’t do — but they all hope she can use her passion and skills to further SouthWest’s success.

“Senior leadership here at SouthWest always jokes that if only we could duplicate her…Then how much more successful could we be,” Paul says. “If I could will it to be, I would love for her to be here forever.”

Bryan shares a similar vision for her, saying she’ll make the most out of any role she’s given.

“The sky is the limit for her,” he says. “We’re a relatively small company but we’ve been growing rapidly for the last six years. With the trajectory we’re going, and the goals we have as a company, I think she’d be a director of client services where all of the client reps are underneath her. That would maximize her talents and have those intricacies of hers be trained and implemented throughout our customer service.”

For Reynoso Prado, she says her focus for the future is on her family — those related to her and the family she’s made at SouthWest.

“Outside of work, I really want to start a family and be able to do more with my family,” she says. “At work, I definitely want to be more in part with the day-to-day process with newer employees and showing them the path. I want to model the drive so they can see from inception that they’re cared for, and we want them to succeed, so if they really give it their all they can achieve it.”

The author is senior editor with Lawn & Landscape.