Know your clients

A passion for the business and a penchant for people are reasons why Pittsburgh Stone & Waterscapes has grown steadily throughout the years.

“I put heart into my business,” says Jeff Blunkosky, who bought out his father and took over as president in 2011. The two essentially switched roles, and now Robert serves as chief operating officer. “This work is not easy, and it takes a lot of effort and energy. It would be a real chore if you didn’t love it.”

Meanwhile, Blunkosky brings systems to the soft stuff: customer relations. Managing client expectations goes beyond being a people person. During the project planning process, Blunkosky focuses on digging deep and getting to know what makes homeowners, and their household, tick.

“We work to understand their lives and how their families are structured to come up with a plan that will suit their needs,” he says.

Blunkosky figures that seven out of 10 people do not realize the full potential of their properties. “What we can do is give them a yard that is above and beyond what they were expecting,” he says.

The company used to create many rendition of a landscape plan before pleasing the customer. “That takes time and it wears the customer down,” Blunkosky says.

High-end clients want to see the plan reflecting their goals on the first round.

Communication is the key to accomplishing this. “We take the time and effort to collect data, and the more we collect prior to the design phase, the easier it is to nail that design,” Blunkosky says, noting that 97 percent of his designs are finalized on the first round. “We are usually dead-on with our designs because we do such a good job getting to know our customers before we go to the drawing board.”

Meanwhile, Blunkosky is constantly getting to know trends in outdoor living by watching what major metropolitan areas are doing. He brings these ideas back to Pittsburgh, which tends to be five or so years behind locales like New York City or Southern California, he says.

Continuing to stay on the cutting edge, partnering with talented subcontractors and providing clients a full, luxury spread of landscaping services will position PGHWS for growth next year, and beyond, Blunkosky says. “Our year is completely booked, and we have clients calling to get on our schedule for next spring,” he says. “It’s exciting to see that.”