[EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information on how Tom Del Conte’s 28-year-old, full-service landscape business is run, check out the cover story in the April issue of Lawn & Landscape magazine here: Method Man: Del Conte's Landscaping.]
FREMONT, Calif. - Tom Del Conte believes that when client communication breaks down, relationships fall apart.
Because of this belief, the president of Del Conte’s Landscaping, Fremont, Calif., does whatever he can to keep clients well informed of the work he does on their properties. One way he accomplishes this is through the Scheduled Landscape Annual Program (SLAP), which is a detailed monthly listing of each maintenance item that should be performed on a client’s property.
Del Conte invented this program 16 years ago to ensure every client receives the same high quality landscape maintenance. The program is revamped every November based on learned knowledge of the job and is updated monthly based on seasonal needs. For example, in early spring, Del Conte’s maintenance division must make sure it sprays all olive trees on clients’ properties with a growth retardant or fruit aborter to keep the trees from producing messy fruit. Since this control window is very limited - maybe two weeks long - having this maintenance item on the monthly SLAP list ensures it won’t be forgotten, pointed out Kurt Bland, the maintenance division manager at Del Conte’s Landscaping.
The past and upcoming month’s SLAP sheets are then mailed to clients monthly to keep them abreast of the maintenance being done on their properties throughout the year.
The following is a sample of a typical SLAP sheet for January and February:
| JANUARY | |
| Jan. 1 to Jan. 31 | Monitor annuals and succulents for snails. |
| Jan. 1 to Jan. 25 | Rose pruning. |
| Jan. 2 to Jan. 31 | Shrub thinning. |
| Jan. 2 to Jan. 31 | Finish tree pruning and staking. |
| All month | Monitor plums for spraying. |
| Due Jan. 31 | Bare soil area mapping for mulching. |
| Due Jan. 31 | Bids to clients for ground cover mowing: ivy, hypericum, gazania, osteospermum. |
| Due Jan. 31 | Mapping for lawn renovation and analysis. |
| Due Jan. 31 | Hard prune oleanders as needed. |
| Due Jan. 31 | Map all trees that are pruned under the scope of our contract. |
| FEBRUARY | |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 | Preemergent application in groundcover and shrub beds (weather dependent). |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 | Monitor plums for spraying. (Extra money and bid) |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 15 | Fertilize color. |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 | Monitor soil temperature for crabgrass preemergent application. |
| Feb. 15 to Feb. 28 | Letter to clients proposing dethatching and aerating work in March |
| Feb. 15 to Feb. 28 | Report to clients for lawn renovation (bid included). |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 | Monitor olives. |
| Feb. 1 to Feb. 28 | Bids for pear tree spraying. |
| Feb. 15 to Feb. 28 | Start monitoring soil temp for crabgrass pre-emerging. |
In addition to the SLAP program, the maintenance division at Del Conte’s Landscaping also prepares site particulars for each client. This is a list of maintenance tasks unique to one specific site. Del Conte gives an example of a site particular at a homeowners’ association: "Don’t do door 25 because she maintains her own garden," he explained. "Or ‘This particular unit needs the shrubs to extend half way up the window.’ These tasks are then included with all the regular site paperwork so that they are never forgotten."
The following are actual examples of site particulars:
| Route Book Site Particulars | |||
| ACCOUNT NAME: | Name Address Address |
START DATE: | Date |
| PERSON TO CONTACT: | Name Organization Address Address |
PHONE: FAX: |
Phone Fax |
| Site Particulars | |||
| START DATE | END DATE | DESCRIPTION | MAP REF. |
| 5/17/99 | Start date. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Determine square footage of park and division for client. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Maintain entrance at Sheffield Way both sides from fence to curb. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Hedge on right is Photinia and Abelia; replace Photinia with Abelia as they die. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Maintain common area lawn up to the end of 152 Gainsborough. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Maintain all parking strips in all streets. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Doggie bag dispensers to be kept full at Sheffield Road entrance; get extras at office; at play park, use key to open dispenser. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Maintain common area at end of Starbridge. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Cheshire Court: clean out BFP cage of plants debris. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Irrigation to determine borders with shrubs. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Starbridge Court had irrigation problems that needed checked. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Watch for storm drains and keep clean turf sand beds. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Fill in bare areas along fence. | ||
| 5/17/99 | Irrigation repair limit of $380.00 per month; anything over this amount requires approval. | ||
The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.