Challenges Faced by TruGreen Landcare

The commercial landscaping and lawn service industry is very competitive, driven by price and customer satisfaction. To keep quality and customer satisfaction high, TruGreen systematically evaluates the work its employees perform, by sending quality control teams out to audit and rate finished projects. However, TruGreen’s audit system was not working efficiently enough. Auditors were filling out forms, then driving back to branch offices to type their findings into the company’s CMR, which took up a sizable portion of their working day. TruGreen wanted an easily implemented, affordable field data solution that would allow them to collect field data in real-time from numerous stores and analyze the data’s quality, to increase the company’s reactivity, and gain competitive advantage. The application also had to be easy to access remotely and flexible enough to adapt to future business conditions.

In addition to this, having divested from a larger company, TruGreen wanted to modernize and replace their legacy IT systems. They had decided to migrate from Microsoft Exchange to cloud-based technologies, such as Google Apps, which was a better fit for the geographically diverse organization. New applications had to be mobile for access by field employees. They were advised to consider the workflow management platform of RunMyProcess to help them integrate the Google Apps platform with their existing systems.

TruGreen Landcare Solutions from RunMyProcess

RunMyProcess and White Stratus worked together to develop a new mobile audit solution that drew on existing cloud-based Google technologies to give TruGreen a detailed, real-time view of its field operations. The project development took less than eight weeks – from initial briefing, to piloting the solution in Florida, and first results on the auditors’ workflow.

The audit solution is accessible via Android-based Samsung Galaxy tablets. Field auditors fill out the quality reports on-site using web forms built on the RunMyProcess platform. They can illustrate the report with photos taken with the tablets, which then automatically upload to the appropriate Google Docs folders. The reports are then routed to TruGreen’s quality management and operations teams, as well as to that area’s sales manager.

“Through this tool, we have increased the quality of our work, and therefore improved our customer retention.”

- George Kelly, Chief Information Officer, TruGreen Landcare LLC