Why Berkshire Turfgrass Specialists Switched to RealGreen During Busy Season
The Company:
Based in Dalton, MA, Berkshire Turfgrass Specialists provides a wide variety of lawn care and pest control services for commercial and residential properties, including athletic field maintenance, aeration and overseeding, mosquito and tick control, and more. Founded by owner-operator Tylor Harrington in 2017, they switched to RealGreen from Service Autopilot during the busy season in 2023.
The Problem:
Two busy branches of a growing business…and the software wasn’t up to the task.
Initially, Harrington used Excel to help manage his business, but after a couple of years, a simple spreadsheet wasn’t cutting it. He signed up with Service Autopilot because they had the basic features he needed at the time, and their pricing structure was attractive, a main concern for a small business.
Then, his company started growing. A competitor was retiring, and Harrington purchased a large portion of that business. Around the same time, he joined forces with another competitor to start a tick and mosquito control business. For a year, Harrington had to manage both branches of his business with separate Service Autopilot accounts, a process that became increasingly difficult, clunky, and ultimately – too expensive. In May of 2023, even though it was the middle of the busy season, Harrington knew it was time to make a switch.
The Solution:
Switching to the real deal – in the busy season
Harrington’s pest control business partner also owned a lawn care business – and was using RealGreen to run it. Having done a demo in the past, Harrington was already familiar with the software; seeing how his partner could use it gave him a real-world window into the day-to-day reality. “The first thing I did was move all our tick and mosquito customers over to RealGreen – and it was a bit of a relief.” He then moved his lawn care customers to RealGreen as well. “Being able to have both businesses on RealGreen and just separate them as individual branches was so much easier than having two different accounts.” A simple customer import allowed Harrington to migrate his entire customer base quickly and easily, enabling him to continue operating his business with minimal interruptions during the height of the busy season. “I moved customers to the new software at night when I was done working and had some free time, maybe an extra hour or so each evening,” Harrington says the whole process took around six weeks working in batches – and that it felt less daunting than trying to do it all at once during the off-season.
The Results:
Easy upsells, easy money – and the ability to scale
Harrington started seeing results almost immediately. In Massachusetts, fertilizing companies are required to provide customers with a physical receipt after every application, so they frequently print paper invoices for customers. “Being able to include upsells on those printed invoices is huge, and with my previous software, you couldn’t put upsells on the printed invoices. It’s such a missed marketing opportunity.” By adding an upsell for aeration and seeding on his invoices with RealGreen, he saw a 60% increase right away. “I knew I wanted to use RealGreen to upsell on the invoices, and I knew I couldn’t do that until I put my customers into the system,” says Harrington, explaining that it was one of the driving forces for him to move customers over during busy season instead of waiting for a slower time. “This was huge for me because aeration is great – usually, there’s not too much material or labor costs involved.”
What advice would Harrington offer to other business owners considering making the switch? First, he says, don’t be afraid of the learning curve. It’s not as daunting as it might seem at first glance. “I demoed with three different software, including RealGreen. And they all seem daunting at first,” he explains. “There’s a learning curve with everything, but just stick with it.” He adds that tapping into Real Green Community sites and WorkWave University training videos has been incredibly helpful in learning the ins and outs of the software.
“I already like RealGreen better than Service Autopilot, and I used that for a couple of years,” says Harrington. “In 2023, I focused mainly on pushing upsells for aeration and overseeding – next year, I’m going to push even more on both businesses to sell even more. And I imagine I’ll grow even more. Plus, once you get dialed in and utilize all of the features, you can easily make your investment back. I know I did last year, just with the aeration upsell. I wouldn’t have gotten that with any other software. RealGreen is worth it.”
