Schedule Demo
In any field service business, your account managers are responsible for managing client relationships, sales, communication, and, ultimately, your bottom line. Account managers not only have to possess business acumen and drive, but they also have to be reliable and systematic with their tasks—and be able to process information and pivot on the fly.
“The most important thing for an account manager is organizational time management,” says Lady Perez, an account manager with Property Works, a West Palm Beach-based company.
“That's what it comes down to in this job, tackling so many different things all the time,” she adds. “Organization, time management, and the ability to have the tools to do your job—Property Works sets us up with that.”
Perez and the other account managers on her team sell landscape maintenance, janitorial, and facilities management services to Property Works’ portfolio of commercial clients. Aspire enables them to communicate with clients and their teams from anywhere while providing all the data they need to convey accurate and up-to-date information.
Here’s how Property Works uses Aspire to empower and equip account managers to provide the highest level of service to its clients—all at a moment’s notice.
Motivate with performance data
After working in bars and restaurants for years, Perez came to the landscape industry, so she’s motivated by creating a great customer experience. “I want to serve a client, a customer, a friend,” she explains. “When I go to these properties, I think, ‘OK, I'm walking into my house; how can I make this place better?’ Organizing my thoughts in Aspire so efficiently saves me so much time.”
When Perez is curious about her progress and performance, Aspire provides that information wherever she happens to be. “I like to look at my P&L reports and see, ‘OK, my gross margin is crazy high here. How did I get there?’” she says.
The ability to review her dashboard dials and hone in on her sales has helped her understand the business and her impact on the company. “Being able to go back and read those reports, and the more I play with Aspire, the more it's helped me understand what I'm selling, how much I'm selling, and how much I make in the company,” she explains. “It’s cool for me to look at that. I hate math, but I love seeing those pivot reports and just playing with them and being able to build them and say, ‘Wow, that's my snapshot for the month or the year.’ Having Aspire and visualizing those numbers helps drive my motivation.”
She says that when creating an estimate, she finds checking her progress for the current month beneficial. “I would hate it if we didn't have that information because I like looking at my gross margin. I love that number. When I go above a certain range, it just makes me feel like, ‘OK, I can keep selling here.’”
Enable independence and timely problem-solving
“What I like about being an account manager is the ability to operate independently and manage my clients on my own,” says Jonathan Foy, account manager at Property Works. Foy has more than a decade of experience in the industry and is primarily responsible for commercial maintenance accounts at Property Works.
Because landscaping and janitorial services may depend on service interruptions, equipment problems, last-minute decisions, or change orders, Aspire’s cloud-based mobile system helps accommodate these adjustments.
Foy encounters these shifts regularly, for example, when an irrigation line breaks.
“We had to do a big irrigation fix today, and when you fix a main line, you have to glue it, and you can't turn the water back on,” he explains. “He was supposed to check the whole property today, and unfortunately, he can't since the irrigation can't be turned back on. So on the fly, I had to go into the schedule on my iPad, change a ticket from tomorrow, put it on for him for today, and now move today's wet check to tomorrow.”
These issues don’t just impact the schedule—obtaining the necessary parts can cause delays, but Aspire helps him tackle those obstacles.
“He also needed a purchase receipt to buy a big pipe to install here,” he adds. “So I was able to go into my iPad and make that purchase receipt right away, and he had it within five minutes, and he's back here working already.”
Account manager Jamie LaRue is relatively new to the landscaping industry. Still, she’s succeeded in her short two years in the business, working with various municipal, HOA, hospitality, and education clients.
“I like it because I get to be outdoors a lot,” she says, “I'm not just doing the same routine every day. I have different clients and different people I'm working with.”
Aspire’s estimating and schedule board are two areas LaRue accesses from her laptop in her truck when she’s out of the office.
She finds the centralized system helpful when assembling an estimate for a client. “You can write in the description and add pictures, and then it sends it right to the client,” she says. “It's like a one-stop shop; you don't have to do much outside the system. It gives you all the opportunity right there.”
LaRue uses Aspire’s schedule board as a labor-management tool for her subcontractors and in-house crews. “It helps me manage their ticket times, and I can see how long they were on the job,” she explains. “Once a job is complete, Aspire moves it into invoicing. Any purchases we make are tied to the same ticket, so it helps me organize everything.
“I probably couldn't do my job without it because it's too much to keep track of,” she says.
Create consistent proposals
Foy relies on the templates that Property Works has created in Aspire. “We have a certain set of templates, so it is consistent throughout, whether I go to different properties,” he explains.
These templates are in the system and automatically factor labor and material costs into the estimate, helping systematize the estimating process and pricing across the company’s various service offerings.
“Because I run into different jobs, landscape installs or just mulching, the pricing and plugging that stuff into Aspire, it's very consistent, and that's important,” Foy says. “I can't have the same services for another property with a different price.”
Provide seamless and reliable reminders
Maintaining an entire book of business can quickly turn into a mess of post-it notes, meeting invites, and smartphone notes and alerts. Aspire has helped Perez organize her appointments inside and outside the system.
“My favorite part is how Outlook syncs to the Aspire calendar,” she says. “One of my favorite things is doing an all-day event as a reminder, so I no longer have to use my reminders on my phone. I make an all-day event, and that transfers immediately to Aspire. It's all just one interface, one place for that calendar. That's what makes my day.”
Ready to see how Aspire can empower your account management staff to sell and communicate with clients more effectively? Request a demo today.
Schedule Demo