Nine crews where there were four
Eric Hill started Fay-Ark Lawn Co. in high school with one truck. Eight years on, the company has 55 people, 45 of them in the field, and a goal to triple its maintenance revenue in three years.
Jared Bravenec runs the maintenance side. He joined two years ago as a crew member, became a foreman, and then took over as maintenance manager. He had four crews when he started in the role. A year later he had nine, and most of the new work was larger commercial property.
Eric first saw CrewPlanner at the GROW conference in Dallas and waited a year. The company was growing too fast to take on new software. Then the priority for the season changed.
“This year our whole thing has just been, we have to improve our gross margin. Labor and materials, most of that is labor.”
Eric Hill, President
Before: routing on guesswork
Going into the season, Jared was routing from estimated hours. Crews were set at two people, and the bigger properties got two crews at once. He calls the scheduling and routing that came out of it “a nightmare.”
“Before, it was guessing, honestly, and then just trial and error. Which sucks, because I feel bad if I’m putting my guys in a tough position. My job is for them to succeed.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
One crew of four, and a plan for each person
Eric’s change was to put a single four-person crew on all the big properties and give that crew a job plan for every one of them. A job plan shows each crew member what they own on the site, in what order, and how long each task should take, including the walking time between service areas.
“It’s having a plan for each person. It doesn’t matter if the foreman’s called in sick or if there’s someone else. Everyone has the same information to perform at the hours it’s quoted, or ideally below.”
Eric Hill, President
The plans sit where the crew already looks. Fay-Ark puts the CrewPlanner link in the operation notes for each property in Aspire, so the plan is in front of the crew when they clock in.
When the day changes, the plan changes with it.
“We have a three-man crew today because we had to move some guys around. In our notes, I have the TOP Green three-man plan for that property. They don’t have to guess which link it is. They click that link and it takes them to the three-man plan. It just takes the guesswork out. That’s my biggest thing.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
What the crews said first
It did not land cleanly. The plans arrived after the season had started, the timelines looked like a lot on an iPad, and crews paid by the hour wanted to know what a shorter plan meant for them. Jared answered that directly.
“We’re not here to just squeeze every little bit of work out of you, and you’re supposed to complete this 40-hour ticket in 30 hours. That’s not my heart. We’re here to set you up for success, so you can get more work done in the same amount of time.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
Keeping the plans true to the ground
Jared meets every week with Yates Hamilton, TOP Green’s Customer Success Manager. Jared has walked the properties, so what he knows goes back into the plans.
“I’ve been there on site, so I can tell them, this is actually a rock bed. We have to trim this. We can’t fit a 48-inch mower back here, we need a push mower. So we can customize that in real time and fix the plan.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
Ninety days in
Moving the big properties to one four-person crew took a route off the schedule. In Jared’s words, “It eliminated a route entirely.”
Fay-Ark had expected to buy another truck and hire another foreman to cover the new work. The plans showed that the people it already had could carry it.
“It’s just been a very useful tool, and it’s saved us a truck too. That expense too is massive.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
Then there is the number. During the live Q&A an attendee asked whether revenue per hour had gone up. Eric answered without notes.
“The crew that has it fully implemented, they’re our highest revenue-per-hour maintenance crew. For all the mowing, they’re the highest, and I think they compete with our bush trimming and horticulture team as well. They’re basically neck and neck with the highest-producing revenue crew now, and that has gone up. I don’t remember the exact dollar amount, but I want to say roughly $15 an hour in their hourly rate since actually implementing it.”
Eric Hill, President
One crew was fully on plans when Eric gave that answer. Jared is still adding properties.
What it changed for the manager
Jared came into the job without years of mowing experience at this scale. He says the plans changed how he talks to his crews.
“I feel like I can relate to them better than just barking orders. I understand this is a big property and it takes you a long time. I can relate to them and understand how hard their job is, and help them work out the kinks of whatever process they do on site. That relatability with the guys that I work with every single day, it’s huge.”
Jared Bravenec, Maintenance Manager
