How this Astroturf Business Had A Record-Breaking Year with Jobber
What do you have to do to get a record-breaking year in the artificial turf cleaning industry? Learn from this seasoned veteran who used client follow-ups to boost his growth, revenue, and client base!
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15 Employees
11 Years Old
Santa Ana, California
John Pla started TurfFresh in Santa Ana, California, in 2010 when the Astroturf industry started booming.
He took a different angle and focused on turf maintenance and product sales. Since then, he’s grown his team to 15 people and achieved his first record-breaking year for revenue and profit. He expects the business to continue to excel and grow in the future.
Today, John’s whole team uses Jobber to manage client accounts, track and follow-up after invoices and quotes, and get paid.
John added Jobber to his business toolkit in 2016. Thanks to Jobber, TurFresh has:
- Set up and adopt Jobber into his workflow in two days after signing up
- Started sending clients emails and texts to follow up and close more deals
- Been able to allow employees to work remote and finally take a vacation
- Enabled hassle-free credit card payments within his invoicing workflow
“We realized that we had to automate our services”
Things were taking off during the astroturf boom, but by 2016 John realized that business growth wasn’t sustainable unless he had the right processes in place.
“Eventually we got big enough where we realized that we had to automate our services.”
John realized how inefficient his existing system of dispatching was when he had to do it himself.
“My dispatcher was doing it manually with spreadsheets. One day I had to put his hat on and I sat in his chair for two days. I quickly realized, ‘what are we doing?’ It didn’t make any sense!’”
“I did research and I found Jobber. I tried the free trial and it actually took me two days to just say, ‘Okay. This is going to work’.”
John took building more efficient processes very seriously. He really did his homework before settling on a single software option.
“With so many different software competitors it gets very confusing,” he explains.
His deciding factor? Ease of use.
“Jobber has a very easy interface. It’s hard to make a mistake. Everything worked out and we’re using it now. It’s been very successful.”
“We had a record year last year”
John’s hard work has paid off. With a solid business model and the right processes in place, he’s confident about the future of TurFresh.
“We’re going to continue growing. We’ve grown every year since we’ve been using Jobber. We had a record year last year.”
John knows how critical business efficiency is for his bottom line. “We’re just efficient, and it’s much easier for me to reduce redundancy in my work. I can put someone else in a position much easier because everything’s laid out.”
Using software has also empowered his team to increase efficiency while maintaining cost.
“In 2018 year we almost doubled in size, but I did not double the amount of personnel in the office. My soft costs pretty much stayed the same,” he explains.
“When Randy (my dispatcher) came back and we were running four crews. Now we’re running 12 crews and it’s still just him, and he’s doing it all with Jobber.”
“The growth has been easier, less intimidating, less of a hassle because of the software,” he explains.
When it comes to running a successful business, “everything is about follow-up”
Relationship building and following up was key to TurFresh’s success. “Follow-up. Everything is about follow up,” John emphasizes.
“I’ve had a successful career in home improvement. I’ve always said to all my friends and colleagues that it’s not hard to have a successful business as long as you show up and follow through.”
John’s team relies on Jobber to help them with that. He knows how integral this is to the business, so it’s worth the investment.
“The emails…the texts… it all demonstrates your capability. So if you follow-up immediately with a customer, say, ‘Hey, how did we do? Are you happy? If you’re not, we’re willing to make you happy.’” John explains.
“When I finish a job, Jobber automatically follows up with the customer [asking for] a rating [on a scale of one to ten].” This gives John insightful feedback on his team’s service.
When John gets good feedback, he knows who to ask for an online review. This has helped his business stand out online.
“We’ve had a 99% five star rating … Jobber gives the client an opportunity to rate us one out of ten.”
How the TurFresh Team uses Jobber to excel
Today, John relies on Jobber to track, manage, follow-up, and execute their day-to-day. They also use Jobber’s credit card processing to help improve their payment workflow and get paid faster.
“The credit card processing is just hassle free. When the job’s complete, it automatically tells me to invoice. I click invoice, and it’s done. It’s just a phenomenal feature.”
“I can’t miss billing a job. It shows who hasn’t paid. It just tracks everything. It’s been really convenient from that standpoint.”
So efficient the team can take a vacation
John and his team have been working hard for years now. Until recently, didn’t stop.
“I’ve known Randy (my Dispatch Manager) since high school. That’s how long we’ve been working together. He turned 50 this year. He doesn’t take vacations.
“And then suddenly he goes, ‘John, I’m going to Bora Bora.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, Bora Bora. All right, have fun.’”
“He was actually working from Bora Bora. He dispatched the crews on his iPad and he was billing. He was just so excited that he could do this from anywhere.”
“Randy’s a responsible individual. I wouldn’t want him to work from vacation, I would have done it for him. But the point is that Jobber makes it so easy for him. It literally it took him like 10 minutes to do it.”
“With the remote revolution and people wanting to work from anywhere, wanting that flexibility for family… Jobber has really been on the forefront of allowing that flexibility but also maintaining the responsibility of work.”
