There is roughly 50 paving companies serving Santa Clara County when you search for the keyword "pavers". Try the word "landscaper" and you'll get thrown 100 more on top of that same list.
So then how do you determine which landscaper truly provides the unmatched combination of service, quality, and price in such a highly saturated and competitive market? Well, you order the list by some permutation (I apologize for the mathematical jargon - I'm an engineer at heart) of star rating, number of reviews, and maybe whether or not the picture icon resembles the service you're trying to obtain. It obviously wouldn't make sense to click on a landscaping business if the picture is of some woman breast feeding a baby (yes, this really did happen and I clicked it).
We'll after doing all of this, Art's business popped up at the top, right? Wrong! With 5 reviews and an average rating of 3.5, I don't think I even remember his listing showing up at all. Instead, I called all the top 4-5 rating landscapers in my neighborhood. At least a dozen. Half of them called back. The other half never responded. Of the ones that did call back, I was able to setup several appointments. Some were no-shows, others, kind, yet inattentive, and a few that were just plain out rude. One guy who I won't dare to mention, came to my front door, asked me if others were bidding on the project. I said "yes, i'm trying to just get 2-3 bids". The guy immediately said, "not interested! thanks anyways!", turned around and left. Wow, really!?
After an exhaustive search and for good reason (I wasn't going to settle for just anyone on a $30-50K estimated project), I almost gave up and decided to defer the project completely for another year because I couldn't find anyone reputable and with reasonable prices. I attempted a Yelp search one last time and somehow Art's listing caught my attention. Not sure if it was the photos or the fact that he had a mix of stellar and not so stellar reviews, but for whatever astrological reason, I decided to give him a call.
Chapter 1: Customer Service
After the first ring, Art picked up: professional, courteous, and well-spoken. We setup an appointment and Art arrived in a timely manner. He came dressed, notebook in hand, and armed with a script of questions that made us feel comfortable that this guy was by no means, new to the business. Art spent more than an hour and never looked at his clock once. He took our engagement seriously and that definitely stood out as his strong suit. In a service business that typically awards 10% of all quotes handed out, one can easily forget the virtue of good customer service. Art treated us like a long-time customer. On this premise alone, we decided to award him the contract days later despite two other competitive bids.
Chapter 2: Quality and Price
Don't get me wrong, he was still much more affordable (by almost $10K) than the other landscapers, but for a job as significant as we were attempting, our priority was ensuring we had professional and seasoned folks working on our house. Price was second. Art demonstrated from the initial phone call, the meetups and throughout the followup engagements that he was a master of his craft. I'm by no means an expert of landscaping to fully assess his knowledge, but I'm a seasoned pro at calling out bullsh*t. Art's team started the 2 month project on schedule and completed within the proposed timeline. Our house was a complete chaotic mess for weeks, but when the job was complete, an amazing showcase: Completely re-cemented garage, front and back soft and hard landscape, S-curves, unique patterns and shapes, and a variety of subtle house cosmetics (I'll try to post pictures or just have Art take you by our house).
Chapter 3: Reliability and Care
As we all know, nothing ever goes as planned. I have to admit. We did have minor mishaps here and there during and post-completion. Broken pavers, dead plants, crooked lines, incorrectly ordered hardware, poor design interpretations, rising and sinking pavers, etc. But what is more important than getting it right the first time, is ensuring that when things are not as intended, that they get fixed. Art was committed, and passionate about ensuring that we had the best experience, not just from beginning to end, but from beginning to always. Art resolved all of our concerns willfully and happily regardless of the cost to him. He never questioned our questions. To this day, Art is just as attentive, responsive, and caring to our needs as much as he was 5 months ago looking to land the contract. Reliability is an understatement.
I'm not at all surprised Art continues his father's business of 40 years. Now if Art only figured out how to transcend his business into 21st century marketing and use the Internet, he'd find himself at the top of everyone's search results. But knowing Art, that will likely never happen. He's too focused on the customer. read more