A company’s identity is more than a marketing tagline. It’s about what the company really values, how it operates. Talk to the leaders of The Beverly Companies, a multi-season service provider in the Chicago area, and you learn that the company has a very clear identity: it is committed to providing old-fashioned, quality service using the latest high-tech tools.
The Beverly Companies’ official history goes back to 1999, when owner Jim Esposito graduated from high school, formally incorporated and bought his first plow truck, which allowed him to move from clearing driveways to small commercial parking lots. On the landscaping side, he focused mostly on residential maintenance and installations. Esposito’s book of business grew and diversified. Topsoil and concrete/asphalt businesses were added in part to grow relationships with customers by giving them the convenience of working with a single contractor. In 2016, these companies were all brought under the rebranded Beverly Companies umbrella.
Leadership transition
As the company grew, Esposito realized that he was reaching an inflection point. He was too busy working and overseeing his crews to focus on company growth. "When you’re a one-man band, you’re going to lack in a lot of areas. In 2009, when we had about 18 employees, I realized that I had to decide to either stay the way we were or to grow."
Esposito chose growth and brought in the company’s first two non-crew employees, General Manager Tom Marsan, CSP and Operations Manager Alex Straughn, to help him with that mission. He credits them with becoming key leaders in running and growing the business, which freed Esposito to concentrate on big-picture planning.
"I’m more of the behind-the-scenes type of owner now," says Esposito. "I’m out there focusing on the future, looking at what’s ahead — not just what’s happening tomorrow. And I really want our team to have all the tools they need to do stuff the proper way, so that we can be successful." He talks regularly and meets bi-weekly with Marsan and Straughn to talk business. "I don’t like to micromanage, but I do like to know what’s going on," he says.
Today, The Beverly Companies has roughly 100 full-time, year-round employees, with that number swelling to about 350 during the winter. And the company now operates out of four locations, including a newly opened facility within the Chicago city limits.
Leadership support
In terms of snow operations, The Beverly Companies breaks its Chicagoarea market into four zones (south, city, western suburbs and north) that run quasi-independently, each with its own manager. The company has a large service presence in Chicago and in the southern suburbs where it is headquartered; currently the company’s focus is growing in outlying western and northern suburbs.
Marsan and Straughn support all the zones, dispatching wherever needed to assist. "We bounce around and help everything run as smoothly as possible," says Marsan. "I think it says something that Jim, Alex and I all still have plows on our trucks. We all carry shovels. If we have to jump out and take care of something, we’re 100% ready to do it, because it means our team can be somewhere else taking care of something else."
Marsan says that having the company leaders ready to help in the field not only goes a long way with clients, but also helps build team morale. "We want our guys to know that we’re not going to just sit behind the desk and tell them what to do; if something out there needs to be done, we’ll go do it. When you ask them to go above and beyond, it’s a lot easier when they know that you’re willing to do it, too."
Straughn appreciates this type of approach as well. "I’m not a salesman. I’m not a manager. I’m a little bit of everything. And that’s what I really like and enjoy," he says. "I think one of the reasons that our company’s successful is because we have a lot of people who, while they have a main focus, are willing to do a little bit everything."
That includes training new employees, which is a big focus within the company. "I feel like in October and early November, that’s all we’re doing — meeting guys at the site, showing them everything and making sure they’ve got the apps and the maps. I’ve found that having them on site is really the best way to show them things," says Straughn.
While large group trainings still take place, Straughn says he’s seen more success with smaller groups that can be more hands-on and interactive. "It brings things back a little bit to oldschool values, with a more personal touch," he notes. Though sometimes technology can help even further. "We’ve done a lot of creating our own small training videos, which has been great."
Manageable growth
The company has grown steadily for 24 years. Marsan says that approach makes things not only easier to manage but also leads to a stronger, better-performing company.
"We’re always looking for more people, and in particular people who are going to be successful. When you don’t have to do that on a major scale, it’s always attainable, and we can always reach those goals," he says. "If we had to, say, double in size at any time, I think we’d be scrambling. Steady growth is just more manageable."
Marsan says that a lot of planning goes into growing smartly, but notes that it’s always wise to build in a little flexibility. That could be in terms of equipment, where The Beverly Companies may rent extra pieces if needed (or rent its equipment to other contractors to avoid it sitting idle), or use a limited number of subcontractors to take on work that exceeds its internal capacity.
"We’ve been on both sides of it: where we were looking for some machines because we didn’t have enough, and then other years where we have more than enough and we’re trying to figure out where we’re going to put them. Having some flexibility this way allows us to not shut business off and say we can’t take on any more customers, because we have a little leeway."
Equipped for success
"I think we’re sort of known as an equipment-heavy company — we don’t cut corners on equipment and we give the guys what they need. That’s really what made a difference for us," says Straughn.
Marsan credits Esposito for his commitment to equipping the company for success. "That’s a big part of what he manages; he makes those final decisions…and Jim wants us to have the tools that we need to be successful," explains Marsan. "He’s looking to take money that’s in the company and put it back into the business. And I think that’s what it takes to be successful."
When Straughn started as operations manager, the fleet consisted of five trucks and two skid steers. Today the fleet numbers in the hundreds of pieces. Over the last 10 years, an effort has been made to streamline its trucks to make it easier for the mechanics to service and order parts that will work almost universally.
Within the last three or four years it has also been converting its lineup of plows. "Every year, we’re kind of trying different things, playing with things. But I think we’re in a really good spot now — we’ve got it dialed down to certain models with certain types of equipment," he says.
Straughn says that having equipment that is relatively new, in good working order and right for the job, not only leads to higher quality service but also makes life easier for the employees, which helps with employee retention and recruitment.
"So many guys just want to work in the winter and make some money. They get signed up with some company, they go to the site and the machine’s not there or doesn’t work. So they get frustrated. Something that we really continue to do is have backup equipment, and backups to the backups."
Going big into GPS
The Beverly Companies installed the Motive system, including frontand rear-facing cameras, in all of its vehicles. The system provides not only location tracking, but a number of other features, like driver monitoring. "There are warnings if you don’t have your seatbelt on or if you are looking down at your phone, which has been a challenge for some of our guys to accept, but this technology is definitely the future," says Straughn.
"When we sat down and looked at the cost of the system and what it could do for us, we decided it was worthwhile," Marsan adds. "It doesn’t only help our drivers be safer, but we’ve seen where it saved us by capturing footage of the way someone else was driving and taking the fault off our drivers. In our first year with the dash-cam system, I think we had three accidents that probably would have been put on us that we were able to prove were the fault of the other drivers. So that obviously saves us some money."
GPS technology on the company’s heavy equipment keeps the team well-informed on its location, hours, fuel and runtime. "That is so helpful in keeping track of all these things, because when you get into the numbers of equipment that we’re at, you can’t always go and drive and look at everything in person. So we put GPS into play to look at it," explains Marsan. "We’re also able to see not just total runtime, but it’ll show us idle time. So that allows us to talk to our operators and say, ‘Hey, last week, we were out there for 20 hours and you have 8 hours of idle time — we need to shut it off when it’s not in use, because those hours factor into warranty and how often oil changes need to happen, etc.’"
Remote monitoring technology also tracks the equipment’s mechanical health. In the company’s CAT heavy equipment, for instance, the system can reduce downtime and repair costs by alerting when maintenance is needed, and even distinguishing between an issue where the machine should be taken out of service immediately and when the repair can be done at the next service. "All those things help us plan and avoid downtime, helping to lower the cost of ownership," Marsan says.
Sales technology
Technology isn’t only used in operations. Shortly after she joined The Beverly Companies, Sales Manager Courtney Gordon, CSP took the initiative in helping the sales department, and the company as a whole, move forward technologically.
"I wanted us to be able to keep growing and take advantage of ever-changing trends in technology to help our customers," Gordon explains. "There was a CRM in place when I came here, but it wasn’t what I thought we needed to grow how we wanted to," she recalls. "I was just an account manager at the time, but I took it upon myself to say, ‘Hey, we need something that fits our needs better, that will support our growth, and something to grow with us.’"
The Beverly Companies switched to and now relies heavily on the LMN software platform, but Gordon emphasizes that while technology helps to automate processes, solid internal processes are still needed as a double-check.
"Technology is great for us to have, but in the end it is just another tool," agrees Marsan. "The right technology can make you more efficient and automate things, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t do the work for you — you still have to do that."
Marsan has been an active SIMA member for many years and is a member of a peer group where colleagues have asked about the "secret sauce" that has led to the company’s success.
"I think for us, it’s just sort of an old-fashioned approach: we understand what it takes to get things done, and we do the work. I don’t think there’s any secret," he says. "We have an owner who invests back into the company and provides the tools for us to be successful. We have managers who put the time in and are good leaders. And we have employees in the field who care and want to be a part of the big picture."
Sidewalk ready
As The Beverly Companies’ properties have gotten bigger and more complex, ironically, it’s sometimes smaller areas like sidewalks that present the biggest challenges. The company takes a very intentional approach to tackling sidewalks. "We have a core fleet of equipment that we use for sidewalks, and every year there’s a couple of new pieces of equipment we’re buying, trying out," says Operations Manager Alex Straughn. "One big advancement came when we got our first box truck to run sidewalk crews out of. It was a little bit uncommon then. Now we have probably 40 to 50 box trucks for sidewalk operations. They’re all outfitted with Snowrators, spreaders, shovels, everything that’s needed." The truck just pulls up and that array of equipment is ready for crews.
Today, The Beverly Companies has roughly 100 full-time, year-round employees, with that number swelling to about 350 during the winter. And the company now operates out of four locations, including a newly opened facility within the Chicago city limits.
Identifying and empowering future leaders
Operations Manager Alex Straughn says The Beverly Companies has found good ways to overcome some of the biggest challenges in the industry, such as hiring right and building relationships with employees. "I think that’s one of the most important things: if you don’t have good employees in this business, you’ve got nothing."
Straughn says he’s found the best approach is to empower employees. "You find the guy who wants to move up and train him and give him responsibility; the first year he might take over five guys; the next year put him in charge of 10 guys; before you know it, he’s a manager."
How to identify these potential leaders? Straughn looks for someone with drive, the right temperament and patience. "When it’s 2 a.m. and guys don’t want to work anymore, and equipment is breaking, you need a leader who doesn’t get upset but can roll with the punches. You can read all the books and know everything there is to know about the snow industry, but if you can’t keep your head up, it’s very difficult out there."
Extra attention to customer service, communication pays off
In an era of chat bots and "please listen carefully as our menu has changed" customer service mazes, there’s perhaps nothing more refreshing than reaching a real, live, knowledgeable person. That’s the approach that The Beverly Companies takes, and more often than not Sales Manager Courtney Gordon, CSP answers the phone when clients call.
Gordon says one way the company sets itself apart and sells itself is through communication. That includes proactively reaching out to clients to let them know, for example, what is happening during a snow event, and it also means being accessible if they have questions.
"If someone has a question, or maybe we missed something, they want to know who the point of contact is, and that they have someone to reach out to, whether it’s 1 in the morning or on a weekend night. We answer every single call, we follow up on every single call," Gordon says, adding that she has her own procedures in place to ensure the best service possible. "I can plug all of my phone calls into our software and run a report at the end of the day. I can follow up with operations and ask, ‘Hey, these are the issues we had today — what are we doing about it tonight?’ I’m sort of the liaison to make sure the ball doesn’t get dropped."
Gordon says that customers notice, and appreciate, the commitment to communication. "A lot of the clients say, ‘It’s so nice to be able to actually talk to someone on a snow day.’ Sometimes they just need that little extra bit of communication, so we let them know when we were at their site and when we’ll be back. Or maybe they just need a small favor."
Referral program - The Beverly Companies utilizes traditional sales strategies but also recently instituted a client referral program designed to increase word of mouth. "You can’t get a better referral than from a happy customer," says Gordon. This program rewards clients who refer new customers with a service credit or a Visa gift card to the property manager who made the referral, with the amounts based on the dollar figure of the new contract.
But Gordon feels that it’s still old-fashioned customer service that best helps sell the company. Price is important, she states, "But I think the biggest things we deliver are the service and communication to get that end result for our customers."
Changing weather shifts strategy
The Beverly Companies’ ideal snow clients are larger multi-regional sites, including property management companies that have multiple locations, explains Sales Manager Courtney Gordon, CSP. And increasingly, it is pushing a mix of seasonal and per-visit contracts. "Back in 2016 we hardly had any seasonal agreements; now it’s about a 52% seasonal / 48% per-visit split, which we think is healthy," Gordon says.
She notes that recent Chicago area winters have been relatively light on snow but heavy on work. "We might only have two-and-a-half weeks of winter, but in that time it’s just non-stop wet, heavy snow followed by an ice storm." She adds that these changing weather patterns have driven changes in contract language and pricing.
"Because we know that a tenth of an inch of ice is a similar amount of work to one inch of snow, we knew that we had to account for that. While some of our seasonals are unlimited, the remaining mix are capped at a certain number of inches or graduated. We’ve found that adding this multiplier allows us to account for the additional salt applications required on our capped or graduated agreements."
Check out videos on box trucks and installed technology with The Beverly Companies
Patrick White has covered the landscape and snow and ice management industries for a variety of magazines for 25 years. He is based in Vermont. Contact him at pwhite@meadowridgemedia.com.