Grassmaster Plus: From Paper to Double the Profit With RealGreen
Based in Massachusetts, Grassmaster Plus has been providing lawn care, tree, shrub and plant care, and insect control services for more than 35 years, and they’ve been RealGreen customers that entire time. We recently spoke with Grassmaster Plus’ General Manager Grace DiBenedetto about how digging deep into everything RealGreen has to offer has helped their company double their profits in just a few years.
RealGreen: How long has Grassmaster Plus been using RealGreen, and what initially led to adopting it?
Grace DiBenedetto: When my dad founded the company, he began using RealGreen right from the start – it was our very first software. Then when I joined five years ago, I began to explore all RealGreen had to offer. It was like having an entire tool shed in the garage that nobody was opening or using. I made it my goal to dive in, call RealGreen over and over and ask questions, learn the software inside and out, and then fully implement it into our operations.
RG: Even with 35 years in business, what inefficiencies did you identify that needed addressing?
GD: Our biggest issue was our reliance on outdated methods. Everything was paper-based. Our technicians were using pen and paper, printing invoices and struggling with Bluetooth connections on their tablets. All of this created major inefficiencies in our workflows. I noticed features like auto-posting, which allows technicians to complete a service with just a few clicks on their devices. Just doing this alone significantly reduced our time spent on administrative tasks. Something that used to take 10 minutes – fiddling around with paper, writing things out, setting up Bluetooth on the tablet and printing – shifted to maybe 60 seconds of clicking through and auto-posting their production.
RG: Why is saving even nine minutes per stop so important in the lawn care industry?
GD: It’s crucial to keep everything moving, especially since here in Massachusetts we have a limited seasonal window: We have nine months to get everything done, so ensuring efficiency is essential. Our technicians complete anywhere from 10 to 25 stops a day, so every second counts. We want them to focus on lawn and agricultural services rather than administrative work.
RG: Have you seen cash flow or productivity increases as a result?
GD: Yes, absolutely. Our technicians are getting more stops done, about two to three more stops per day per technician. Their daily revenue is higher – it’s been unbelievable!
RG: What about employee happiness and retention – have these changes made a difference?
GD: Definitely. The majority of our technicians are younger, so they’re used to being on their phones and using apps. One thing I mentioned to my dad was that with all the paper, younger people we’re looking to hire were looking at us like, “What is this?” They don’t want to deal with pen and paper. We have found that the technicians are thriving. They love it. It even helps us hire young and enthused talent. It shows we’re modern and growing, versus being old school and paper-based.
RG: Let’s talk a bit about communication between your in-field staff and your back-office operations. How valuable is it for everyone to be connected?
GD: It benefits every department in our company and our customers as well. Technicians can now use condition codes, which basically creates an upsell to the customer, and it immediately gets pinged to our sales team. Customers are getting that immediate communication with us, which they love. We’ve also seen a reduction in phone calls because customers are getting the information they need effectively and at an appropriate time.
RG: What changes have you seen from three years ago to now, such as increased production, customers or revenue?
GD: Just by streamlining things and using the technology we have, I’d say we’ve almost doubled. When I first started, we were a little under a million dollars. Now, within those three years, we’re a little over 2 million. It’s literally doubled in that amount of time just by using what we already had.
RG: There’s a lot of discussion about AI and future innovations – how does that make you feel? What are you looking forward to?
GD: I think the possibilities of AI are so exciting. I’m thrilled for it. I want to be the first person to jump on it and test it all out. It’s really exciting because numbers tell a story. Having AI spit out those numbers and data to us will only make our company better, and we’ll be able to move faster.
RG: Do you feel you utilize a lot of RealGreen’s features?
GD: I literally think it’s like an iceberg, and we’re just at the tip of it. There’s so much more you can dig into. Even at conferences, you learn about what’s next on the roadmap. They’re always upgrading things, like Mobile Live 2.0 and the communication network they’re building.
RG: What’s next for Grassmaster Plus? Any future goals you’d like to share?
GD: We want to continue growing and expanding. Our next steps are to open up other branches near us and just keep growing, expanding in Massachusetts, and continuing into New England. We want to keep gaining customers, keep growing our team and staff, and just take over the region!
Thanks to Grace for sharing her insights and experiences with us – watch the full video to see more of what she had to say about RealGreen, Grassmaster and looking to the future of the green industry.
