Aspire is the High-End Landscaping Construction Partner Mahoney Associates Needs in the Hamptons

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PublishedDecember 19, 2024

Aspire is the High-End Landscaping Construction Partner Mahoney Associates Needs in the Hamptons

For Mahoney Associates LLC, high-end residential landscaping construction is essential for the growth of the business. In Southampton, N.Y., where large properties in the Hamptons dominate, the projects can be both involved and profitable, and the company is diving in. 

But the bids are complicated—often involving hardscape and amending or building land to make it functional for landscaping. Mahoney Associates, a full-service landscaping firm that is 90% residential and 10% commercial, needed a software partner that could handle the complexity, keep projects organized, and protect profits. 

Enter Aspire, the cloud-based software for landscaping and commercial cleaning companies that the company says has been key.

“I don’t think it would be possible to launch a whole new service without the scheduling aspects or the tracking that's available on Aspire,” Director of Operations Nicholas Geoghegan said. “Aspire really helps with that growth because I don't think we could keep as organized as we are without using the system.”

Construction is a competitive world, and Aspire helps Mahoney Associates offer the best bids and quotes to customers.

“What Aspire allows us to do is really look at our margins and say, ‘All right, where can we maybe tighten our markups a little bit? Where can we be more competitive?’’ Geoghegan said. 

The results?

“Our percentages in win rates have gone up tremendously because we've been able to look at those margins much more closely,” Geoghegan said.

Tracking efficiency, capturing everything

Mahoney added Aspire six years ago before Geoghegan joined the business. As he’s learned about the business, so too he’s learned about the software.

“As we started to grow, we started looking back and saw a lot of things that weren't billed, were missed, and services we didn't capture,” Geoghegan said. “So even though I came in after Aspire started, I saw a lot of the benefits to using the product.”

One of the main benefits Geoghegan saw was Aspire’s ability to track efficiency across different services. This is vital to a business like Mahoney, which offers numerous services, including landscape maintenance, deer and tick control, plant health, design, and installation.

Before joining Aspire, Mahoney Associates relied on paper tickets and Excel. With Aspire’s cloud-based approach, every team member has access to information. In addition to construction, Aspire allowed Mahoney Associates to bring plant healthcare back in-house instead of using subcontractors to do that work. 

“The growth we've seen would not have been possible without Aspire,” Geoghegan said, “Using paper tickets, things would get missed too easily.”

Aspire’s benefits don’t stop there

Other benefits of Aspire mentioned by Geoghegan include:

Finding the sweet spot in estimates and charges. Before adding Aspire, Geoghegan found that Mahoney Associates had been undercharging for maintenance and overcharging for cleanups “because the hours were just in the wrong spot,” he said.

Now, Mahoney reviews an end-of-season report via Aspire’s job report, along with a list of all expenses. That allows Geoghegan to verify that the charges fall in the proper place.

Using Issues on Aspire to meet customer needs. Issues is a tab in the customer portal where clients can request service or report issues.

“When they're seeing dead plant material, burnt up lawns, fallen limbs, they're reporting that directly to me, and I'm making sure it gets to the proper account manager so that can be dealt with and we can let the client know,” Geoghegan said.

Using Site Audits. This feature in Aspire allows users to survey sites and use satellite imagery to ensure a site is fully assessed and maintained.

“I think Site Audits added a functionality in that we're being more transparent with our clients with what we're seeing,” Geoghegan said. “A lot of our clients are second or third homes, so they're not there. They don't know what level of service we're providing.

“Site Audits allow us to show the client, ‘Just because you're not here doesn't mean we're not here. And we're making sure that we're checking in on your properties and making sure they're as nice as if you were there, 24-7.’"

The ability to see photos on work tickets. “I go through every ticket, and I look at those images,” Geoghegan said. “Previously, I would have to download every image. Now I can just click through, bring it to full size, see what the work our crews are doing, and make notes for production. That way, I can quickly send them an issue and say, ‘Listen, I saw this in a photo. We're not done there. We have to go back.’"

Communication with the team using Issues and Tasks. Going from communicating via text to communicating on Aspire adds efficiency by streamlining the process, which increases accountability and customer service.

“Issues and Tasks allows us to not only track when an issue came through or when something came through that needed to be dealt with but also follow the workflow and make sure, ‘All right, this was taken care of,’” Geoghegan said.

In the aggregate, Geoghegan said he feels in control when he’s in the Aspire system. 

“I would say to anyone on the fence about using Aspire to just use it,” Geoghegan said. “It's going to take time, and it's going to take discipline and it's going to take effort, but Aspire will pay dividends in the end.”

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