We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Dollar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christopher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job

The old English proverb, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” comes to mind when I think about the most important lesson I learned at an earlier job. Before founding TriGem Homes and Gardens, I worked at a well-established design build landscape company. Like other companies, we expected quality from our team members. We would tell our new hires that we expected them to do quality work and hoped they will define by themselves our expectations of quality. With no real definition of quality, the learning curve was steep and would put more pressure on management as they would have to coach team members often. All those team members’ coaching sessions made me realize that quality is often subjective. Our team members came from diverse backgrounds and companies, all training (or not training) quality differently. I came to understand that without having procedures or training to explain the expectations of what quality meant to our organization or a system to measure the level of quality our clients were getting, it was going to be difficult to standardize the level of quality from crew to crew and from client to client. I learned that quality is a process that needs to be defined, communicated, measured, analyzed, improved, and controlled.

After I left to start TriGem Homes and Gardens, one of the first things we did before taking on clients was to come up with our values. We dug deep to define what was important to us and quality was at the forefront. We wanted to make sure that we provided products and services that separated us from all other companies. With quality as one of our main values, we proceeded to set up our quality policy and process. Our quality process revolves around a robust training program to our standards of quality and to the site evaluation form. All new team members go through our quality training as well as safety training before servicing our clients. They learn TriGem’s expectations of quality along with our system to evaluate it. In training, they learn how their individual contributions affect the organization’s quality standards and how their adherence to standards is reflected in quality scores that are ultimately attached to their individual performance review and compensation. Our system rewards our team members by the quality and care of their work rather than tenure and because our operations team members work in crews, when we promote a mindset of quality it fosters a culture of teamwork and accountability to one another.

In small companies, revenue is often considered a product of quantity rather than training and quality. We found the return on investment we make in our quality program on the front end is repaid many times over by customer satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals. Sometimes it takes a few bumps on the road to realize the road is leading nowhere. At TriGem Homes and Gardens, we use policies as the foundation stones for our path to break away from the metaphorical road to hell.

To learn more about who we are as a company and about our services, visit our website page at trigemhomesandgardens.com.

Christopher, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in Georgia but moved away when I was a young adult. After high school, I served in the Army during the first Gulf War. Once I left the Army, I traveled the United States and lived in Puerto Rico for 12 years where I met my wife. We have been married for almost 25 years now and have three daughters and two furry babies. Although my education is in business management, the green industry was a natural fit for me. I have always had a passion for nature, as I grew up working outdoors with my dad in the woods and in the garden. Most of my professional life has been spent in residential or commercial construction before entering the landscaping industry.

At TriGem Homes and Gardens, we are a full-service design build landscape company. We provide full landscaping services to include design, installation, hardscapes, maintenance, irrigation, and outdoor lighting. We design and install new gardens, but we also take pride in maintaining mature gardens.

We specialize in reclaiming older landscapes. Many of our new clients come to us with the same issue, landscapes that are overgrown and undermaintained. We approach our clients as a partnership, with communication and collaboration as an integral part of the relationship. It gives us immense pride to take one of these aging but often very intricate landscapes and bring them back to their former glory.

There are many companies out there doing landscape maintenance. Many do not understand when maintenance should turn into reclamation or renovation. They will cut the same grass and sheer the same shrub not realizing that over the years, that shrub has gotten twice or three times the size of what was intended. There are numerous negative effects to having an overgrown garden besides the obvious aesthetics. Pests, diseases, unintended shade, encroachment, and even safety hazards are all product of unruly gardens. Doing a garden reclamation takes time, knowledge, and skill. Knowing when it is time to do a hard prune versus pruning to increase interior growth takes experience. Reclaiming a garden is a process. This makes TriGem Homes and Gardens unique. We are willing to put the time, effort, and expertise into ensuring the garden is in harmony and reaching its full potential.

Our clients invest in us as much as they are investing in their landscape. We take that trust with the utmost sincerity when designing a landscape management plan for our clients.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals, referrals, referrals! Most of our referrals come from previous clients. We have a strong online presence and are very active on social media, but it is the word of mouth what keeps bringing us business.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

As much face interaction as possible. Meeting clients even when things are going well is essential. The client wants to know that they are a priority to you. A simple conversation can highlight something that they consider beneficial and that they want to implement in their gardens. We have also found that our clients want to be informed about what is happening in their gardens. We make a point to include photos when something is blooming or to send them a quick email with a plan of action when something is sick. The ultimate form of communication is our thorough invoicing. Our invoices reflect the very last plant we touched in their gardens and how we are nurturing their landscape.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://trigemhomesandgardens.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trigemhomesandgardens/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrigemHomesandGardens/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trigem-homes-and-gardens/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrigemG/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/trigem-homes-and-gardens-dallas-2
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/trigemh/

Image Credits
All images are company owned.