In 1985 Stephen Waring experienced the lawn treatment service in the USA. He believed the UK was ready for the service and 21 years ago on 1st April 1986 he founded GreenThumb in North West Wales. Today, GreenThumb has over 175 franchises and new franchises continue to open at the rate of one per month.

One of the goals of the GreenThumb headquarters is to support franchisees and maximise the levels of success. Considerable thought goes into planning and analysis and this requires accurate data. David Collison is Marketing Manager:

“The key to managing the franchise network is to understand the potential and performance of each area. We import franchisee customer data from across the network and display this on a sophisticated mapping system. If franchisees don’t use postcode validation our mapping and reporting systems are corrupted.

So that we can maximise territory performance, we need to understand where marketing is successful – and where it’s not. We also use geodemographic data which is postcode based.”

A large franchise can have over 8,000 customers and customer growth across the network can mean up to 15,000 new customers being added each month. David continues:

“Entering details quickly with AFD Postcode Plus is a productivity issue, but it goes way beyond the 80% of keystrokes saved when typing in the address. For example, each new customer needs to be allocated to a particular round based on efficiency. We then need to ensure that this customer appears in a logical sequence on the schedule sheet for each crew member.”

“Making the most of every minute is about the environment – using minimal energy... it’s also about greater success for each GreenThumb franchise.

Tiny amounts of lost time add up to heaps of lost revenue. Conversely, tiny amounts of saved time add up to mountains of gained revenue. If each franchise saved just one minute on each visit through better scheduling the network saves around one million pounds per year.”

One of the support services GreenThumb provides to franchisees is the software systems that drive the business. The software is written in-house, regularly upgraded and then distributed to franchisees nationwide. Rudi George is responsible for development:

“The address management software is a vital component so once we had decided to look at upgrading it – selection was careful. The software had to be “ready to go”, easy to integrate, reliable, and necessitate minimal support. It was also important that users would experience minimal “shock” through the changeover.

You cannot guarantee that customers will know their postcode and some just recall it inaccurately! So rapid reverse lookup of an address where the postcode is not known is essential. Postcode Plus fulfilled all these criteria as well as saving us money.

The integration in Visual Basic 6 was a doddle, we worked from the code examples provided and the coding took half an hour with the installation ready to use in just one day. I think you can get a feel from initial contact with a potential supplier how the relationship is going to go – and my dealings with AFD have been absolutely hassle-free and professional.”

David, Marketing Manager added: “We already use another geodemographic system - but as AFD Postcode Plus comes with the Censation™ system as standard we may be able to save a further £16,000 over three years. Postcode Plus also comes with grid references and “where’s my nearest” as standard.

We are now looking at how we can utilise these features to improve our scheduling and analysis. As a franchisor, we see AFD as a vital cog in the wheel as we seek to maximize the efficiency and profitability of each GreenThumb franchise.”

www.greenthumb.co.uk