Login

USERNAME
PASSWORD

Become a Registered Guest Login Help Lost Password?

“Once we commit to them, they can take it to the bank.” That is what Phoenix-based AAA Landscape Vice President Richard Underwood says about the company’s vendors and suppliers. In business for 30 years, Underwood and his brother, Robert, claim that a good portion of their success has depended on building relationships with key vendors, such as irrigation equipment and plant suppliers, equipment dealers, and rental companies.

The operative word is “relationship,” Underwood emphasizes. “Sure, any vendor or supplier relationship begins with setting a price and buying or renting a product. We try to get the best price we can from our suppliers, but once we agree on a figure, that’s the way it is. We avoid bid shopping vendors, and we make sure we pay them on time.”

Economics, though, is only part of the contractor-vendor relationship story. AAA Landscape invites its vendors to participate in an in-house training program, involves them in community development projects, and even encourages them to use the company’s 100-person classroom for demonstrations and other customer-education opportunities.

As Richard explains, vendors play an important teaching role in AAA’s in-house training program. At least once a month, one of its suppliers is invited to conduct a seminar or class on topics ranging from how to troubleshoot irrigation systems to identifying plants. The training, part of AAA’s apprenticeship program, not only introduces employees to third-party experts, it also gives them — and their instructors — an opportunity to place a name with a face and to begin developing a rapport. Richard notes that building a relationship with suppliers is important for all employees, not just top management. Suppliers, too, appreciate getting to know the people with whom they are likely to interact on a daily basis.

At the community level, AAA and suppliers have worked together to provide landscaping for a community center, to renovate the landscaping at a middle school parking lot, and to develop a sustainable garden at the University of Arizona (The Underwood Memorial Garden), to name but a few occasions where they have joined forces. A typical scenario calls for the vendor to supply the product and for AAA to supply the expertise and manpower to install it.

“The volunteer work gets all of us involved in the community,” says Underwood, “and it builds a strong bond among all participants who are doing the right things — creating something of lasting value and improving peoples’ lives.” AAA has also worked closely with vendors who wanted to use its classroom facility to conduct customer training.

Why work so hard to develop a relationship with vendors when “customer service” is the well-traveled road to success? “That’s an easy question to answer,” relates Underwood. “When we first started the company, my brother and I didn’t have any money. I can remember to this day the vendor who was the first one to extend credit to us.”

No, the Underwood brothers are not in that situation today, but the story underscores the symbiotic relationship between contractors and vendors. To be successful, they need each other, and the foundation beneath any truly meaningful relationship is, as this contractor emphasizes, “rigorous honesty.” Being honest and fulfilling commitment is a good place to start, but the relationship building does not end there. Vendors and contractors who work together to train employees, better the community, and better the industry have developed a trusting partnership that will withstand the test of time.

12/04

By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer