Because Quality Matters

Alpine prides itself on the quality of the customer experience we provide and we firmly believe that quality matters.  But what exactly is quality, why does it matter and how can it save money?  This article sets out to answer these questions.

Quality can mean different things to different people.  At Alpine, we strive to make quality a part of everything we do from the level of service we provide, to making sure the right plants are delivered to the job on time to the plants we supply.  All of these are important in delivering value for money to the customer.

Quality Service

We are surprised when quality is confined to a one-dimensional view of plant quality.  From a customers perspective, the quality experience encompasses responsiveness to enquiries regarding plant availability, ability to access the broadest range of plants in the marketplace, speed of communication, horticultural knowledge of sales staff, right down to the helpfulness of our staff and the accuracy of accounting and billing arrangements.

Overlaying these objective factors is the quality of the overall experience.  At Alpine, we hope you see the positive, friendly can-do attitude of all our people. We often hear favourable comments about the Alpine service culture that is embodied in our people.

One of our largest customer had this to say “In terms of quality service, Alpine Nursery staff are courteous, hard working and extremely knowledgeable throughout all aspects within the horticultural industry.  We are dependent on Alpine staff to assist in, not only supplying plant stock, but to also source alternative and suitable species.  This service alone I can openly say is one of the attributes that Alpine staff has mastered, and a major reason why we continue to do business with them.”

Quality Plants

We believe a quality plant is one that meets or exceeds customer expectations in its ability to fulfill its intended function in the landscape.

Plants are used to fulfill a variety of functions within the landscape from feature plants that form the focus of designs, to screening and hedging, to providing shade and shelter and many more as well.  If a plant can’t fulfill its function then time, effort and money have been wasted.

There are numerous ways that a plant can fall short of fulfilling its role.  Plants may:

•    die because of health problems;

•    be set back by stress so they never reach their potential;

•    be misshapen and visually unattractive; or

•    have structural problems that can cause safety issues.

All of these are an indicator of poor quality plants.

A good quality plant will fulfill its function, have reduced ongoing maintenance and won’t need to be replaced saving money, time and effort.  These are the benefits of quality plants.

Case Study – Street Trees

By way of an example, the photos show a number of street trees in the same street.  Quality street trees provide shade and enhance the value of properties.  Streets with good trees are often keenly sought by homebuyers indicating their value.

The trees in the photos show a number of quality problems:

•    Non-uniform growth.  Some trees are much smaller than others and showing less vigour;

•    Poor structure with unbalanced crowns and no single leader; and

•    Signs of stress and setback.

These trees are not fulfilling their landscape function and are unlikely to do so even if given more time.  The end result is either an unsatisfactory landscape that is not appreciated by residents or additional cost to rectify the problems or replace the trees.  

Quality trees require less maintenance and provide benefits to residents for years to come.

g characteristics:

•    Healthy and vigorous;

•    Free from pest and disease;

•    Balanced crown – Looking from both side on and a birds-eye view, the crown should be symmetrical and well formed;

•    Single Leader – Most trees should have an obvious single leader with branches coming off.  Some trees and of course bushes, by their nature will have multiple leaders; and

•    Rootball – the rootball should be free from circling and kinked roots which can cause problems over time.

Growing quality trees doesn’t just happen, it relies on experience and technique.  At Alpine our highly experienced staff have honed their techniques over time to produce a high quality tree for a very competitive price.

Quality – The Economics

Selection of a plant supplier based solely on price is likely to represent false economy in many situations.

We asked another one of our largest customers who joined us recently to comment on this issue. They said “The plant quality delivered by Alpine Nurseries has enabled us to minimize the amount of plant loss on many jobs. In some instances, we have been able to achieve a 100% success rate. Our maintenance processes are significantly enhanced with a happy and healthy plant from day 1.  Alpine are willing to deliver anywhere, anytime and their service is second to none”.

These factors are often overlooked in assessing plant suppliers based solely on price.

The economics are also impacted by the ability to deliver the right plants on time to the right location.  If this doesn’t happen there are often costs for the customer rescheduling staffing requirements for planting and costs of having to replace incorrect or poor quality plants.

The economics for our landscape customers is inevitably linked to the satisfaction of their end customer that could be a developer, a residential homeowner or the like.  It is so much easier to negotiate a final contract payment, an upwards contract variation and even more important, follow on work, when the end customer is satisfied.  Completing the job with the highest quality plants is fundamental to customer satisfaction.

Call our sales team on 9651 0999 to find out more about our high quality range of plants.