Let’s briefly review what we covered in part one before we move onto some additional tips to aid in your search for the perfect landscape designer in Loveland. We covered, albeit in more words, the following:

• Decide on what you want - While it might sound obvious to some, it’s important to map out what you are looking for to some extent prior to beginning the search process for your landscape designer. Do you want a fire pit, a new deck, or a completely revamped front yard? Matching your vision, however skeletal it might be at the moment, to a landscaper’s experience and specialty is the right way to start. Otherwise, you might end up going with whatever your landscaper wants to do, rather than what fits your home the best.
• Do Your Due Diligence - The fact that you are doing self-guided research such as seeking out helpful blogs is a sign that you are already on the right track. Long story short here — once you’ve narrowed your list of landscapers down to two or three, ask each for a reference or two to make sure your landscape contractor is a trustworthy one.

A Fantastic Reputation

Speaking of doing your due diligence, one of the easiest and most important ways you can separate viable candidates from pretenders is by looking at their online reputation. While every company in every industry will inevitably receive some number of negative reviews, the positives should drastically outweigh the negatives. We’d recommend checking out the BBB, Google Reviews, Facebook profiles, and other relevant review aggregates.

For our part here at Showcase Landscape Design & Irrigation, here’s one of our favorite testimonials we’ve received in a while!

“Wow! What a great experience for my wife and I! The owners really communicated well on all aspects of the job, and even did some extra stuff because they knew it would make things that much better. And low cost too! I expected to pay a 1/3 more and got other bids higher than that. Super value for the money we spent, and one of the best contractors I have had to deal with. Definitely would recommend them to anyone who asked.” - Dkeight, Testimonials

Word Of Mouth

As useful as online reputations are, they are not the end-all, be-all that some think they are. No, the journey shouldn’t stop with a 30-second inquiry making sure your landscaper-in-question has a Google My Business profile set up.

Using word-of-mouth recommendations is as tried and true of a method as you will find. Why? That’s an easy one; you ask people who you know and trust for a recommendation, so you aren’t going to get a recommendation that will lead you wrong without it affecting the relationship you have with that person in a fairly negative way.

For instance, if your coworker told you that they know the best dentist in town, and you end up going there only to have the dental office forget about your appointment and then botch the root canal you needed, you are probably going to have some choice words for that coworker the next time you see them! If it’s a neighbor recommending a landscaper and something similar happens, the results are going to be similar as well.

Here are a few questions you should ask that neighbor who has the world-class yard about the landscape designer they recommend:

• Are you happy with the job?
• How long did it take?
• How much did it cost?
• Were there any unanticipated issues that cropped up during the process? How did they get resolved?
• Were they communicative with you, keeping you in the loop during the process?
• Did they listen to what you wanted or not?
• Did the staff people you interacted with treat you professionally?
• Was the crew punctual and respectful of your property?

Get Multiple Quotes

We’d recommend a minimum of three quotes so you can effectively compare prices alongside the quality of previous, similar projects completed. We’d also advise that you ensure you get the same level of detail in all three quotes so that your comparisons are more accurate. Be as clear as you can about what you want in terms of goals and objectives so that your landscaper(s) in question can respond in detail regarding how they will make sure all goals are achieved — on time, and within the predetermined budget!