Like so many service-based businesses, GrassRoots Tree & Turf Care, a Georgia-based fertilization and weed control company, faced a dilemma when responding to customer complaints. How would they prove that their technicians performed the requested services when customers claimed otherwise?

When faced with a complaint, GrassRoots representatives would spend time on the phone with the customer and technician to resolve the complaint, and usually re-sent a technician to perform the services. GrassRoots CEO Josh Wise noted that customer complaints were a balancing act, often requiring him to satisfy his customers without dampening the morale of his technicians, who each juggled a full plate of up to 20 properties per day.

“You’re losing a couple [accounts] a month just because they don’t feel like you did the job you’re supposed to do, and you have no way to prove what you did,” Wise said.

The problem became especially noticeable during summer seasons, when GrassRoots switches from a colored pellet to a grey pellet for their lawn fertilizer application. Complaints would rise, as customers would question why they no longer could see the pellets on their lawn.

When Wise noticed that his customers also increasingly relied on security camera footage to make complaints (for example, some would claim that their security camera didn’t capture the technician on-site), he had a realization. His technicians should wear cameras too.

At first, GrassRoots considered using cell phones to capture footage of technicians performing services but quickly found them insufficient.

“If they took their cell phones and were trying to do a treatment while holding the cell phone and record what they were doing, how would you upload it, how would you search it later?” Wise said.

Wise said that they also researched other personal cameras and body-worn video options but found that battery life was lacking.

Axon’s cameras and Axon Evidence digital management system met their primary requirements: easy upload and video management, coupled with full-shift battery that could last 10 hours or more.

On the first day of trialing Axon’s body cameras in the field, GrassRoots received a customer complaint. It was resolved almost instantly.

“We went through, sent the video, and the customer was extremely happy, went and wrote a 5-star review about how awesome we were as a company,” Wise said. “That’s just a whole [new] thing that comes with the cameras, being able to have that experience for the customer that [they] then go and tell other people.”

Wise said that the cameras not only are helpful remediation tools, but also help distinguish GrassRoots and the level of service his company can provide customers. Because of the cameras, his customers better notice the extra level of service.

The technicians also now view the cameras as a tool that protects them every day — and are uneasy to go on a shift without their camera.

Kevin Rainey, a technician who has worked at GrassRoots for over 10 years, said it provides him with an additional sense of security, letting him prove the quality of his work to customers with questions.

“It’s an upgrade,” he said. “We go above and beyond, no matter what, if we had the camera or not — but I actually prove that we do.”

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