Virtual water feature and landscape design consultations work! Gone are the days when a landscape contractor has to visit each site.
If you’ve been a customer of Minnesota Waterscapes, you know we’ve been asking for pictures of your yard and ponds since 2016. We’ve spent time developing interview questions to ask you over the phone to find out how you currently use your yard, would like to use your yard, or some issues to overcome. (Don’t be surprised if the designer asks what your favorite colors are.) We’ve been doing landscape designs since 2005, and have focused on water features since 2016. Now, in 2020, we’re practicing our video skills, and look forward to seeing your yard this way.
If you’ve been a customer of Minnesota Waterscapes, you know we’ve been asking for pictures of your yard and ponds since 2016. We’ve spent time developing interview questions to ask you over the phone to find out how you currently use your yard, would like to use your yard, or some issues to overcome. (Don’t be surprised if the designer asks what your favorite colors are.) We’ve been doing landscape designs since 2005, and have focused on water features since 2016. Now, in 2020, we’re practicing our video skills, and look forward to seeing your yard this way.
How our virtual consultation works. You contact us with any information you want to share: your name, email, address, phone number, lot size, and a couple pictures of the area you’d like to discuss with us. We schedule a time to chat with a member of our design or tech team, and go over the questions you have. We can come up with so many questions, making this interview last 30 minutes or more, so please let us know up front how much time you have and we will respect that. A second conversation may be needed. We can use video conferencing available on most any smartphone, or even a screenshare program to accomplish what needs to be done.We need to know what kind of art (pond art, that is) you are looking for. Some are looking for a good quality painting, some may be looking for the Mona Lisa. We’ll talk in round numbers what you are hoping to accomplish. Budget is important and we don’t shy away from talking about it. Our prices are not hidden. (How much does a pond cost?)We want to know that everybody’s on board. We don’t want to surprise anyone with numbers, colors, or style, so we ask that you check in with anyone else who will be enjoying this art with you. Sometimes it is only one decision maker, other times we have a conversation with two or more people and work out an agreeable plan to move forward. After the conversations about your wants and needs, and verifying we’re all on the same page in budget, design, and materials, we’ll put together some homework to clarify where we’re going with your project.After the plan makes sense to both of us, we’ll head over to your house. As I write this blog, COVID-19 is making itself known, and what people are calling “social distancing” is a thing. I prefer to call it “physical distancing with social interaction”. Following current suggestions, we can walk through the yard, lay out some hoses and paint lines to show approximations, and check over site conditions to make sure our budgets make sense. Then, we’ll talk about schedule, and move forward with the paperwork and deposit layout we’re both comfortable with, and get your project on the books!
This process works well for almost all sites. We have confidence you will find it easy and seemless, giving you a better product as a result! If you have questions about how to send pictures, please call 763-458-8104 for assistance. p.s. Did you see the rubber ducky in the pic? 🙂
Author
Jeff Chudek- CEO/President of Minnesota Waterscapes