Bob Grover of Pacific Landscape Management Receives Founders' Award

Bob Grover, a long-time advocate for the landscape industry and of Aspire software, is the first recipient of the Founders' Award from FieldRoutes and Aspire.

Grover the president of Pacific Landscape Management, received the award at Ignite, the customer conference for FieldRoutes and Aspire software partners, on Tuesday afternoon in Orlando, FL.

"I am very humbled, and I will give a lot of credit to my team, who aspired to be an early adopter of the Aspire platform," Grover said after the presentation.

Bob Grover, right, of Pacific Landscape Management receiving the Founders' Award from Mark Tipton, CEO for FieldRoutes and Aspire.

The Founders' Award recognizes the work by Aspire co-founders Mark Tipton and Kevin Kehoe, who wanted to support the community of hardworking landscapers and accelerate the industry's transformation, and by Jared Green, who sought to empower pest control operators to grow and achieve their ultimate success through what is now known as FieldRoutes.

Pacific Landscape Management is located in Hillsboro, OR, just west of Portland, and opened in 2001. The team of 500 serves more than 2,000 properties in the western Oregon and Washington region from Everett, WA, to Corvallis, OR.

Grover and his team were early adopters of technology in their business operations and are active in the National Association of Landscape Professionals. Grover has been a long-time member of the Government Relations Council and is a past NALP president. 

Grover continues to lead his team to be engaged in many other industry and charitable associations. Grover routinely provides feedback and insights to the Aspire product team, helping to shape the system in use today.

"We were a customer (of another company), and when Mark left and partnered with Kevin, I was very intrigued and presented the idea to my team," Grover said. "I said, 'Early adopters go through a lot of tough iterations.' And they said, 'No, we are all in.' And they're all in. We've been in since the beginning. I'm just can't believe where we're at today. All of the functionality is just incredible. Our team is continuing to push the envelope on how we utilize Aspire and continue to push them to continue to develop it as they do."

The Founders’ Award recognizes an individual who truly embodies all four core values – innovative, selfless, driven, and a closer – not only within their own company but also with the wider community and industry.

"I don't know where I got that energy, but it doesn't stop," Grover said. "I'm very passionate about just about everything I do. Sometimes that's irritating to my wife and children and employees, but it has driven us as a team to be great and I'm never going to slow down."

The Founders' Award capped the Excellence Awards presentation on Tuesday afternoon. Aspire and FieldRoutes each presented four other awards—the Trailblazer Award, Impact Award, Rookie of the Year Award, and Excellence Achieved Award—which represent the company's core values: boldly innovate, put others first, drive success, and finish strong.

The FieldRoutes Excellence Award winners:

Trailblazer Award

William Jones — Got 'Em Wasp & Hornet Removal, Grand Rapids, MI

About the winner: Jones and his company have been using FieldRoutes for two years and believe in the role surveys have played in not only growing his business but ensuring he’s always putting the customer first and surpassing expectations. He has yet to dip below a five-star rating. Jones also stands out from the competition by using the customer portal and online payment options, making it easy to do business with Got 'Em Wasp and Hornet Removal. If you call William, he’ll often pick up while on the job.

Impact Award

The Team — Natural State Pest Control, Lowell, AR

About the winners: The team at Natural State Pest Control runs and supports multiple programs and events in their community throughout the year. The company focuses on building a winning culture for all employees, supporting and celebrating each other in different ways throughout the year. Founded on the principle of helping people, Natural State Pest Control is dedicated to serving those of Northwest Arkansas according to their mission statement: "We kill bugs. We help people. Period," from their own programming like the Twelve Days of Pestmas to hosting a 24-hour Smoke-a-thon benefiting Second Helping. The team also awards the Benn Banks Memorial Scholarship to honor the legacy of a high school student who continued to demonstrate courage and inspiration while battling cancer. In addition, they support a number of charities, including the food bank, homeless shelter, Salvation Army chapter, children’s shelter, public school districts, and the VA hospital.

On receiving the honor: "It's very exciting to be recognized for something that we love to do anyway. We love giving back to our community. We've been able to partner with a lot of organizations, local schools, and people who aren't even able to afford to have a pest-free home, so it's really important to be recognized for them." – Amanda Ragar, owner, Natural State Pest Control.

On leading and making an impact: "We just want to help people. Our whole motto is, 'We kill bugs. We help people. Period.' We want to help people. Nobody wants to have bugs in their house or in their business. We just find joy in helping others." – Ragar.

Rookie of the Year Award

Melanie Espinola — General Environmental Services, Malden, MA

About the winner: Espinola spent two weeks solely focused on transitioning to and implementing FieldRoutes, all the while documenting changes and new processes, knowing she’d have to help everyone else learn the new system, driving significant results. She took those two weeks off – sort of. She worked from home to implement FieldRoutes. While working around the clock, she successfully transferred the company from its previous provider to FieldRoutes. Along the way, she prepared and then delivered training to all the staff, including technicians with their handhelds. Espinola's heroics, early successes, and advice on using FieldRoutes have been highlighted multiple times on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and within the industry as an accomplished woman in the pest industry.

On receiving the honor: "It's an honor to be recognized this way. I can't believe that we won this award. It's a lot of hard work, but it's so worth it. I was just happy to be here today, but this is truly an honor, and we really, really appreciate it." – Melanie Espinola.

On leading and making an impact: "The company I work for, General Environmental Services, is like a family. They work really hard, and they always treat me like family. It's phenomenal to work for people like that, and that in itself gives you a lot of energy. It makes me excited to work every day there and to grow and to teach others what I know." – Espinola.

Excellence Achieved Award

The Team — Alta Pest Control, Austin, TX

About the winner: The team at Alta has driven excellence by embracing innovation and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the industry over the years. Alta is No. 30 on the PCT Top 100 list and has earned spots on the Inc. 5,000 list for seven straight years. The executive team of Alta – Chris and Michael Langlois, Zach Larson, and Aaron Curtis – have led a tremendous amount of success at Alta, operating across eight states. Their work has focused on driving improvement and results in every corner of the business, including internal process improvements, sales and marketing optimization, geographic and service offerings expansion, comprehensive training programs for employees and technicians, and more. The results are clear: well over 400% in revenue growth over the last three years. And how? By driving employee buy-in and supporting change management. The Alta team is a model of long-term success to follow – they don’t follow trends and best practices – they set them.

On receiving the honor: "It's incredibly validating. We feel like we put in a lot of hard work. We've got great people working with us, a phenomenal culture, excellent contributions from everyone on the team. To get this is incredibly validating to say that we've been recognized among our peers and among those that are using the same software as us." – Aaron Curtis, chief experience officer, Alta Pest Control.

On leading and making an impact: "It comes to our company mission statement, which is to provide a better experience by becoming better people. We really invest in our people, to make sure that our customers are satisfied and they get a great experience. But it also fills us with sense of purpose and our team is energized by that commonality, that alignment and that direction, as we all work together, correlate together, synergize and really focus on leveling up to become better at who we are and what we stand for. And that transcends pest control. It goes much deeper and broader than that." – Curtis.