July 2023 Contractor of the Month is: Blue Water Irrigation Inc.

Can you tell us about your business?

Blue Water Irrigation Inc is a family and veteran owned business that was established in 2003 and incorporated in 2006. Our goal is to deliver the highest quality job, with great attention to detail, performed correctly the first time. We perform every job with pride, integrity and honesty, while striving to exceed our customer's expectations. With over 40 years of combined experience in the Irrigation and Landscape Lighting Industries and extensive knowledge of system design, installation and repair, we can ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction on every project. We appreciate every opportunity offered to us by our customers and consider it an honor to serve them.

How did you get into the landscape lighting business?

We started out as an irrigation contractor (2003) and soon expanded into landscape lighting (2004) in an effort to provide our customers additional services and increase the beauty, safety and security of their homes and landscape.

What percentage of your business is landscape lighting/what other services do you provide (ie: landscaping, irrigation, electrical…)?

Our current job sales breakdown is approximately 45% irrigation, 35% landscape lighting and 10% Ring camera/doorbell services. The remaining 10% of our job sales is comprised of other services we provide, which include landscape design consulting, light electrical/plumbing and drainage systems.

How long have you been installing landscape lighting?

As stated earlier, we expanded into landscape lighting in 2004. In the years since, and because we are always striving to improve the quality of the products we offer our customers, we have used lighting products from numerous manufacturers. This was necessary due to improvements in the styles, materials and technology of the landscape lighting products available to our company. In 2021, and after continuous research, we found our golden egg --- Amp Lighting!! We were so impressed with Amp Lighting and their products that, since then, we use their products exclusively on all of our landscape lighting projects. The quality of their products is second to none, they are on the cutting edge of technology and their warranty is the best in the industry.

What AMP products do you prefer to use? Which fixtures are your favorite?

In 2017, we broadened our horizons and began offering Ring camera/doorbell design and installation services to all new and existing customers. This has turned out to be an extremely lucrative endeavor, especially since Amp Lighting has recently partnered with Ring and they are now offering a Smart Bridge/Outdoor Smart Plug kit that can be connected to your customer’s landscape lighting transformer and integrated with their Ring cameras/doorbell, allowing the control of the system to be placed in your customers hand via the Ring app on their phone. We have already begun to install this kit on our new installs and will soon begin contacting our existing customers to recommend upgrading their systems with a retro-fit.

What tips or tricks have you learned that have benefited your work from a design/installation perspective?

Always putting the customer first, providing a quality product and/or service at a reasonable price, exceeding expectations and establishing genuine relationships have proven to be paramount to our success.

Tell me about your sales process. How do you find your customers? What is your sales process? Do you use sales tools such as a free demo…

Our sales process is quite simple. It starts out with the initial contact by the prospective customer. An appointment is scheduled and we meet with the customer; making sure to be on time on the scheduled day, listening intently to the customer’s wants-needs-desires and establishing a genuine relationship. All of our estimates are free, performed on-site and in person. Once the site visit/initial meeting is complete, a written estimate is provided to the customer and we wait for a response. Of the jobs we sell, 90% consist of existing customers and referrals. The remaining 10% come from internet lead generating sites, internet reviews and/or internet research.

Where do you find inspiration for your lighting designs?

Our landscape lighting design process involves listening to what the customer wants to accomplish and recommending ideas that we have learned from experience. We always begin the design process by recommending the installation of fixtures at all of the obvious locations. By being mindful of possible budgeting issues, we never over design a lighting system on the initial estimate, however, we do end up selling more light fixtures on every project after the job has been completed. This occurs when we return in the evening of the installation for the ‘light-up ceremony’ and to perform any final adjustments to provide the proper lighting effects. Once this has been completed, the customers are always so impressed that they are eager to add more fixtures.

What do you feel is the most personally rewarding part of installing a lighting system for a client?

The most rewarding part of installing a landscape lighting project is the customer’s elated reaction to their home’s new grandeur appearance.

Tell us a little bit about you personally: What do you like to do outside of work? What are your hobbies?

Outside of work, I like to fish/hunt, workout, read, listen to music and play with my pit bulls.