Local landscaping business focuses on customer and community service

It's a place of stark contrasts. Amid acres of rolling farmland sits a small stone house built in the early 1740s. Behind it, several state-of-the-art greenhouses stretch hundreds of feet long. To the side, rows of shiny Ford pickups are parked by an abandoned barn and silo.  As the sun rises, the placid countryside estate begins to buzz with the activity of dozens of men. They load plants, lawnmowers, and tractors into truck beds and trailers, and begin their workday.

The stone house is the office of Classic Landscaping Inc., and the property belongs to Scott Hall, the company's President.

While the work environment displays contrast, Hall says his business philosophy of serving both the customer and the community does not.

"What's unique about us is our passion for caring for the customer and for the people of the community," said Hall. "We think the two go naturally hand in hand."

"We like to take good care of people."

This year Classic Landscaping took part in an effort to spruce up Arlington National Cemetery. Hall's company was one of 300 landscaping companies that volunteered their services to the cemetery, which houses the remains of 300,000 military personnel.

"We're committed not only to customer service, but also to community service," said Kris Wolf, the head of the company's client services.

Hall says he sees the volunteerism as an opportunity to build unity among his employees.

"My goal here is to bring the team together, to understand our commonalities as Americans," Hall said.

So far, the business strategy has paid off. The company is in its 31^st year, and according to Hall, faces little competition from other local businesses.

"We're really competing almost exclusively with the national players now," said Hall. "We're the biggest local guy around."

The company's main competition comes from national chains like the Brickman Group, which has over 170 branches, compared to Classic Landscaping's two.

Hall says his customers are mostly commercial facilities, apartment homes, homeowners' associations, hospitals and government properties.

"Our biggest client now is the military base, Fort Detrick," said Hall.

The company's success did not come overnight, Hall said. He bought the firm with a year left of college, and was forced to juggle the responsibilities of the company and school at the same time.

"I was going to school in Kentucky at the time, so I would fly back and forth every weekend to do to the work."

His advertising strategy is a time-honored one, said Hall. While many other companies might spend millions on flashy advertisements, Classic Landscaping relies mainly on word of mouth.

"We get the word out mostly by direct selling, by and large," Hall said.

Currently the company has two locations, one in Frederick County and one in Pennsylvania. However, Hall says he does have plans to expand and grow the business.

"We're working on planting another office, adding a CFO, and adding someone to our sales team early next year," said Hall.