Cape Cod Landscaping Services

History of Maffei Landscape

The Maffei Landscape Story   or …

How a teenager mastered the landscape business with an El Camino and a couple of lawnmowers

Maffei Landscape started in 1991 when I was just a kid at Barnstable High School. My dad was a successful contractor, but it was a tough time for everyone in the building field. A couple of my buddies and I decided to mow lawns in order to make some money for college. After hounding the janitor at school to photocopy our fliers for “Spring Cleanups,” someone called, asking us to clean out their crammed basement.

We must have been quite a sight, sweeping through the mess like an invading army and wedging bags of trash into the back of my ’86 El Camino for a couple of dump runs. With that first job, the old car, and a couple of used lawnmowers, a little yard business was born.

In just a few years, the enterprise expanded beyond just mowing lawns to providing a variety of landscaping services to a growing list of home owners. I hired more people, and eventually a number of large commercial properties and resort communities turned to us for help.

I never dreamed that our little lawn business would grow into the multi-million dollar company that we have become today.

Mastery through apprenticeship
Our success didn’t happen by accident; it happened by intention. Maffei Landscape uses  a unique apprenticeship model in which each worker becomes a specialist in a particular  landscaping discipline, and subsequently trains others to do the same. The result is that every lawn, every bed, every patio, every landscape is delivered with perfection, consistency, and efficiency every time.

You see, at first we did things the way most landscapers do them; we divided up the customers, and each worker performed all of the different jobs, such as mowing, mulching, planting, and edging.  

I quickly realized, however, that the workload was simply too big.  The challenge was for us to guarantee consistent quality and perfect results, while offering competitive pricing. Because I’d trained a variety of recruits by this point, I could see that the answer would be to capitalize on each worker’s unique skills and expertise.

Apprenticeship:  becoming a team member
That’s when it hit me!  Why not develop my workforce into practiced teams of specialists?  Building on that concept, I developed the Maffei Master Landscaper Program. 

At Maffei Landscape, our crews and trucks are separated according to the tasks they perform, whether it’s mowing, edging, mulching, installation, or bed maintenance. Crews are organized within specific divisions, and each crew is assigned a truck which hauls a trailer outfitted with all the necessary tools for the work performed. Every crew consists of a master craftsman, a craftsman, and an apprentice.

Here’s one example of how a crew team works. The master craftsman in the Edging Crew uses a power edger to cut the contour of the bed edge; the craftsman works behind him, using a stick edger to refine the contour, and finally, the apprentice cleans up behind the craftsman to guarantee a perfect result.

This division of labor and specialization of craft follows the age-old tradition of master apprenticeship and teamwork. Each landscaper becomes an accomplished expert, and, in turn, trains the individuals working for him, so they can move up the chain of command.

Maffei mastery:  everybody wins!
What is the result? The apprenticeship model developed for the Maffei Master Craftsman Program results in outstanding advantages for everyone in our operation. Our clients enjoy meticulously maintained, high quality landscapes, while our employees become highly-proficient in their specialties. In addition, because efficiency lowers our operational and service costs, our clients also enjoy very competitive service charges.

Furthermore, the apprenticeship method affords our staff better working conditions, excellent compensation, and greater job benefits. We’ve found that our people stay with us because they have a deep sense of job satisfaction and personal pride in the work they do for our clients.

Today, Maffei Landscape employs more than 100 workers at the height of the season. We occupy a new four-acre office complex in Mashpee. We operate a fleet of more than sixty spotlessly clean signature black trucks, outfitted with the best-maintained equipment in the industry. Our clients include distinctive properties such as Ballymeade, New Seabury, Oyster Harbors, and The Pinehills, as well as hundreds of individual homeowners from Plymouth and Wareham to Provincetown.

Maffei excellence
How can we deliver such a broad range of services to so many clients with such exceptional quality and efficiency?

It’s all a result of our outstanding staff. We train them rigorously to become Master Landscape Craftsmen; we structure the work of the company so that they can continue to learn and grow, and we inspire them with a sense of dedication and pride. Each member of our team, from our landscapers to our administrators, is steeped in a corporate ethic of discipline and customer service, where responsibility, respect, and integrity are core values.

More than anything else we do, it is the fostering of an overall sense of pride in our work that distinguishes Maffei from other landscaping companies. Time and time again, we exceed customers’ expectations by setting the industry standard for quality craftsmanship and professionalism.

Since its start in 1991, we’ve enjoyed an exciting period of growth, and I am tremendously proud of the team of professionals representing our company today. I know that we will all continue to grow and to improve, always with an eye to your property and landscaping needs.

Bob Maffei