Continued Closure Statement – Updated April 2020
:: This is an update of the previous statement. Please see NativeEdgeLandscape.com/Shelter for the most current Native Edge status ::
Good Afternoon,
First, we hope that you and your family have been doing well during this tough time.
As we know well at this point, the City of Austin and Travis County have been placed under a Shelter in Place Order since Wednesday March 25, 2020.
At Native Edge, we have taken this very seriously, and although we had been using extreme precautions before the Order, we have continued these precautions by working from home, limiting crew interactions, having only one crew member in the vehicle at all times, and postponed all of our consults and any customer meetings.
This has allowed our employees and their families to stay as safe as possible during this tough time.
As of today, Thursday April 9th, 2020, the City of Austin has not announced continuing or extending the Shelter in Place Order past Monday April 13th, 2020. However, at Native Edge, we feel it is necessary to continue to practice social distancing and keeping our employees and their families as safe as possible for as long as we can.
Native Edge will continue to practice the directions of the Shelter in Place Order through Thursday April 30th, 2020. Our office staff will continue to work from home, crew interactions will continue to be limited, max crew members per vehicle, etc.
During this time, Native Edge will begin to phase back into conducting certain aspects of business we previously put on hold.
Previously, Native Edge postponed all onsite meetings, consultations, presentations and site visits.
As of Tuesday April 14th, 2020, Native Edge will resume all meetings with strict stipulations. The stipulations will require all customer face to face consultations and site visits be conducted in such a way that we keep our employees and their families safe, as well as you and yours. We ask that there be no physical contact, such as hand shake greetings, passing of business cards or hard copy documents. We ask that you wear a face mask or shield, or bandana of sorts, as well as gloves when necessary, and our staff will be doing the same.
We imagine that our consultations will happen in a fashion of greeting at the entry way per usual, with a safe 6ft distance of course, and our team be allowed to roam the property as needed. We ask that for your safety and ours, you comfortably remain near your door during the duration of the meeting – or wherever else may be practical for safe distancing. This will allow our staff to get the photos and measurements they need in order to create a successful landscape for you!
Design Presentations will be allowed at this time. However, we will ask that you follow the CDC’s recommendations of face coverings or masks, as well as gloves through the duration of this meeting. Though this does not lend itself to the standard warm and welcoming presentations we have become accustomed to, we strongly feel it is better to be safe at this time. These stipulations will also include no beverages being offered, and limited hard copy documents being brought to the presentation. We will be prepared to email all small detailed documents prior to the presentation, and only bring with us the physical copy of the design. Though design samples may be brought with us, we ask that there is limited physical contact with each sample.
After each presentation, our design team will be sanitizing all materials and samples brought to the presentation to do our part in ensuring the safety of our community.
During this time, we will continue to offer our virtual presentations as previously announced.
Our installation and maintenance teams will continue to practice the cleanliness and distancing we have put in place for the last two weeks. If any interaction onsite is absolutely necessary, we ask that we maintain safe social distancing, as well as wear face masks or covers as noted before. We will unfortunately continue to have a few extra vehicles onsite during the duration of April as we will also continue to have a minimum of team members per vehicle for safety and precaution.
If you are in the process of scheduling an installation or new maintenance contract with us currently, we encourage you to continue communication via email and all new schedule emails will be sent out upon our return to business as usual.
This continued communication will allow us to continue securing dates on our calendar with no additional delays for the year of 2020.
As we have previously stated, if you would like to move any meetings, installations or pause your maintenance services for additional time we are happy to plan accordingly as best we can to accommodate everyone in a timely fashion.
At this time, Native Edge will not be offering any refunds as we will continue business as normal as soon as we are fully back running. Please advise us of any medical emergencies for you or your family and our owner will reach out directly.
Our team will begin making contact the week of April 13th to resume any postponed previously scheduled meetings. We ask for your patience during this time as our team becomes adjusted and makes the shift to create a safe meeting space.
We encourage you as a valued customer to reach out to us and let us know if you have any questions or concerns as we will be happy to address them.
We all look forward to a safe return to our lives as soon as possible, and hope to have your support in upholding these safe practices until then!
Please stay tuned to our newsletter, social media and direct correspondence for updates regarding a firm reopening date! You can also check out our website for additional details at: NativeEdgeLandscape.com/shelter
Thank you for your dedication and support during this time!
Rodney Stoutenger
Owner