Copyright Inc. Magazine
Sausalito, California-based landscape design platform Yardzen has always delivered human-created custom landscaping plans to its customers. But when Allison Messner and her husband Adam founded the company in 2018, they didn’t feel the need to emphasize that fact. The company launched with a remote, hands-off customer journey. Through Yardzen’s website, clients would select a design package based on their property size and project needs—prices currently range from $295 to $2,495—upload photos of the space, and share a design brief detailing their vision. Yardzen would then assign one of its roughly 200 contract landscape designers to create their custom yard design. If the client encountered any issues throughout the process, or if they simply wanted to share additional information, they could email Yardzen and a client support team member would resolve their request. However, Allison, the company’s CEO, says the customer often wouldn’t learn this team member’s name, as they completed these tasks “behind-the-scenes.” This strategy worked well enough that in November 2024, Oldcastle APG, a subsidiary of building material giant CRH, acquired Yardzen for an undisclosed amount. Still, after watching several AI-only competitors emerge over the past few years, Messner realized that Yardzen needed to lean into its biggest differentiator: The human touch. While the CEO notes that she’s not against the use of AI—in fact, her company proudly uses the technology in several ways—she says, “Unlike some of these new competitors that are just a website and it’s just [generative] AI, we actually do have these amazing, talented team members.” In the summer of 2025, Yardzen started transitioning several client support team members into new customer-facing roles. Once they received sufficient training, the company added a dedicated project manager to several of its design package offerings. Clients who purchase these packages can schedule a one-on-one call with their project manager following the onboarding process. Plus, when customers receive a final landscape design, the project manager can help them find and hire vetted local contractors to bring it to life. (Clients without an assigned project manager can use Yardzen’s online platform to connect with contractors instead.) Messner says clients seem to feel more comfortable “knowing there’s a human” in their corner. She reports that since Yardzen launched this service in August, its website conversion rate has increased 28 percent and 94 percent of customers now elect to use Yardzen’s project manager-guided packages over less expensive ones that don’t include this service. Yardzen declined to share its revenue. “Looking at your entire customer journey and asking, ‘Is there a place where [I can add] a human touch?’ could really dramatically improve the experience for your client,” Messner says.
