Health Care yearly inspections for trees

[PTS]

We have made a point to spend some time with our customers and look at all of the trees and shrubs on there property looking for potential problems, hazards, disease and fungus issues, pest.... your normal inspection stuff. We started a campaign with our customers and educated them on the importance of tree health. We are doing a "check up" kind of like your yearly dentist visits just to make sure all is well. We only charge our customers $20 if they have hired us for tree work prior and the ones who hear about it and call and ask for it we charge $50. It doesn't seem like much but the amount of extra work that is created is well worth it.

Just wondering if anyone else has utilized this type service.

 

[Fumbler]

Around here people call the Forest Service for free checkups...and usually the tree is dead or about to be completely dead.

I've never heard of anyone doing that, but I think that's a pretty neat idea. It would really promote responsible tree ownership..

 

[treeseer]

Hey Fumbler I don't know where in nc you are, but in the raleigh area I have been charging for inspections since i got certified 15 years ago. I charged then about what PTS gets now, and I get a lot more for inspections/monitoring/inventory today. I've had very little dropoff in % of goaheads despite raising the rates. If people value trees, they value knowledge about thier trees. This service is the bedrock of the tree care business, PHC.

PTS as long as you are getting enough to pay for your time you can be objective and give a good service. You're doing a smart thing.

 

[underwor]

I will agree with Guy 100% on this one. This is the way to go. I am in an area of frugal (tight) people, but some are coming around. I also do this as part of my city forester job in the summer, so they end up paying in the form of taxes, which doesn't hurt as much. I am starting to do a little consulting work for the forest service and have also answered tree questions for the city of Bismarck one summer. It was a great way to meet people and learn the streets. They had a different location scheduled every half hour from 8:30am to 9 pm. I think they charged about $25 at that time. I know they raised it trying to wean people off to private companies, but it had no effect on their numbers. If the clientele is mostly professionals, they expect good service and they expect to pay for it.

 

[Fumbler]

Hey Fumbler I don't know where in nc you are, but in the raleigh area I have been charging for inspections since i got certified 15 years ago.

I grew up in Durham, went to school for forestry in Raleigh, and now work for the NC Forest Service in Rocky Mount.

The only tree work I see done around Rocky Mount and the surrounding areas is half arse at the very best. Most of the trimming you see is actually topping done by a man using gaffs. Ever since moving to Rocky Mount it seems like Raleigh is a world away in all aspects. No offense to the people, but they're generally ignorant about most things, tree care included, and aren't willing to pay for anything.

You wouldn't happen to know a Moreland Gueth would you?
He does tree removals. I'm going to try and get some experience with him around Raleigh, then do a little bit of my own work around Rocky Mount. I hope to get ISA certified one day, but at the rate that I do urban forestry with the NCFS it'll be years before I rack up 1 year worth of experience.

 

[treeseer]

I grew up in Durham, went to school for forestry in Raleigh, and now work for the NC Forest Service in Rocky Mount.
.

So if you went to ncsu for forestry you learned zippo about urban forestry there. too bad. I worked at the braswell library in rocky mount last winter and arranged for a company, the best in the area I was told, to meet me there and sub. I wanted to climb with this guy to review the pruning specs, but when I told him to leave the spikes on the ground he reacted like I'd asked him to strip naked and run down the street. :biggrinbounce2:

This was a relatively small willow oak that I climbed easily with a lanyard and a rope, old school all the way. That tree crew did learn root collar exavations pretty well, and spread a lot of mulch, so they got a halfday's work at least.

Email me ahead of time if you get near Raleigh again. I could use some help if you can climb without spikes, or at least are willing to try.

 

[teamtree]

Maintenance Program

We are putting together a maintenance program for our customers...working out the kinks. We do this for many of our customers but not in a formal manner. We are trying to make it a selling/marketing tool for us.

 

[treeseer]

We are putting together a maintenance program for our customers...working out the kinks. We do this for many of our customers but not in a formal manner. We are trying to make it a selling/marketing tool for us.

Best way to dekink and formalize is to follow a system. buy this book. http://secure.isa-arbor.com/store/G...Care-Management-System-3rd-Edition-P15C0.aspx

 

[John464]

most of my regular customers call us when they start seeing dead brances fall on their lawn. they do their own inspection in that case.

I think inspections would be a good way to prevent some diseases/dead wood from spreading getting to save trees before they turn into a removal job. I think along with inspection you should charge a lot more than $20(that doesnt even pay for gas) and also deep root fertilization and spray at the same time. Most of the higher end end accounts would want it all. The people that care that much about their trees would place value on actions of preventative maintenance than soley a consultation. While you are there and spot more work, sell them on what needs to be done after your consultation and treatemnts are finished.

 

[underwor]

Remember, these are health care inspections, not sales calls. Sell the soil test to see if fertilization is needed, inspect to see if spray is required at this time. If you are too late this year for control, suggest that they get hold of you earlier next year. If you explain what is good about the site, it makes the client feel good about themselves and good about you since you are not the typical salesman trying to shove something at them that they may have no need for. Remember, we are trying to be treated as professionals. Does the doctor sell you a pill or amputate something every time you visit the office? Often he gives you advice on what you could do yourself. Now some people are not the DIY type and they may ask if you can perform that service for them, but let them be the decision maker. It gives them ownership of the plant care program and makes it much more valuable in their minds. Good pr will sell more future jobs and get more referrals and the client will feel that your higher cost than your competitors is justified

 

[PTS]

Remember, these are health care inspections, not sales calls. Sell the soil test to see if fertilization is needed, inspect to see if spray is required at this time. If you are too late this year for control, suggest that they get hold of you earlier next year. If you explain what is good about the site, it makes the client feel good about themselves and good about you since you are not the typical salesman trying to shove something at them that they may have no need for. Remember, we are trying to be treated as professionals. Does the doctor sell you a pill or amputate something every time you visit the office? Often he gives you advice on what you could do yourself. Now some people are not the DIY type and they may ask if you can perform that service for them, but let them be the decision maker. It gives them ownership of the plant care program and makes it much more valuable in their minds. Good pr will sell more future jobs and get more referrals and the client will feel that your higher cost than your competitors is justified

This is my thoughts exactly. I normally do $50 and most inspections can be done in less then a half hour on most in town yards. I can get anywhere in town in 5 minutes and 25 will get me anywhere in the county. I do them in sections so I only drive a very short distance between stops. The reason that I give a break of $20 to reg customers is because they are the ones most likely to hire us for something following the inspection. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.

 

[treeseer]

"If you explain what is good about the site, it makes the client feel good about themselves and good about you since you are not the typical salesman trying to shove something at them that they may have no need for."

key point there by the professor. Or as Bob Dylan said, If you cannot bring good news then don't bring any.

 

[ATH]

How do you respond if you have done a yearly inspection - let's say late spring/early summer and the homeowner calls back late summer for something that you did not see in your visit?

I think there are 2 different situations to consider, and I'd be curious how others handle either or both:
1) Something that you could not possibly have seen in the earlier visit.
2) An insect/disease for which there may have been some subtle early symptoms that you missed, but is now causing obvious problems.

Basically...do you charge for another consult/site visit, or do you do this as a courtesy follow-up from the earlier visit?

 

[Fumbler]

So if you went to ncsu for forestry you learned zippo about urban forestry there. too bad.

Email me ahead of time if you get near Raleigh again. I could use some help if you can climb without spikes, or at least are willing to try.

treeseer, I sent you a PM.

Yeah, we learned nothing about urban forestry at NCSU.
The forest service rangers like to tell me I learned nothing at all

I'm new to the whole climbing thing and may take you up on that offer.

 

[underwor]

ATH,

Most of the PHC programs in the country are sold as a package deal with 3 - 4 monitoring visits per summer. Small spot treatments or short client training sessions are held at each visit if necessary. It is very similar to selling your standard spray program of the past. 3 visits for $X, any situation beyond the first 1/2 hour ( or whatever) is extra. Remember, we are professionals. We are not expected to speed diagnose every cold, sniffle, ache or pain that the tree will get for the entire season in one visit. One of these visits will be the annual checkup which looks at the entire ecosystem in detail. The rest are just short office calls that look for things specific to certain complaints or certain species at that time of the season. (Apple scab is not a problem until it gets hot and humid, spider mites show up when it gets hot and dry, borers emerge usually during a very limited window of time) This is the information that we as professionals know that the general public does not. This is what we are paid for. We know when and where to look, like the plumber that gets $50 to hit the pipe with the hammer. He knows where to hit to get results. This whole concept is based on the assumption that you have studied, either in school or by observation, enough to know what cycles are most likely to manifest themselves in a given ecosystem. I can not set in ND and tell you what day to check for bugs in your location, unless I have worked there and have the experience or unless I check with a trusted authority from that area before making the recommendation. Many of us are not all that smart, we just know where to look up the answer or who to ask.

We also need to know when to say, that is not a problem, it is too late to treat this year, and the best "I don't know, but I will find out".

 

[ATH]

Thanks underwor

I like the idea of 3 visits for $x instead of one for $20 or $50. Even if it comes out to a lower cost per visit, I think the clients will apprecaite knowing they are having a professional keep a close eye on their trees. Just because, as you said, there are many ailments that will only show up at given times.

I am planning to start offering yearly inspections this coming spring. I can imagine doing a visit in May and telling the client that all looks good. Then getting a call in August from that client because their Norway is turning purple. I return to find Rhizosphaera needle cast. Did I miss that in May? Probably not if this is the first time this tree is suffering...