Tree service
After the storm every lead is urgent and every crew is already out.
Marketing and follow-up for tree service companies
A tree service company swings between two kinds of work. After a storm the phone fills with calls about limbs on roofs and trees across driveways, and every crew is already out. The rest of the year the work is removals, pruning, and estimates for homeowners who are in no hurry at all. The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System gives your company a system for the four jobs of growth through the storm weeks and the quiet ones, and you own every account it runs on.
About two minutes. You see your score right away.
The four jobs in a tree service business
Getting Found.
In tree service, marketing means being found by the homeowner with a limb on her roof and by the homeowner who is planning to take down a tree next spring. A complete Google Business Profile, recent reviews, and photos of finished work help both of them decide to call you. The system tracks which ads and pages bring in calls, so your budget goes to the ones that bring you jobs.
Reply/Follow Up.
After a storm, calls and messages pile up faster than anyone can return them, and a homeowner who hears nothing will call the next company. The system gathers them in one place so every caller can hear back with a timeline, and estimates for removals and pruning get followed up until the homeowner gives you an answer.
Operations.
A tree service has to fit emergency work around jobs that were booked weeks ago, using the same crews and the same equipment. Online booking, invoices, and payment reminders run on a system, and when a homeowner books an estimate online, what she says about the tree and where it stands goes into the job. The schedule and each property's notes live in your field service software where the whole team can see them.
Word of Mouth.
Many homeowners think about their trees only when something falls, so a one-time removal turns into regular work only if you stay in touch. Each finished job ends with a request for a Google review, and past customers hear from you now and then, so when a neighbor wants a tree looked at, yours is the name they remember.
An example of what we hear from the tree service companies we work with
After a storm we had so many calls that nobody called a customer back to give her a day.
A big limb came down across a homeowner's driveway during a storm on Sunday night, and she called us first thing Monday morning. My crews were already out on trees that had landed on houses, so her voicemail went into a pile with dozens of others and nobody called to tell her when we could come. On Wednesday she hired a company that called back and gave her a day, and by the time my office reached her the limb was gone.
What the Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System does for a tree service company
The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System runs under all four jobs in your tree service company. It connects to the field service software you already use, like Housecall Pro, where your crews' schedule already lives. If your company runs on Jobber instead, we set that up too, and Jobber for tree service crews shows how we work with it. Robert Earl spent about twenty years in real estate and dealt with tree companies in that time, both as a client and as a business partner.
Articles for tree service owners
- How does a tree service sort emergency calls from routine estimates?A tree on a house comes first and a pruning quote can wait. How a tree service sorts storm leads and tells every waiting customer when to expect a crew.
- How does a tree service get customers to call again for pruning?Most homeowners think about trees only when something falls. How staying in touch turns a one-time tree job into regular pruning work for a tree service.
Questions tree service owners ask us
How can a tree service reply to storm leads when every crew is already out?
Every call, text, and web form goes into one list, and the owner gets an alert as each one arrives and a list each morning of the ones still waiting. With that list, the office can get back to every caller with a timeline, even when the crew cannot get there for days. A homeowner who has heard back from you has a reason to wait for you.
How do tree service companies keep track of estimates?
Keep every estimate in one list with the date it went out and whether the homeowner has answered. The Home Service Guild system shows the owner which estimates are still open and sends a follow-up reminder on each one until the homeowner gives you an answer. That matters most in the weeks after a storm, when new calls bury the estimates written the week before.
How does a tree service get customers to call again?
Stay in touch after the job, because many homeowners do not think about their trees again until something falls. The Home Service Guild system sends a reminder when it is time to look at the trees again, so when they notice a dead branch over the driveway, your name is already in front of them.
How do I know which part of my tree service business to fix first?
The free business score will show you which of the four jobs is costing your tree service company the most work. It is eight questions, takes about two minutes, and shows your score right away.
Free business score
See which of the four jobs is costing your tree service business the most work.
Eight questions, about two minutes, and your score on screen straight away.
Get my free tree service business score
