I think that's just a dillusion made up by tcia and the like. Each potential client has their own mental image of tree workers as does each tree worker have their own unique image. Most involved in this work have different ideas about what we should look like. I am 99% sure that I harm the "image of the industry" in the eyes of some. I could care less. I do not want to be part of an outfit that looks just like everyone else's.
If you think about it, the concept is silly. "That other guy doesn't wear a helmet, therefore my image is tainted and I get less money." Nah, I don't buy it.
The image that I speak of is the one that the client perceives. If the other people in the business have an opinion that's nice but not important unless I'm recruiting. But it does effect how we are seen by others and translates to how much money we earn.
That other guy not wearing PPE effects my bottom-line though the cost of insurance. That is a predictive based industry that derives its appraisal of us through statistics not individual performance. They draw a line through past performance of the industry to mitigating of risk onward to rates and modifying by individual compliance to the risk mitigation protocols. That, simply put: they died and injured themselves a lot, have a set of regulations born of that fact, want us to cover them so, what have they done to do anything about all this so we can give them some sort of break on the price. Risk analysis.
When they look at our track record and why these deaths and injuries occur they don't simply say, "RIP, brother" and move along. They look at how the risk could be mitigated (that's reduced btw not prevented). Lo and behold! They find that someone has done just that ; OSHA, ANSI and the industry associations. Now, they have some guidelines as to how a bunch of tree trimmers can reduce the chance of ending up as statistics and consequently an expense to them and others. Again, they don't look at the individual to establish the industry rates. They only do that to modify the rate either way based on how well that individual has performed and if, through compliance to what is agreed as statistically proven strategies, reduced their future risk potential. As we all understand, the longer you are in this game the greater the chance for something going wrong.
When we meet people in the public outside of business hours and when we are not dressed for work that image is what comes to mind when one tells someone they are an arborist/treeguy/treetrimmer/ etc…. A funny thing happens, people draw conclusions about the value of the work. Whether you think so or not, how you dress, act and communicate, create impressions in people's mind and that is based on their value system. If your client's all look, act like you and talk like you then great, no problems. That's your target market. But if they don't then it is.
I prefer to have an overall better image to work from then our baseline value of our service would be higher. Mind you, there is an upside to them being like that, I can stand out against them as a more professional operation and thus worth a higher rate.
But here's another point that may be irrelevant to you, when a company, manager, owner places a higher value on the life of their people, their people perform better.
It's a strange, strange world we live in….
