When a prospective customer calls and...

Reach said:
@southsoundtree I love it! I’m going to break out the 120’ ladder on the next guy who calls. I do offer the $3k crane pretty often though, once someone actually bit. We lifted a tree soley to prevent branches from falling and scratching the grass...
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Sorry bub, but the $3000 crane isn’t strong enough without dragging a limb across your lawn. We need to bring in the $6000 crane
 
southsoundtree said:
Ask if they need a bucket truck installed in the tree, or branches professionally removed from a tree without damage or injury.
Sorry, just installed our last bucket truck and are waiting on a new shipment.



A lot of people are just uninformed and think only unroped drunks climb trees, starting on ladders.

Give them the benefit of the doubt that they don't know and are feeling out a company in a sea of mediocre companies.

A customer asked me about fixing the fence.
I said I don't really know about fixing chain-link fences, just a lot about not breaking them.
He said a previous bidder was singing the praises of his new power pole saw, and was going to cut everything from the ground, probably off an a-frame ladder, so inevitable damage to the fence (the cheapest his neighbor could buy, and not robust) would result.

After talking to someone like that, you might think all successful people buy bucket trucks for $150,000, never knowing you can buy death-trap trucks, or buy one that doesn't run so that you can honestly say you have a bucket truck, and show a picture with signs (at the company owner's house where it stays).
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I’ll mail you a magnet sign and you can slap it on your bucket truck..just send me the photos, but be sure to take the plates off first
 
TreeVB said:
We dont tell a doctor or a dentist what we need done so there is no reason a customer needs to tell us what needs to be done to their trees. I walk away from customers like that and only take clients that are looking for me to do what NEEDS to be done
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It has happened several times for myself and family when the advice/practice of the docs was going to do more harm than good. Their human and make mistakes or can't see for the burden.
I did work yrs ago for someone only interested in me climbing and setting a pull rope in a tree with a large hanger. He agreed that I would not be responsible after I cautioned him.
He called his buddy with a tow truck service to rip the limb out.
It did plus it uprooted the tree it was in plus another tree and lifted the asphalt 20x20 slab.
another maestro standing on the roof giving orders, he nearly got sweeped off the roof by limb he ordered through.
Takes all kinds of fuckheads to make the world go round and around.
Honestly don't now how I have survived this long at times:LOL:
 
evo said:
I’ll mail you a magnet sign and you can slap it on your bucket truck..just send me the photos, but be sure to take the plates off first
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When you’re done, I’ll send some signs too! I need a bucket truck picture, please!
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
Tells you what they’re looking to have done and then proceeds to tell you how they think the job needs to be completed instead of just making an appointment for an estimate and waiting for the consultation to hear your opinion.

It’s frustrating because you’re supposed to be the professional they are calling but they’re gonna tell you how the work should be done??

Anyone else know these feels?

/rant:muyenojado:
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But when they shake your hand afterwards with a "wow, that was amazing" it's so sweet.
 
I had a customer a few months back that had all kinds of great ideas about how to disassemble a large tree. He even used the "30 years ago I woulda done it myself". He was persistent with the advice and kept asking why I didn't just drop 3,000 lb 50ft limbs in one shot. I had permission to drop in place. So on the first big limb, I brought in the tips. He was standing out there watching at a safe distance. I purposely dropped a 1,600 lb section from 30 ft and it shook the ground. I made sure it was all safe, and I asked him to go roll it out of the way. That pretty much shut him up. He later admitted that he knew just enough about tree work to get himself killed.
 
Birdyman88 said:
I had a customer a few months back that had all kinds of great ideas about how to disassemble a large tree. He even used the "30 years ago I woulda done it myself". He was persistent with the advice and kept asking why I didn't just drop 3,000 lb 50ft limbs in one shot. I had permission to drop in place. So on the first big limb, I brought in the tips. He was standing out there watching at a safe distance. I purposely dropped a 1,600 lb section from 30 ft and it shook the ground. I made sure it was all safe, and I asked him to go roll it out of the way. That pretty much shut him up. He later admitted that he knew just enough about tree work to get himself killed.
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That's how much I know! It's just taking time.
 
jed1124 said:
If they are telling me how to do the job on the phone I tell them I'm too booked up now and then refer them to a competitor I don't like.
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Ha. I do, or did. The same thing. Then I started thinking I’m giving those guys work and I don’t like them. So I quit referring and just say I’m too busy right now.
 
In the flip side, it’s nice to have customers informed and knowing what they want. I’m fine with them telling me “ I want those two limbs off and some weight and length off that one, and that dead wood over there.” that’s fine if they’re not wrong. If they’re telling me how to get up there or how to not smash shit, I’ll usually smile and nod and do it my way anyways, if they wanna chat with me too much when I’m already up there, I have a noisy little 2 stroke I’ll let idle until they get tired of yelling and go inside. I haven’t yet intentionally backchained for the sole purpose of spraying someone with sawdust, but I’ve thought about it ;)

Couple times a year when I’m fixing to ascend to prune, I get “ don’t you have them climbing spikes?” Around here it’s still pretty common for companies to spur pruning jobs. It’s how I pruned too my first few years in the business 99 til 2002 or so. I didn’t know better then, until I stumbled across arboristsite. It’s slowly getting better I think, people are getting into SRT more and more, probably because there’s so much info out there just free for the taking.
 
I've been told by a married pair of customers that I should write a book of funny stories about employees, like how I will write NOISE on the chipper soon. That way I can tell people when they can't hear me when I'm up in the tree, and they're next to the running chipper, they will have been trained to step away from the NOISE. A little different than Avoid the Noid
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What? What? What? I can't hear you? I'm standing next to a large engine running full blast! Sometimes baffling that they can't figure out that cell phones are useful at work, as well as moving away from the noise.

I wish Sena's would durably work off helmets somehow, so a short-timer can have communication with a cheap helmet. I wouldn't want a used helmet worn by a bunch of sweaty, dirty people.
 
southsoundtree said:
What? What? What? I can't hear you? I'm standing next to a large engine running full blast!
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Reminds me of a story a friend told about being at a concert, and he was sitting right behind the guy running the sound board, and the music was blisteringly loud, so my friend goes up to the sound guy, who's jamming out to the music, and he tries yelling at the guy, "It's TOO F$CKING LOUD!" and of course the sound guy can't understand him and shouts back, "It doesn't GO any louder!"

DJ.gif


Great story
 
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Just had one today. Guy calls and tells me he's been using chainsaws all his life and has a Stihl and Husky. He just has five trees he wants down at a reasonable price and he will do the cleanup. So then he starts spouting off numbers for me to tell him what the average cost to take a tree down is for a medium sized tree. And I'm like, I don't give prices over the phone it's impossible to tell what something would cost without seeing the tree and the surrounding areas.

"shaking my head"

:muyenojado:
 
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