FULL SERVICE TREE CARE: Adding Leaves

When Meehan’s Lawn Service, Brookpark, Ohio, added full-service tree care to their mix, Tree and Shrub Care Manager Fred Bess says he refused to use the blanket application technique practiced by many companies who offer similar services. "As far as tree and shrub care goes, we sell customers what they need," Bess says. "It’s better for their plants, it’s better for the environment and it builds customer trust."

Meehan’s Lawn Service began offering full-service tree and shrub care in 1997 in response to customer demand, says Owner Tim Meehan. The company’s full-service tree care choices include four insect and disease treatments, spring and fall fertilization by deep-root injection as well as pruning and antidesiccant to help protect evergreens from the windburn and salt spray they are subject to during Northeast Ohio winters.

The first step in adding the service to the mix was to bring in Bess to manage it. Bess, who came to Meehan’s Lawn Service in 1997 with 18 years of green industry experience under his belt, established the program gradually. "We started out with the basic spray truck equipment and then built up from there with things like pruning equipment, depending on what the customers’ needs were," he says.

Meehan says it took three years to make back the initial investment in equipment costs. He estimates he spent $20,000 on a spray truck and $1,000 on the pumping system. According to Meehan, having a spray unit with multiple tanks, reels and pumps is important because some insecticides are phytotoxic to trees, carrying multiple mixes, so this type of equipment allows him to carry various types of targeted pest removal products without damaging trees. "If you don’t have the capability of being able to use two different mixes, you’re very limited in the products you can use based on what plants you can use them on," he says.

When it comes to marketing full-service tree care as an add-on service, Meehan says the most effective angle has been to educate existing customers that his company offers it. To do this, Bess and his assistant produced and mailed 10,000 direct mail promotional pieces last spring. "Basically, it’s a flyer offering all the different services with a bulk rate card on it so you just fill out your name, address, phone number and what services you’re interested in, drop it in the mail and then we stop out and leave the appropriate quotes for you," he explains, adding that he doesn’t believe in giving service quotes over the phone due to the varying levels of treatment needed from property to property. "We got a 1 to 2 percent return on the bulk mailing cards, but those leads typically sell at between 50 and 75 percent as opposed to methods we’ve used in the past, such as telemarketing, which generated more leads at a lower cost but had a 20 to 30 percent sale rate."

Educating customers about full-service tree care has been challenging, adds Bess. To get the service information out there, Bess and his assistant distribute newsletters to clients explaining what was done on the property, what tree and shrub problems are happening on landscapes in the area and offering some watering tips. "One section that really helps is the one titled, "Hey, you missed some plants," Bess says. "Customers are so used to the companies that come out and blanket-spray everything. This section tells them not to worry if they see that not all of their trees and shrubs were sprayed because that just means those plants didn’t need it at the time. Once the customers are better educated to know that we’re doing what’s right and not just coming out and spraying whatever we feel like or the entire property, it makes life a lot easier for me."

Meehan’s Lawn Service has found that educating the customer sometimes means giving them bad news, as well. Bess says he occasionally encounters trees that, because of disease, are too damaged to be saved and lays out the courses of action customers can take.

Customers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from education. Bess says when companies are looking at adding full-service tree care to the mix, in addition to having the right equipment for the job, they need to realize that training is an ongoing process, even after employees have received their general ornamental plant and shade tree pest control license. He says while there are a handful of diseases and insects lawn care companies need to know to care for lawns, there are literally hundreds of insects and diseases that affect trees and shrubs, and companies need to be able to recognize and treat them. For instance, keeping up on the latest insect and disease developments afforded Bess the ability to identify the second sighting of a pest in his state – the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid – an aphid relative that has been killing hemlock trees along the East Coast.

Overall, Bess and Meehan say adding full-care tree service to their mix has been beneficial for their customers because they’re able to provide better service. "This is because we’re there more often so we can spot problems before they become more serious," he says.

And the service, which the company prices based on time and material costs and boasts gross profit margins of about 15 percent, has been worth the effort so far, according to Meehan.