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4 Steps to Creating a Successful Customer On-boarding Process

by | Dec 27, 2018 | Marketing | 0 comments

4 Steps to Creating a Successful Customer On-boarding Process

Did you know that it costs 5x more to attract a new client than to keep one you already have? So how do you keep current customers happy? The best way is by developing a solid relationship right off the bat with an effective on-boarding process. Customer on-boarding is the process in which you communicate with new customers to introduce them to your company. Whether this with a series of emails, direct mailers, phone calls or a combination of all, (we highly recommend a combination, but we’ll touch more on that later) it is the first step in their customer journey, and some may consider it the most important.

In this article I will outline four simple steps to creating a totally kick-a** process that will truly “WOW” your customers and keep them coming back.

Keep in mind,the construction of your on-boarding process must have your personal twist built into each step to introduce customers to YOUR business. Have fun with it, be real and show the unique personality of your business:

Step 1: The Introduction: Get to know your customer

This one may seem self-explanatory, but the on-boarding process begins right when a customer agrees to work with your business. So, start by getting all of the necessary information about your client. This includes not only the job information, but also any additional information that can create a bond with them. Learn about their family, hobbies and other stories that they tell you. These should be stored in your computer system so they can be retrieved for later conversations. This will solidify in the customer’s eye that you really do care about them.

Step 2: Pre-Job: Send welcome series

Prior to the scheduled job, send a series of communications to your customers welcoming and thanking them for the business opportunity. This can be done with automated emails, or take a more personal route with hand written cards or a phone call.. In most tree care companies, the person who sold the job is not going to be with the crew that comes out to do the job. So a critical element in your on-boarding series should be an introduction of the crew members that will be executing the work. If this is not possible because your crew composition changes, create a page on your website so customer can learn about the individual crew members. (Pro Tip: Create “get to know me” videos for your team members to host on your website and to send to customers)

In your welcome series, you will also need to set the expectation for your company and what is expected of the customer. Go into as much detail as possible about the job that is going to be done, what (if anything) the customer needs to complete prior to the job, the amount of time it will take, and remind them of the scheduled date and time. An informed customer, is generally a happy customer.

Step 3: Post-Job: The follow up

Shortly after the job is completed, send your client a summary of the work that was done, and once again thank them for their business. Let them know about their payment options at this time as well. About a week after the job, while your great work is still fresh in their memory, reach out again to ask for feedback on their experience. Incorporate asking for online reviews if they had a positive experience.

Step 4: Ongoing: Nurturing

This is your opportunity to offer your customer information beyond discussing a job. I recommend sending out a nurturing email campaign by utilizing automated emails. Multiple times throughout the year send customers information regarding proper tree care based on the season, share offers and incentives your company is currently running, or just simply thank them for their continued business. Each touch-point will continue to solidify a relationship with the customer that lasts beyond the original job.

Putting an on-boarding process in place will help your company create lasting relationships with customers that keep them coming back. Be personal and consistent with your process and watch as your customer’s perception of your business begins to transform!

Written by: Amanda Eicher

How to Get the Most Out of Conferences

by | Dec 18, 2018 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

How To Get The Most Out of Conferences

As a professional arborist, I know you spend a lot of time at conferences. Whether it is your local ISA chapter conference, the TCIExpo or the ISA’s annual conference, these events can be time consuming and expensive, however, they are invaluable to your business.

Below are my seven tips to getting the most out of every conference for you and your team:

Before the Conference

– Make Your Plan and Be Intentional. Don’t let a conference happen to you. Make the most out of it by making a plan beforehand. Use these questions to develop your conference strategy.
– What is the primary goal of this conference for you and your team? It could be simply to get as many CEU’s as possible, or it can be to talk to a certain equipment vendor or to learn what ArboRisk’s Thrive is all about ;). Whatever your goal is, be intentional about it. This takes planning with your team to identify what you truly want everyone to get out of the time that you are spending there.
– What sessions will be most valuable for you? Look at the agenda carefully before you go. If there are multiple sessions that you want to attend at the same time, send one of your team members to one of them so your business can get as much information as possible.
– Who do you really want to talk to at the conference? Reach out to them before to set a specific time and place to meet. Conferences get really busy for everyone. Having a predetermined meeting with a key connection is a great way to have the conversation that you want. Make a list of the questions that you want to ask each person and bring that list along with you in case you run into them before your meeting time.
– Stay at the Host Hotel. Some people use conferences as a chance to get away from the day in and day out stress of their business and decide to stay at a further away hotel to get that. That can be beneficial only if you maximize the time that you are in the conference. I’ve found that some of the most valuable information is transferred between attendees during conversations in between sessions or at the social events. By booking your hotel room at the host hotel, I guarantee, you will have more conversations with your peers and get more out of the conference.

At the Conference

– Get to the Registration Booth Early. Plan your trip so one of the first things that you do is go to the registration booth to get the conference materials. This gives you the opportunity to get familiar with the conference space so you don’t miss out on any of the sessions or social events. Many times the room assignments of the sessions are not available to you until you actually get to the venue
– Be Active During Sessions. Sit up close, ask questions and take notes during the sessions. Write down a question to ask the speaker after the session is over with. Being engaged with the content will help you retain the information better and help you think of ways to incorporate the message into your business. Also, if you take solid notes, you’ll be able to share the information with your team at a later date.
– Socialize. I’ve said it already, however, being social at a conference is the best way to maximize your experience there. You never know who you can meet a conference, it could be your next employee or a referral partner or a future mentor.

After the Conference

– Follow-up. If there were people that you enjoyed talking to, send them a post-conference email or LinkedIn request. Ask them an additional question that you had from your conversation.
– Plan for Next Year. If you enjoyed the conference, make even a better plan for next year. Think about what went well and what you would like to do differently next time.

Conferences have provided me with the ability to gain great friendships, advance my career and make wonderful memories, however, it did not happen without my efforts. Be intentional when you go to your next conference and use these seven tips to get the most out of them.

Written by: Eric Petersen

5 Tips to Become a Champion Recruiter

by | Dec 12, 2018 | Employee Management | 0 comments

5 Tips to Become a Champion Recruiter

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Did former Alabama Head Coach, Nick Saban become the country’s best college football recruiter overnight? Of course not. Did he benefit from the history of the Alabama football program? Of course. But what really set him apart during his time at the helm was how he made being an Alabama recruit the ONLY thing that a blue chip high school player could think about.

I know what you are thinking, getting excited to play football in Tuscaloosa is drastically different than getting excited to work in the tree care industry, right? But is it really much different? After all, you want someone who is going to be passionate and not stop until they reach their peak, just like Coach Saban.

Following Coach Saban’s lead, here are my tips to becoming a champion recruiter in the tree care industry.

Company Culture – New recruits chose Alabama because they wanted to win a national championship. That was the culture and expectation that Coach Saban and his staff set. Everyone knew it and understood their role in how to achieve it together. The culture focuses on the team success, not individual performances.

Obviously, a tree service must have a team first approach as well, but creating a desirable culture can be difficult for tree care owners. There are no national championship trophies to hoist or conference rivalries to get excited about. So find pride in what you do and rally around that. Whether it is your unrelenting commitment to safety, the desire to enhance your customer’s lives by maintaining their trees, or the goal to plant more trees than you remove, it needs to be clearly defined to become the best tree service you can be. That message must be known and embraced by everyone on your team. When you have it, your company culture will start recruiting new employees for you.

Identify Future Staffing Needs – Just like in college football, turnover on your team is inevitable. No matter how great your company is, you will always have employees who leave your organization either to a municipality or to start their own company or need to switch careers because their body cannot handle the daily workload anymore. So do not avoid thinking about turnover, plan on it happening.

Look at your current team and think about timeline for each person to be moving on from their current role. Also, look for ways that each individual can still remain a part of your organization. In doing so, you will have identified your future staffing needs and started creating internal career paths that can help retain those team members and recruit new ones.

Set Key Characteristics – Do you know what characteristics you want in an employee? Have you written them down? When looking at your current team members, what makes them a valuable asset to your company? Write down the desirable traits so you can start to build an ideal employee profile. At Alabama, the coaching staff has a very specific set of physical (height, weight, speed, strength) and personality traits (motivation, discipline, academics) that they stick to.

If someone does not fit within their desired profile, they pass on them. Due to the lack of prospective employees in the tree care industry, it makes this part of recruiting much more difficult for you. However, every one of us has hired someone out of desperation that did not fit with what you want but you needed another person to do the work. Many times, this is the individual that is the most challenging to manage, they are the ones that get hurt and cause accidents. Be specific on who you want and don’t settle just because you need a body.

Be Present to Create the Pipeline – Being selective with your new hires can only happen when you have options. For that to happen you must build your recruiting pipeline just like college coaches do. You and your company must be present in the areas that your new hires will be. Depending on what who your ideal new employee is, this could mean having a physical presence at local high school and college career fairs or working with them to develop internships, or having an interactive booth at a 4-H or FFA conference.

In addition to being physically present, you must be visible on the correct social media platforms (hint: Instagram not Facebook) showing why a career in the tree care industry is exciting and rewarding. If you haven’t looked at www.outsidecareers.org, do so today. They have some great information and stories that you can use to recruit new employees. After all, isn’t that really what Coach Saban uses? Stories from former players and alumni on how their time at Alabama shaped their lives into what they are today.

Always be Recruiting – The NCAA puts restrictions on how and when college football coaches can recruit high school players, but in the tree care industry the only limit on recruiting efforts is what you place on yourself. Putting a year round emphasis on recruiting is the best way to create the pipeline of prospective employees that you can tap into when you need it. Don’t delay recruiting until someone hands you their two week notice or when you finally land that big job and need more employees to complete it. Recognize recruiting it as a critical component of your business and one that must be given time and energy to be effective.

Becoming a champion recruiter takes a lot of time and hard work, but the rewards pay off tenfold. Just ask Nick Saban where his football program would have been if he was not getting the right players to come play for him.

If you struggle with finding and keeping great employees, contact an ArboRisk team member today! Our Thrive Risk Management Hiring & Recruiting Package and team of experts will help you one-on-one to create a hiring and recruiting plan that works for your organization.

Is Your Safety Program Working?

by | Dec 5, 2018 | Risk Management | 0 comments

Is Your Safety Program Working?

As a risk manager for the tree care industry, I am often asked, “how does a tree service make sure their safety program is working?” Because of this common question, I want to share three simple ways that you can internally audit your safety program to ensure you are doing all you can to get every employee home safe at night.

Are your employees able to explain what to do?

An effective safety program will teach your team members exactly what to do in case of an injury. Simply ask employees from all departments to describe the steps to take. They should know who to call, which clinic they need to go to depending on location, and what forms to fill out as soon as the injury happens. Of course, if they cannot explain what to do during a non-emergency situation, they won’t know during a panic-filled time of injury. Make this the topic at your next safety meeting to train everyone on the procedure for an injury. Have your procedure written down, and kept at all locations and in each vehicle for an emergency.

Can you prove your program is being implemented?

Documentation is a key component of an effective safety program. Whether it is for OSHA or to obtain a lower insurance rates, being able to prove that that your safety program actually exists is the goal. You should have employees sign that they acknowledge and understand the safety program and employee handbook, as well as attendance sheets for the weekly or bi-weekly safety meetings. Be sure to note the topics on the attendance sheets as well. This also helps you recognize if an employee is not being properly trained on a piece of equipment or operational service that you provide.

Numbers Talk!

Have a safety committee member be in charge of monitoring your data. A simple Excel document is a great way to track important statistics like; number of incidents, number of different employees injured, number of missed work days, etc. These numbers should be reviewed monthly or quarterly at the very least. Make note to monitor both positive and negative trends as you’ll want to reward a strong safety environment while addressing any obvious issues.

Remember, even TCIA Accredited companies have serious injuries and fatalities that could have been prevented. Don’t let your safety culture get stale and ineffective. Use these three ideas to monitor the strength of your program so you know when and how to improve it.

Written by: Malcolm Jeffris, CTSP

Make it Your Best Year Yet

by | Nov 28, 2018 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Make It Your Best Year Yet

Raise your hand if you dread creating an annual business plan! Well you’re not alone.
We’ve all heard the famous quote from Benjamin Franklin, “failing to plan is planning to fail”, yet how often do you hear people say “I don’t have time to do an annual business plan”.

Taking time to do an annual plan saves time and increases productivity. This article is designed to give you a simple framework of how to perform an annual business planning session. The key is to set aside uninterrupted time for it, preferably on a couple different days so you can have some time to think about it in between sessions.

1. Start With Why – The Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland said it simply, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” If you have not clearly defined the why you do what you do, now is the time to do so. Your Why is your Mission Statement and serves as the north star for your business. Your annual business plan defines how and what you need to do to advance the company and its mission. In addition, review your vision statement, the what you do, and your core values, how you do it. Combined, these three elements create a culture for your business.

2. SWOT Analysis – Next have a clear understanding of where your business is today. Review the goals and your performance from the prior year. Where did you do well and be brutally honest about where you did not meet your goals. The SWOT Analysis is one of the most common ways to start planning for your company. List out all of your current company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Gather input from team members in all areas of your business so your plan can be as robust as possible. Compare these findings with your successes and failures from the prior year. Tony Robbins sums it up like this: “Success leaves clues. Go figure out what someone who was successful did and model it. Improve it, but learn their steps. They have knowledge” It is pretty remarkable what happens when you include your team in this part of the annual planning. We do this in our agency using Survey Monkey so each team member has a chance to respond anonymously.

3. Big Picture Goals – In my opinion, it is best for companies to have no more than 3 big picture goals for the year. When setting goals use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. to help guide you. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time. Each goal must be specific enough that your team members can understand what the desired outcome is. That means the goal must have something measurable assigned to it. Whether that is a total amount of new customers, an increase of the number of five star reviews on Google or a decrease in the number of injuries for the year, make sure you can track it. The goal also should be attainable and realistic given the current state of your organization. Stretch goals are great if they are accomplished, however, stating a large stretch goal can have a negative consequence on employee morale if the year does not go as planned. Lastly, each goal needs to have a time element to it. When do you want the goal to be achieved? A goal without an end date is not a goal that your team members can rally behind. Give your organization a chance at accomplishing the goals you set by making them S.M.A.R.T.

4. Objectives for Each Goal – When you have your three big picture goals written down, take a look at each one of them and break them up into smaller objectives. Assign these objectives or tasks to individuals who have the ability and responsibility to accomplish them. Make sure each team a member understands their role and is willing to do what it takes to complete their part. Go back to the SWOT analysis and align objectives with the people on your team with the strengths in the area needed to accomplish the objectives. If there is an area of weakness, incorporate training needs to bolster your team’s resources and effectiveness.

5. Check-in and Make Adjustments – Because each goal has an end date, create a timeline of when to check-in on the progress of the goal. Paying attention to the status of the goal throughout the year will allow you and your team an opportunity to make any adjustments necessary to achieve the goal. In addition to setting up a series of small check-in points, schedule a semi-annual review. Here is an article devoted specifically to your mid-year review.

To learn more about how strategic planning can enhance your organization, take a look at our Thrive Risk Management Strategic Planning Package. In just 4 short weeks we can help you identify who you are as a company, what you want to become, and what strategic milestones will be needed to achieve your goals.

Written by: Jim Skiera