Article provided in collaboration with Arborguard Tree Specialists
Each morning at 6:45 all 40 employees of Arborguard Tree Specialists, including the owner, gather for a dispatch meeting in the lower level of the company’s headquarters in Avondale Estates, Ga. The wide-ranging discussion always includes what happened in the field the previous day.
There is usually a lot to report, as the firm is the largest tree preservation and maintenance company in the Southeast. With offices in the Atlanta area; Charlotte, N.C.; and Augusta, Ga.; Arborguard has a long and impressive list of blue ribbon clients.
“My goal has always been to build relationships,” says Spence Rosenfeld, who started Arborguard in 1981. “We don’t want to just react to the problem of the day, but to work with our customers in preventing tree-related problems and developing strategies to help preserve trees through natural solutions.”
Familiarity brings success
At the conclusion of the morning meeting, the tree care and plant health care crews pick up their work orders and depart. And thanks to the culture developed over the three-decade history of the firm, the chances are very good that the members of each crew will be very familiar with each other and the jobsite they are going to.
“I spend a lot of time putting the crews together based on skill levels and personality traits, and then matching the crew to the job,” says Jonathan McNeil, operations manager.
This process succeeds, says McNeil, because if you are working with someone you like, you are going to take more responsibility for doing things that help that person out. “That’s the No. 1 reason we have seen a reduction in accidents over the years,” he says. “It has also improved efficiency. By running the same guys on the same truck with the same brush chipper every day, they get familiar with each other and with their equipment. Not surprisingly, equipment does not get broken as often because they take ownership of it. Guys who take care of their equipment get rewarded by having the opportunity to get the new machines.” Among the new equipment the company has purchased the past two years are two Vermeer BC1200 brush chippers and two BC1500 models.
“When it was time to buy new chippers, the folks at Vermeer Southeast outshined the competition tenfold,” says McNeil. “With some other machines we have owned, I learned that if your chipper is not working at peak performance you will have a bad day. However, the Vermeer chippers have been very reliable and user-friendly. Vermeer obviously listened to customers when designing these machines.”
Three-year relationships
Arborguard is able to maintain consistency between crews and jobs because many customers — most often commercial accounts — are set up on a comprehensive plan.
“Initially we provide the customer with a map of their property showing key items that have to be addressed immediately and other less critical needs that can be spread out over several years,” says McNeil. “It helps the customer budget and assures them that over that period their trees will not be forgotten. The advantages for us include not having to constantly resell jobs and it allows us to create a trusting relationship with the customer.”