TreeBossPro Blog — Plant Health Care

Turning Pruning and Removal Visits Into PHC Program Sign-Ups

Your pruning and removal crews spend more time looking closely at customers' trees than anyone else in the business. They see the borer exit holes, the scale on the twigs, the thin canopy and the girdling root. Most of the time, that observation goes nowhere. The crew finishes the job and drives off. Capturing those observations is the cheapest way to grow a PHC program.

Your Crews Are Already Scouting

Adding a PHC Division to a Removal and Pruning Company covered building a PHC division. This article is about feeding it. Every pruning or removal visit is effectively a free site inspection. The question is whether what the crew sees ever reaches someone who can sell a program.

The goal is not to turn climbers into salespeople. It is to give them an easy way to say "this tree has a problem" that lands in the right place.

The reverse is true too. PHC applicators visit properties several times a year and see pruning needs, deadwood and hazard trees. The same note-and-photo habit can feed your pruning and removal crews from the PHC side.

Capturing Observations in the Crew App

The crew app lets crews add notes and photos to the job. Make it a standard habit: if you see a problem on another tree, take a photo and add a short note. The photo and note stay on the property record, where the office can see them.

Keep it simple. "Oak by driveway, thin canopy, possible borer, photo attached" is enough for the office to follow up.

Make the photo useful. A close-up of the symptom plus a wider shot showing which tree it is lets the office and the consulting arborist understand the situation without another visit just to find the tree.

Turning Notes Into Leads

Have someone in the office review crew notes daily for PHC opportunities. Each one becomes a lead or a consult. Consults are their own job category in TreeBossPro, so you can track how many crew observations turn into consults and how many consults turn into programs.

Follow up quickly. The customer just had your crew on their property and probably saw them looking at the tree. That is the warmest lead you will ever get.

Track these leads separately so you can see whether the habit is working. A tag on the property or a note in the lead source is enough to count how many PHC programs started from crew observations.

Making the Offer

When you follow up, lead with what the crew saw and the photo. Then offer a consult or, when appropriate, go straight to an estimate for a treatment or a program. Estimates go out with online approval and automatic follow-up.

Be honest. Not every problem needs treatment, and some trees are better removed. Customers trust companies that tell them so, and that trust sells programs.

Timing matters. If the observation suggests a treatment with a seasonal window, say so in the follow-up. Customers respond better to a real reason to act now than to a generic sales pitch.

Rewarding Crews

Some companies reward crews for observations that turn into programs. Whatever you decide, close the loop: let crews know when their observation turned into a customer. People repeat behavior that gets noticed.

Training helps too. A short session on common pests and diseases in your area makes crew observations much more useful.

Make training practical. Photos of real problems from your own service area, taken by your own crews, are more memorable than a textbook slide.

Building the Pipeline Into the Program

Over a season, crew observations can become one of your biggest sources of new PHC programs. The cost is a few photos and notes; the result is recurring revenue from customers who already trust you.

This cross-selling loop is part of what TreeBossPro plant health care software is designed to support. Next: how PHC consults turn into recurring work.

Remember that the trust runs both ways. A crew that respects the property, cleans up well and communicates clearly makes the PHC follow-up much easier. The best upsell is a job done well.

Over time, you may find that a large share of your PHC customers started as pruning or removal customers. That is the sign of a company whose divisions support each other.