Choosing the best tree service for your property can be tough. If you’ve been stuck wondering “How to choose the best tree service?”, we have some tips to help get you started. Grant Crowell, founder of The Urban Foresters, a Tree Service company serving the greater Houston and Dallas, TX areas, has three tips to keep in mind for choosing the best tree service company.
Video Transcript:
Good morning guys, we’re going to talk about how to find the best tree service.
So, I’m going to give you three tips on vetting out a tree service.
The number one thing I suggest that you look for, or pay attention to, is do they listen to you? Do they listen? Meaning, when you get a salesman or you call the office, do they immediately start telling you about how long they’ve been in business, or our equipment does this or that, or I’m this or that? Do they talk about themselves, or do they listen to you? Do they ask good questions? Do they seem to be open that you may know what you like, or want, better than they do? So that’s number one, do you feel like you’re being heard?
Number two is going to seem obvious, but with kind of a twist is: reviews. Everybody knows, or not everybody knows, but everybody checks on a company’s reviews. What I want to encourage you to do, though, is to check many places for reviews. Don’t rely only on…certainly not on their own company website. You know, obviously, they can cherry pick which reviews show up. I mean, who would put a bad review on their own website? But don’t just rely on Google. With new technology, we’ve been seeing that service providers can hype their own reviews. You can pay money to services that will boost your reviews. A lot of times, you know, its kind of unrealistic. So, check their Facebook page, check their Google, check their Bing, check their HomeAdvisor, check Angie’s List, check a variety of places online for reviews and actually read them. Maybe even read some of the one-star reviews and some of the two-star reviews and see if the company replied back. Did they say something? Did they own a mistake? Its unlikely that there are companies that never make a mistake so check out what went wrong, and did the ownership or management of the company seem to take accountability for a mistake? That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
And the final thing is, insurance. Another kind of nuanced piece of the insurance thing is, you know most homeowners are going to hopefully ask, “Do you have insurance?” What is the company going to say? “Yes.” But I would really, really encourage you to go the extra mile with some due diligence there. Meaning, may you please produce your Accord Certificate? You know, may you please show me your insurance? I’ve seen anything from a “tree service” guy showing the homeowner his auto insurance and the homeowner just kinda brushed past that like, “Oh, yeah, he has insurance.” His truck is insured, but the fact that he may fall out of your tree, or cut his leg while he’s on your property, or damage a minimum amount of stuff…I mean it doesn’t take much, right? If it’s a $1,000 tree job, but the guy breaks an $800 set of gutters, or ruins your roof shingles, or God forbid really screws up your property…I mean its not unheard of. These are large pieces of machinery and huge limbs. Go and ask them to produce an insurance certificate and really take a look at it, and maybe call the insurance company. Ask, is this expired? Is this person truly covered to be preforming? Oh, that’s another thing, are they covered to do tree work? That’s a while other animal. You could have insurance to be painting fences, and that coverage does not cover those employees while they’re 30 feet in the air because fence painting is not exposed to that kind of risk. So insurance is very specific, especially Workers Compensation Insurance. So, check their insurance. You’re doing a major project at your house with major equipment and possibly dangerous activities being engaged in by these employees, so you really want to make sure you’re covering your bases. This is very common in the commercial side of the business, commercial real estate. I would like to see a lot more home owners be a little bit more diligent in protecting themselves and their property.
So again, how to find the best tree service? Here’s just three tips:
- Do they listen to you?
- Do they seem consistent across all the various places where they are present on the internet?
- And do they actually have insurance that covers you and them while they’re working on your property?
Thanks.