The Top Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Tree Professional
Have you ever found yourself wondering if your tree care expert is legit? Do you constantly ask yourself if the service they provide is enough? Hiring a professional tree service to do some health care maintenance on your trees may seem easy. Well, there are more than a handful of them in the yellow pages, right?
Yes, finding a tree care service provider is indeed relatively easy. The more difficult task, however, is finding a legit certified tree pro who truly knows what he is doing when it comes to the health and well-being of trees.
So how do you identify a legit tree professional? What can you do to make sure that you’re hiring the right service provider to take care of your tree needs? Here are a few questions you need to ask when hiring one:
Choosing a Certified Tree Pro
1. Does the tree company or service provider have the right credentials and licensure?
This is probably the most basic information you should always try to acquire when hiring any kind of professional service, not just in the tree care industry. You see, a company that has all the necessary credentials and certifications is a company that takes care of its employees as well as their clients.
A certified tree service provider generally means that its workers are well-trained in the latest methods and technologies in the tree care business. Arboriculture is much more than just knowing how to trim, plant, or remove trees. And a company that has all the necessary credentials is fully aware of that fact. ISA Certification is definitely something to look for when choosing a tree service provider. You’ll find that typically not all members of any tree company are certified, but crew leads and other key personnel should have the ISA credentials. Certified arborists can also be helpful with insurance issues if they come up.
2. Does the tree service provider have adequate insurance coverage?
If your current tree service can’t present you with legit insurance coverage, then you should probably pull the plug on them and start looking for a more qualified tree care expert. A company that does not have adequate insurance coverage has no business doing any type of work in your property.
There are two basic types of insurance that you should inquire about when going through all your prospects. And they are as follows:
- Liability insurance – This type of insurance guarantees that if the tree service causes damage to your property, they will cover all expenses.
- Worker’s compensation insurance – This insurance coverage will protect both the client and the tree service employees working on the client’s property. If an employee gets injured while working on your property, the company employing that worker will cover the liabilities.
3. Is the tree service company willing to provide referrals?
This is just plain old common sense. Whenever you’re hiring any kind of service provider, it’s always a good idea to ask for referrals. As a potential client, you have the right to learn about the service background of the company you’re about to hire. And the best way to do that is to talk to other clients who have availed of the company’s services.
Don’t ever hesitate to ask for customer referrals when you’re in the process of choosing a tree service provider. Most companies will be glad and eager to provide you with what you need. It’s the company that hides behind customer privacy and other bureaucracies that you should be wary of.
4. Does the tree service use all the necessary safety equipment and the latest tools to do their job?
Just because your guy has a chainsaw and a ladder doesn’t automatically mean that he is capable of doing complex tree maintenance work. Again, tree care is much more than just cutting, planting, and removing trees. There is a science involved in the process that only certified tree care professionals have the proficiency to thoroughly address.
That said, you should make sure that the workers employed by the tree company use all the necessary safety gear and that they are equipped with the latest tree care tools to properly do their jobs.
5. Lastly, does the company practice outdated tree care techniques like “topping”?
There are plenty of tree maintenance techniques that were acceptable and quite common in the past but are no longer practiced by legit tree professionals today. One of these poor practices is topping, a trimming technique that removes entire tops or canopies of trees to promote growth. This practice is no longer acceptable. It’s even illegal in some states.