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Koala Tree Care in 5 Useful Answers

[Music] So to Koala, helpful expertise means that the years of training and education that we've done is useful to our clients. Helpful expertise may show up, with our recommendations to help an ailing tree. Helpful expertise may be making the right suggestion to a client on a tree to replant after they've lost an old tree. Healthful expertise also would mean that we know the conditions that are suitable for certain types of trees and how to respond to that, and also that we're making the right decisions for the long-term health of our clients' trees, which helps improve not only their safety but the look of the property as well. Well, treework is one of the most dangerous professions in the United States. So what we do at Koala is we make sure that we vet our climbers, our bucket operators, our groundsmen, and our salespeople to the hazards, and we make sure that they have proper training already. And if they don't, they receive the proper training. This translates over to our clients' trees because these same educated professionals are looking for hazards in the trees in which we are working. So whether it be a limb that's about to fail or a tree that could be unstable because of wind or other climatic factors, we have the education that's able to keep not only our staff safer but our clients as well. And while we don't have X-ray vision, can't see into the center of trees, through this education, we are able to help, fend off some of the problems that, as we've seen this winter, trees have been subject to issues that I don't think any client was ready for. And we've prevented a lot of that damage through good education, which keeps not only my crew safer, but our clients as well. Also through COVID, we learned how to do most of our client interaction contactless. And there's still people out there that, don't want to necessarily see us. And although we like to see our clients, we want to interact with them in the field, it's not totally necessary to still deliver a high-quality product. So I have a degree in environmental planning and I thought that that was going to be the direction that I was going to go in. And when I started to interview for positions after I got out of school, I quickly knew that this wasn't for me. That I couldn't be in an office setting. I had to be outside helping people do things that they couldn't do themselves. And, so quickly I found a job with PG&E and as a forester and PG&E trained me to become a certified arborist and then I took it from there. When our clients become as passionate about trees as we are, when you can see their enthusiasm, when they're reminded of why trees are magical in the first place, and it's almost a youthful appreciation for trees in their environment, when they start asking my staff questions about trees, and I can see them start to get engaged as well. And when you finally leave the property, everybody's feeling good about the work that we do and our clients, we can feel that our clients appreciate what we do. I always think questions about licensing and insurance are obvious and these should be probably on the top of a client's, um, mind and opinion. But one of the things that I really enjoy is when a client asks me, "Give me some recent examples of work you've done in my neighborhood." Because one of the things that is one of the simplest ways to vet a company is to see their work and poor quality work shows up pretty quickly and that's evident. Another question I think that consumers should ask a tree service, in particular, is how will the arborist be integrated in the work? Will the arborist show up? Will the arborist give suggestions to the crew? Well, perhaps in the case with Koala, will the arborist be doing some of the work? How will the arborist be integrated? Because I think our clients get a better product when an arborist is on site. It's not always necessary in every example, but it's something that should be asked how that arborist is going to be integrated into the job site. Also, something I, I, I see clients need to ask more, is there going to be any subcontractors on the site? California has some strict new laws, aimed to protect consumers and I think clients should ask whether or not a sub is licensed and has their own insurance so it doesn't leave either the tree service or the consu the consumer at risk if something happens on the job site. The last question I think is really important is how often will the service be needed? Because sometimes people think of trees only in small windows. Homeowners have a lot of other, you know, expenses on their property. And it's a great question to ask because I can answer that very clearly. And for most of our clients, we're on a two to three-year cycle where we're either monitoring and looking or we're returning to do follow-up work that keeps them safer over time.