We have all been in the scenario where you were under-prepared for an important meeting, it’s a sinking feeling that might remind you of your high school days or even one of your first professional jobs you had early in your career. You might also get the same feeling as an adult meeting with a contractor. The meeting begins and you realize you didn’t prepare a list of questions, you don’t know what’s important to know and you don’t really even know how the meeting will actually go. Now you’re in a scenario where you’re not having much of a conversation, but your contractor is giving you a ton of information, and it might be hard to keep up and when they leave, you feel a bit overwhelmed.
If you can relate, you might also remember there were times when being underprepared was not your fault. Maybe you were unaware of what might come up because everything was so new to you. This is sometimes the case for your consultation with your arborist. Don’t be hard on yourself, arboriculture is a very specialized industry and most people have minimal tree knowledge, and that’s ok.
Tree Health Management works with all kinds of customers with varying degrees of involvement in their landscapes. For that reason, when we get to your house, we’ll walk you around your yard and talk about our observations, educating you about how to care for your trees and shrubs, asking questions about previous care regimes, and discussing treatment for any issue we find. Your arborist will get a sense for where your knowledge is and fill in any gaps you have. When the consultation is over, the customer is more knowledgeable about all trees and shrubs on their property and will be sent a proposal for any work we can do for you. The best consultations are the ones that are a conversation instead of a TED Talk, where customer engagement enriches the interaction. Here are some ways to be better prepared so you can get everything out of your consultation:
If you have no time to prepare: Bring something to take notes with
There are varying degrees to note-taking ability so take that into consideration. Studies have shown that when you physically write something down, you have an easier time remembering what you wrote. Record the details YOU need, you don’t need to write everything down. We’ll talk quite a bit during this hour.
Make a list of questions
This will help your arborist zero-in on what information you need. No two consultations are the same and customer questions give your arborist pertinent information about how good your observational skills are and how involved you are in the care of your landscape. All this information not only helps you, but it helps us help you.
Think about what’s important to you now
This will help your arborist prioritize what we need to address on your property, or something we simply need to discuss with you in more detail. While things like insects and disease control will always be the highest priority recommendations, (second only to dead or hazardous trees that require immediate removal) there might be something you’ve had on your to-do list for too long. A good example is a tree that is bringing up safety concerns for you. While this is something your arborist is likely to pick up on, you might be concerned about something that’s not a big concern.
Your certified arborist will guide you through your consultation with professionalism and expertise, but making sure you’re well prepared will leave you feeling like you really got your money’s worth. Give our office a call if you’re interested in scheduling a one-hour consultation with one of our expert Consulting Arborists.