Six Essential Practices for Managing Arborist Teams

Streamlining Job Flow, Preventing Errors, and Empowering Crews

Managing a tree care operation efficiently requires arborist teams to work with unwavering safety and precision. Achieving this begins with prioritizing safety while ensuring strong communication and effective management of ground crews. Companies must not only estimate jobs accurately but also translate those job details into clear, actionable instructions that crews can follow on-site.

Today’s leading tree care organizations are embracing technology to streamline these responsibilities. Digital tools now help estimators map every tree on a property, provide crews with job details that match customer expectations, and generate insights into performance that improve future work.

Below are six best practices drawn from industry veterans who shared how their teams use education, technology, and consistent processes to keep jobs on track and crews working efficiently.

Establish a Culture of Safety and Education

Safety is the cornerstone of every successful tree care operation. That means investing in training and education before crews ever step onto a job site.

“In this industry, safety has to be the number one priority,” said Ryan Rinaldi, senior product marketing manager for SingleOps, an integrated software platform for tree care companies. “Top companies start with a culture of safety, understanding that they are going on-site to do very serious work.”

Leadership sets the tone, and that mindset carries through to crew leaders, who reinforce and implement the company’s safety expectations.

“Crew leads are making sure that the ropes and the equipment they’re using are tested, doing the safety checks,” Rinaldi added. “They are directing things so that the property does not get damaged. That is how you exceed clients’ expectations and keep your crew safe.”

This culture is strengthened through tools designed to keep safety top-of-mind. ArborNote, for example, includes a bilingual English-Spanish digital Job Safety Assessment (JSA) form that crews review before each job. Created in collaboration with ArborNote users, the JSA won the Safety Innovation Award at the 2025 ArborEXPO™ Arbor AWARDS™. It not only guides crews through job-specific hazards but also creates an electronic safety record that can support insurance claims.

“Safety in this industry is so important,” said Hank Ortiz, CEO and founder of ArborNote. “It is at the heart of everything these guys do every day.”

Ortiz notes that the JSA is effective precisely because it helps crews anticipate what changes from job to job.

“What you experience in the morning is not necessarily what you experience in the afternoon,” he explained. “If you’re in a bucket truck all day, you have to remember the wind. Yesterday it may not have mattered, but today it might. That sort of thing.”

Create Detailed and Specific Estimates

Accurate estimates are the foundation of successful job execution. Sales teams must scope and price work as precisely as possible, so crews know exactly what to do.

“You have to figure out how to get the scope of the job into the crew’s mind,” said consultant Dane Buell, who brings more than 45 years of experience to the industry. “Normally jobs underperform or overperform. Both are bad because it means we have not effectively conveyed the vision we had when we documented it.”

Sean Lewett, general manager of JL Tree Service in Fairfax, Virginia, emphasized that detailed estimates eliminate confusion.

“If they have a detailed estimate that explains exactly what we are doing, there should not be any issues,” he stated. “There should not be any miscues. There should not be any questions.”

Lewett trains estimators to specify exactly what level of pruning, removal, or treatment is required.

“We need to put ‘over two inches on deadwood’ if that is what we are doing,” he shared. “If you’re cutting the dead tips, charge more money because it takes more time to go out to the ends of the canopy.”

He also encouraged estimators to get physically close to the trees they are quoting.

“A tree looks a lot bigger when you put your hands on it than when you are sitting in your truck,” he said. “I am always saying, touch the tree.”

Test the Effectiveness of Estimator-to-Crew Communication

Buell believes in testing how well his instructions translate to the field.

“I don’t believe in setting up a job from a computer screen,” he said. “I believe in going to a job with a crew and showing them the job.”

After walking the site, Buell asks the crew leader how long the job will take. If their estimate differs significantly from his own, he knows something was misunderstood or misjudged.

For instance, a crew leader might see additional work the tree needs beyond what the client approved, leading to scope drift, in which the project scope includes more than the client’s desire or involves too many stakeholders.

“The crew leader might be right that the tree needs crown reduction in another part,” Buell said. “But the client does not want to pay for that. So, we cannot do it.”

Proactively identifying these mismatches helps prevent rework, miscommunication, and unapproved tasks.

Use Technology to Translate Estimates into Reality

One of the most persistent challenges in arborist management is converting an estimator’s written instructions into clear directives that crews can follow. Missing details create inefficiencies, safety risks, and unhappy clients.

Technology is solving this problem.

“Landscapes have lots of trees that might be obvious to the person who sold the job but not obvious to the crew,” Buell explained. “Technology has improved in this area. We can take pictures of a tree and include them in the specifications.”

ArborNote offers interactive proposals with photos, maps, per-tree pricing, and visual markers, all accessible on crews’ mobile devices.

“It really tells the story, and that is critical in this industry,” Ortiz said. “It gives crews perspective on the size and necessity of the work.”

SingleOps similarly enables estimators to map properties and capture job-critical details in real time.

“This lets crews show up and exceed client expectations,” Rinaldi stated.

JL Tree Service uses Arborgold’s mobile app, which streamlines the entire estimating process.

“I dictate notes on my phone – ‘front-center, 22-inch oak, crown clean, prune deadwood over two inches’ – and hit send,” Lewett explained. “The customer can approve it right away. Approve, sign, done.”

Concise job tags, such as “crane may help” or “permit needed,” help clarify requirements and streamline scheduling.

Technology is increasingly the bridge between estimators and crews – one that simplifies management and elevates job consistency.

Increase On-Site Efficiency with Mobile Tools

Mobile apps allow estimators and crews to access and update job information directly in the field, with changes visible to office staff in real time.

“When crews arrive, they can open the digital work order on their phone,” Rinaldi said. “They can clock in and out, and the data goes straight back to the office. Staff can see job costing data, including how much it actually cost the business to send a crew out to do a removal or stump grinding.”

These tools also reduce costly mistakes, such as working on the wrong tree.

“Landscapes have lots of trees, and what might be obvious to the person who sold the job might not be obvious to the crew,” Buell reiterated.

Mobile tools ultimately allow faster estimating, clearer job understanding, more consistent execution, and fewer errors.

Track Performance to Improve Future Estimates

Evaluating how crews perform compared to estimates allows companies to refine pricing, boost profitability, and strengthen sustainability.

ArborNote offers detailed comparisons of estimated versus actual time and cost.

“It shows the actual versus the estimated right down to the individual tree level,” Ortiz stated. “That is a really valuable tool.”

This feedback helps estimators learn, while crews benefit from clearer and more realistic targets over time. Advancements in AI are accelerating this process.

“The AI tools available now allow the estimator to do a better job and allow the sales manager or company owner to manage things more efficiently,” Ortiz continued.

Focusing on Fundamentals

Tree care may be increasingly supported by digital tools, but its success still rests on the fundamentals: communication, clarity, and safety. When companies uphold those principles, technology becomes a powerful tool that enhances efficiency, strengthens job performance, and supports long-term business growth.