Ryan Chipman
Ryan Chipman, Schneider Tree Care’s Charlotte area Division Director, is more than just a tree guy. He’s a dad. But, he’s not just an ordinary dad…he’s a foster dad!
Ryan and his wife Jaime were astounded at the number of children, in their county alone, in need of care and decided to do something about it. So after months of training, classes, evaluations, and legal processes, three months ago they welcomed two children into their home, a one year old and a three year old, who are siblings.
Ryan says that the experience has been wonderful, “We have been abundantly blessed and wanted to give back and make a difference. There is such a need for foster parents, and we wanted to help. So far, our experience has been great. The children are a tremendous blessing to us! The love that we get to share with the children is so rewarding and has enriched our marriage as well.”
Ryan and Jaime are licensed to adopt through the foster system but know that the ultimate goal of fostering is for the children to be reunited with their parents or family members.
Ryan encourages anyone thinking of becoming a foster parent to, “Go into it with an open mind and heart. Give 100 percent of your heart and effort. Anything else is not fair to the children”.
The Chipman’s hope to welcome a third child into their care soon and are looking forward to what the future holds!
Answer
The Phone
I started my company, Schneider Tree Care, some years ago, and like
many other tree guys, I had a truck, a chainsaw, and some ability.
I was not afraid of hard work and I enjoyed people. I can’t tell you
that I had a great plan or even a good plan! I just knew that I could
do a good job and people liked my work enough to tell others about
me. So, the next thing I knew…poof! I was in business.
In those days, it was easy to go to the bank and borrow money to
buy a dump truck, and those guys selling chippers had a magical
way of providing you with a machine for only a small monthly payment.
As you well know, things are a bit different now! There are many
more mouths to feed, more customers to please, and now instead
of automatic small monthly payments, I’m required to put down a
large initial payment beforehand! Money is tight and consumer confidence
is harder to earn than ever before. Since I’m not a quitter and
because I’m committed to taking care of the people who helped me
grow this company, I’ve had to get creative. I’ve found that word
of mouth just isn’t enough anymore and that advertising is necessary.
So, I’m doing mailers, e-blasts, and some radio ads, all of which
are working. I still ask for that referral because nothing is more
effective. In short, I’m doing all that I know to do and I’m constantly
learning. I’m learning more so that I can do more!
Let me tell you a little story about something I’ve already learned…
We started a program of simply answering the phone. I know you are
all thinking, “Duh” we all answer the phone! Really? I would like
to challenge you to make ten calls to ten businesses and see how
many people actually answer the phone. I’ll bet you get the same
result I did - a voice mail or some other automated, lifeless, soulless,
voice on the other end. Sitting in the office after 5 pm and on the
weekends, I found that my phone would ring, and there was no one
to answer that call but me. Some of those calls were customers I
hadn’t heard from in a long time. These were people that I liked,
more importantly, people who pay me to care for their trees. Then
I started thinking….wouldn’t it be nice to have a qualified, loyal
employee (QLE) who needs some extra money in this down economy answer
the phone? I ask nicely if two of my QLE’s would be interested in
answering the phone, on the weekends, for money of course. The response
was amazing! They wanted to do it, and they were happy to do it!
One of my QLE’s (Yvonne) told me Monday morning about a call she
took on Saturday at 7:15am…
“Hello this is Schnieder tree care.”
“You answered the phone!”
“Yes, may I help you?”
“I can’t believe you actually answered the phone!”
“Yes Ma’am! May I help you?”
“I would like someone to look at my trees. I am concerned about their
health. I can’t believe you answered the phone!”
“Yes Ma’am. Can I get your name and address? I’ll have one of our
arborists come out.”
“I still can’t believe you answered the phone!”…
My point is this - all the advertising and all the sales in the world
won’t get you anywhere if you don’t answer the phone!
We must make ourselves available.
We can have the most capable sales staff, the smartest arborists,
the best climbers, the strongest ground staff, the most thorough
PHC techs and the greatest management staff in the world. But, if
we are not available to make human contact with the real people who
want to have a real person honestly be interested in them and concerned
about their needs…someone else will!
Bug
Of The Month
Description: Thick, shiny, oval-shaped body that can grow up to inch
long
Food: They love to eat the fruits, flowers, and leaves of many landscape
plants. They feed on young succulent leaves by eating everything but
the veins. This makes the leaf look almost transparent.
Danger To Trees: If you have heavy infestations, your trees can be defoliated. If this happens year after year, your tree could die.
Action: The best method of control when beetles are present is to handpick and destroy the pests. If there are more beetles than you can squish, contact a Schneider Tree Care Arborist to prescribe a remedy.
Prevention: The Japanese beetle life cycle starts out in the soil where they mature as a larvae or grub. If you have had problems with beetles in the past, you can determine how bad your next infestation will be by counting the number of grubs present. Dead patches of grass may indicate the presence of grubs. Just roll back the grass and start counting.
Tree
Life Story
Someone yells, “Four!” and suddenly Schneider Tree Care President,
Brandon Brown, is glad he decided to keep on his hard hat. While helping
to install lightning protection on a golf course tree, a sailing ball
smacked him, hard, on top of his head! Brandon is no stranger to the
golf course. Whether working or playing on the course, he feels at
home. In fact, he describes golf as his “healthy addiction”!
He fell in love with the game 13 years ago during his senior year of high school. He plays as much as possible and says that, “One good shot keeps me coming back!” Thankfully, Brandon gets to share his game with wife Melinda and daughter Emily. At only two years old, Emily is already learning to handle a club! And recently, Brandon and Melinda entered a couples’ tournament at Greenville’s Green Valley Country Club where they won the tournament and Brandon shot a 77! His best game ever! As a golf lover and tree care expert, Brandon believes that golf couldn’t even be the same game without trees! He explains, “If there weren’t any trees on a golf course, there would be very few obstacles. Trees force you to take certain shots and make other shots more difficult. Trees make the game so much more exciting! Not only that, the giant, majestic trees that line the fairways protect houses from stray balls and give much needed shade on hot days!” Life with trees is definitely better! And for Brandon Brown, golf with trees is definitely better!
