Turning Tree Data into Loyal Business for Tree Care Companies
How tree care companies turn a tree inventory into recurring revenueEvery job that ends without a next step is lost revenue
Most tree care companies have a tight handle on their customer list — but no clear picture of the tree populations they manage. A crew finishes a job, packs up, and moves to the next call. The knowledge of what’s actually on that property lives in someone’s head, not in a system anyone can act on.
That gap is where recurring revenue quietly disappears.
This webinar makes the case for a simple mindset shift: treat your trees like your customers. You already track your customers’ contact information, service history, and billing details. A tree inventory does the same thing for the trees you manage — turning a property into a documented, plannable book of business instead of a one-time bid.
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What you’ll learn
This session walks through how tree inventory data turns one-off jobs into ongoing service contracts, with a real-world example from a tree care company that’s already doing it.
- Why a tree inventory is your business asset, not a technical exercise: No GIS background required, just location, species, size, condition, risk, and work history for every tree you manage.
- How to move from one-off jobs to repeatable service cycles: including PHC (plant health care), pruning cycles, and recurring inspections.
- A real case study: how Altitude Arborist, a full-service tree care company, used a tree inventory to generate over $30,000 in new revenue from a single new service line, enough to cover six years of software costs.
- Where new inventory work is coming from right now, including municipal development ordinances, HOAs, developers, golf courses, and property management companies.
- How to package and price a tree inventory: with real pricing benchmarks (per-tree, hourly, and day-rate models) from arborists doing this work today.
- How to present a plan that closes the deal: the difference between handing a client a spreadsheet and showing them an interactive map of their own trees.
Featuring a real tree care company’s results
Most advice about “using your data better” stays theoretical. This webinar doesn’t.
Megan Townsend, co-owner and certified arborist at Altitude Arborist, walks through her company’s own transition — from a spreadsheet-based inventory built by someone else, to Google Maps workarounds, to a professional tree inventory system. She shares what didn’t work, what finally did, and the exact numbers behind the new service line it created, including how a single sample inventory became one of the easiest sales her team has ever made to an HOA board.
You’ll hear how digital tree records replaced physical tags that got vandalized or fell off, how giving clients their own login changed the conversation with HOA boards, and how a documented inventory turned into a multi-year service contract instead of an annual re-bid.
Who this webinar is for
- Tree care company owners and operators looking to build recurring revenue
- Consulting arborists who want to package and sell inventory services
- Crew leaders and field teams managing tree data in the field
- Municipal and utility arborists evaluating inventory workflows
- Anyone currently tracking tree data on spreadsheets, paper, or “in someone’s head”
Meet the presenters
Marshall Jones, PlanIT Geo Marshall has spent nearly 15 years in the tree care and urban forestry industry, with a background in landscape architecture and planning. He works daily with tree care companies building out inventory and management workflows.
Megan Townsend, Altitude Arborist Megan is a certified arborist and TCIA mentor, and co-owns Altitude Arborist with her husband. A former physician assistant turned full-time arborist, she leads her company’s work with HOAs, municipalities, and large properties.
What’s inside
- The mindset shift: trees as a book of business
- What a basic tree inventory actually includes (and why GIS isn’t required)
- Turning one-off jobs into pruning cycles, PHC programs, and inspections
- A real case study and revenue numbers from Altitude Arborist
- Where inventory demand is coming from: municipalities, developers, HOAs, and more
- How to price, package, and present a tree inventory to close the deal
- Live audience Q&A on tagging trees, pruning-cycle tracking, and GNSS accuracy
Ready to turn your tree data into repeat business? Fill out the form to access the webinar now
FAQ
Do I need GIS experience to build a tree inventory? No. As covered in the webinar, a tree inventory is simply a running record of the trees you manage — species, location, size, condition, and work history. No GIS background is required to get started.
How do tree care companies price a tree inventory? Pricing approaches vary by market, but the webinar covers three common models: per-tree pricing (roughly $2–$15 per tree depending on data collected), hourly/consulting rates, and flat day rates. Property size, tree density, and the depth of data collected all factor into the price.
Is tree inventory software worth it compared to free tools? The webinar includes a first-hand comparison: Altitude Arborist tried free, university-built tools and manually maintained spreadsheets before moving to a dedicated tree inventory platform. The case study covers what changed and the revenue results that followed.
Do I need physical tree tags if I have a digital inventory? Not necessarily. In the webinar’s live Q&A, Megan Townsend explains why Altitude Arborist moved away from physical tags (which get vandalized, damage trees, or go missing) in favor of relying entirely on digital records.
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Values and Outcomes
View and engage with software users and learn how they are applying GIS technology to their management and operations.
Learn strategies to communicate with clients and constituents, win bids, and position yourself as an industry leader.
Hear from PlanIT Geo™ professionals about the latest technologies and processes used to deliver efficient and accurate reports and data sets.