TreeBossPro Blog — Plant Health Care

Planning the Next PHC Season and Renewing Programs

The PHC season starts long before the first spray. By the time buds swell, programs should be renewed, prices set, products ordered, licenses current and recurring jobs ready. Companies that plan in winter start spring calmly. Companies that do not spend April catching up.

Review Last Season

Two-Way Texting for PHC Customer Questions After a Treatment was about everyday conversations. This one is about the annual one. Start planning by reviewing last season: PHC revenue by month from category reports, the chemical tracking report for product usage, rescheduled rounds and any customer complaints.

Look for what worked and what did not. Rounds that consistently ran late, properties that used more product than priced, and treatments that generated questions all point to changes.

Talk to your applicators. They know which properties were hard to access, which customers had concerns and which rounds felt rushed. Their input belongs in the plan alongside the reports.

Look at your cancellation reasons too. If several customers left for the same reason, like price, communication or results on a particular problem, that is the most important thing to fix before next season.

Adjust Programs and Prices

Update your standard program based on what you learned. Maybe a round needs to move earlier, or a new pest in your area calls for a new treatment. Update mixes in the system to match, building them from current labels.

Review prices. Amount used per property and time on site tell you which properties are underpriced. Product costs may have changed. Adjust before renewals go out, not after.

If you are adding a new service, like a new injection program, decide how it will be priced, scheduled and recorded before you offer it. Launching mid-season without that groundwork leads to messy records and inconsistent prices.

Renew Customers

Send renewals well before the season. A renewal estimate with online approval makes it easy for customers to confirm. Automatic follow-up handles those who do not respond.

Remind customers what you did last year and the results. A short summary of their treatments, plus photos where you have them, makes the case for renewing.

Customers who did not renew deserve a short, friendly check-in. Sometimes they simply missed the message. Sometimes there is a concern you can fix. Either way, you learn something.

Consider offering renewal customers a simple way to add services, like adding a tree to an injection program or adding a fertilization round. Renewal is the easiest moment to grow an existing account.

Order Product and Update the List

Use last season's product totals from the chemical tracking report to plan orders. Update your product list with any new products, including EPA registration numbers from current labels, and retire products you no longer use.

Check storage and handling requirements, which vary by location.

Ordering against actual usage, rather than a guess, reduces both shortages in the busy weeks and leftover product at the end of the season.

If a product you relied on is discontinued or changes formulation, update your mixes and instruction emails before the season starts, so the first round of the year uses accurate information.

Check Licenses and Crews

Confirm every applicator's license is current and continuing education is on track. Requirements vary by state and province, so check with your state's regulatory agency. Update license numbers in the system if anything changed.

Plan crew capacity for the spring crunch based on how many programs renewed.

If you are adding applicators, start the licensing process early. Requirements and timelines vary, and a new hire who cannot apply product until June is not much help in April.

Load the Schedule

Make sure recurring jobs are set for every renewed program and remove programs that did not renew. Look at the job board and route map for the first weeks of the season. If spring is overloaded, adjust now.

Season planning brings together everything in plant health care software for tree companies. Next: what PHC software should cost and why per-user fees hurt.

Plan a short kickoff meeting with your PHC crew before the first round. Go over program changes, new products, updated mixes, record-keeping expectations and any customer concerns from last season. A clear start sets the tone for the whole year.

Then let the system do the remembering. Recurring jobs bring each round back, the crew app carries the notes, and the reports show you how the season is going.