If you specialize in insuring tree care, you know that the industry ranks high on the list of risky occupations. Business owners of tree care companies may not fully appreciate your role in helping them reduce risks, but there are specific ways you can demonstrate your diligence in supporting the success of their business.
Helping your tree care clients reduce risks is one way for insurance brokers and agents to encourage safety within the tree care industry, while also demonstrating expertise and strengthening relationships.
Here are our top four strategies to help your tree care clients reduce risks and cement your reputation as a tree care insurance specialist.
1. Position your role as an important part of their risk management team.
While tree care company owners are heavily focused on jobsite safety, there are other types of exposures that can significantly impact their business. Your role is to help them identify and assess all risks – including those that might be uncommon or less apparent.
One way to do that is by demonstrating that you have deep knowledge of the wide variety of risks that exist in the tree care industry and describing how the right insurance products can help them mitigate those risks.
Also, as part of their risk management team, you can help them understand that sound risk management practices are proactive rather than reactive.
From the perspective of a tree care company business owner, risk management is important for the following reasons:
- Keeps employees safer
- Prevents property and liability claims
- Saves time, effort, and money
- Guides decision-making
- Protects the company’s reputation
- Ensures OSHA compliance
- Helps them stay competitive
- Improves the culture within the company
By pointing out the advantages the company gains by leveraging your expertise, they will begin to review your role as a risk manager as well as their valued insurance agent or broker.
2. Take the time to inform business owners of the full range of exposures.
Business owners likely have concerns about property and liability risks as they send their workers out into the field each day. While brokers and agents should not overshadow common risks in their discussions with tree care clients, it’s also important to highlight less prominent risks.
Depending on the type of work a tree care company performs, they may need to learn more about any or all of the following risks:
- Liability risks: Discuss examples of common liability risks such as a tree falling on someone’s garage, an employee with a frostbite injury, or a claim for removing trees on someone else’s property to broaden clients’ knowledge of liability risks.
- Property risks: Encourage clients to abide by fire safety policies and take reasonable steps to prevent vandalism and theft to buildings and contents which are covered losses under the policy.
- Environmental risks: Highlight risks concerning chemicals or toxic substances employees use in the course of their work.
- Transportation risks: Impress upon clients the importance of educating their employees about the risks of theft, damage, or destruction of tools or equipment while they are traveling to or from a jobsite.
- Commercial auto risks: Create awareness about risks involving accidents while driving company vehicles and employees’ vehicles being used for company business.
- Crimerisks: Inform clients about the potential for internal crimes against the company committed by them or their employees. Potential risks include theft, assault, fraud, and more.
- Employee injury-related risks: Ensure that tree care clients are in compliance with workers’ compensation laws and are properly insured for a work-related illness or injuries sustained on the job.
You can be instrumental in helping business owners understand that risk management is everyone’s responsibility. Discussing the potential risks with clients will help to improve overall working conditions. In this way, it shows you have the company’s best interest at heart.
Watch our recent webinar to learn more about commonly overlooked exposures in the tree care industry.
3. Share examples of actual or potential claims.
A simple thing you can do to demonstrate your diligence in risk management is to share real examples of claims in the tree care industry. The Tree Care Industry Association’s Accident Briefs is a good source of claims, but you can also find examples through an online search.
For example, TCIA shares an incident where a 42-year-old real estate employee was assisting in felling a 60-foot tall eucalyptus tree from their employer’s property. OSHA in California investigated and found that the construction laborers did not have the training or experience to safely remove such a massive tree and neither did the employee. OSHA issued 13 citations and levied fines of almost $92,000 on the company.
OSHA also made the following recommendations:
- Abide by regulations to employ a qualified tree worker to trim, repair, or remove trees taller than 15 feet
- Train workers to use the aerial lift
- Provide workers with eye protection
- Provide workers with a fall protection harness
As another example, the Insurance Journal describes a claim where a 17-year-old worker perished from his injuries after partially being pulled into a commercial wood chipper in Pennsylvania. OSHA’s investigation showed that it was a preventable incident as the employer had not followed the federal safety standards. The company was further cited for allowing other underage workers to operate the woodchipper which federal child labor laws forbid. OSHA fined the company $124,987 for 10 safety violations.
OSHA’s report made the following recommendations:
- Train workers to operate the chipper safely
- Provide personal protective equipment for employees
- Ensure each jobsite has an employee who has first-aid training
- Maintain portable fire extinguishers
Neither of these articles divulged how much the commercial insurance companies paid out in claims which would further negatively impact the companies.
4. Offer coverages they don’t know they need.
By sharing some examples of claims, your clients will likely be more open to hearing about how commercial insurance products can reduce the company’s risks. This is a natural lead-in to starting a discussion around the basic coverages they should have including:
- Commercial general liability insurance: To protect against third-party claims caused by employees
- Professional liability insurance: To protect against allegations of poor advice or negligence
- Commercial property insurance: To protect against damage to the company’s buildings or contents due to a covered loss
- Commercial auto insurance: To protect against auto accidents involving commercial vehicles
- Inland marine insurance: To protect tree care company equipment such as chippers, chainsaws, ladders, and stump grinders as workers transport them to and from jobsites
- Workers’ compensation insurance: To protect against claims where workers get injured while on duty
Depending on the geographical area and the type of tree care a company does, they may need additional types of insurance to cover gaps in coverage. Many business owners are not aware of the coverage they might be missing. You can help your clients get the best coverage by learning more about their needs and doing a review of their existing policy.
Going Above and Beyond for Tree Care Clients
Go into your next appointment with a tree care client with the mindset that your clients don’t know what they don’t know. They are probably aware of the need for general safety, yet they may not consider the full scope of their liabilities.
While you can’t help them prevent every accident from happening, what you can do is describe industry vulnerabilities, listen thoughtfully, and explain the reasons for your recommendations.
Your tree care clients will certainly recognize your diligence in helping them reduce risks, and they will appreciate your willingness to go above and beyond merely selling them policies.
Another key piece of specializing is making sure that you are able to offer your tree care clients the comprehensive coverage they need. NIP Group’s TreePro program has been insuring tree professionals for more than 30 years. Our approach to tree company insurance is exceptional in its specialized coverage, risk control, claims management, and a library of industry related resources. It’s a multi-line package that provides better tree service insurance coverage and value than standard products. We can handle crane and boom exposures and snow and ice removal that many of our competitors simply ignore. Learn more about TreePro.
