Behind the Bark
A $4,000 removal got booked somewhere in your market this week.
The homeowner didn't ask a neighbor. He asked his phone. Whatever his phone said, that's who got the call.
Referrals still work. But they're quiet, and they've got a ceiling. There are three other forces operating around the clock in your market right now. Each one is deciding which company gets the high-dollar calls. Most tree service owners rarely check them.
Most owners don't see the first one coming.
The AI recommendation problem
When someone with a 40-ft oak leaning toward their house asks ChatGPT or Google's AI overview "who's the best tree service near me," are you showing up?
That's the new word of mouth. It's probably happening dozens of times a week in your zip code right now, and you likely have no idea whether your company is the answer or whether you're invisible while someone with worse equipment collects those calls.
Do you actually know what the AI says about your business when someone searches for tree work in your town?
That's the first force. The second one is more measurable, and it's the one that hits hardest once owners see the numbers.
The reputation number that costs you jobs
Commercial property managers and homeowners with the higher value jobs may not call until they've already decided. They check reviews first. Star count, review volume, how recently people left feedback.
The company winning those jobs isn't necessarily better than you. But there's probably a measurable gap between their review count and yours, and it shows up in plain numbers. Not feelings. Numbers.
When did you last check how many reviews your top competitor has and how fast that count is growing compared to yours?
Now the third force. Owners hate this one the most, so I'll just say it plainly. I'll get to what you can actually do about all three in Limb of the Week.
Your competitor's ads are visible. Yours aren't to him.
He's running ads right now. The copy he's using, the channels he's on, and a rough picture of what he's spending are all visible if you know where to look.
You're competing for the same $4,000+ jobs he is. He's got more of the picture than you do. That's probably why the same company keeps showing up first. You're not sure why. Now you might be.
Limb of the Week
Start here. These checks take 15 to 45 minutes each, and you can run most of them before your next estimate.
Open a private browser and ask ChatGPT: "Who is the best tree service in [your city]?" Then run the same search in Google's AI overview. Write down exactly what comes back. If your name isn't there, that's your first gap.
Pull up your top two local competitors on Google Maps. Count their reviews. Note their rating. Compare it to yours. No tool needed, just 10 minutes and your eyes.
Go to Facebook's Ad Library (free, public, no account required). Search your main competitor's business name. See what ads they've been running and for how long, if any. A long-running ad is usually a profitable one.
Look at your last 10 booked jobs and note the average ticket. What percentage of calls this month were for work you actually wanted? If the number's under 40%, the problem probably isn't volume.
Write down the single biggest gap you find from the checks above. One thing. That's where to start.
Sawdust
We built a tool that generates a report that wraps all three of those checks into one view for your specific business and zip code. It's called HawkReports
You put in your business info, it pulls your AI visibility, your reputation standing, and your competitors' ad activity. Clear picture in about 10 minutes.
It's free for now.
If you want to see where you actually stand, run your report at https://hawkreports.com/tree-service/ai-visibility/.
Kickback
The jobs you want are going to whoever the AI recommends, whoever has the stronger review count, and whoever owns the ad space in your market. None of that is a mystery. It's all measurable. Most owners are just trying to solve a measurement problem with gut feelings.
If you ran any of those checks above and found something that surprised you, hit reply and tell us what you found. The AI check especially triggers the most "well, that can't be right" reactions from owners who've been in business for 20 years.
We read every reply and we answer them.
P.S. The first thing most owners look at when they open a HawkReports report is the AI visibility section. About half of them don't like what they see. The other half are surprised they're doing better than they thought. Either way, now they know instead of guessing.
Until next week, keep the crews prepared as storms and weather move through parts of the Midwest. See you all next Saturday.
- Jacob Hastings
