An Open Letter from a Small Business Owner

This isn’t Walmart. This isn’t your favorite coffee shop. This is a small business located right in your neighborhood. We shop at the same grocery store as you. We go to your church and our children go to school with your children. Family is just as important to us as it is to you, which is why we went into business for ourselves. While this business requires lots of dedication and hard work, it allows us to spend more uninterrupted time with our children and our family.

When you give us a call, you won’t have to deal with a machine that has you press number after number to reach a customer service representative. You will be calling my personal number, and If you don’t reach me directly, rest assured that my phone is always on me in case my children do something picture worthy (which is all the time). If you reach my voicemail, please leave a detailed message. This isn’t an over-full inbox checked by a bunch of different workers. Your voicemail will be in my personal inbox, right next to the ones from my mother-in-law asking when she can come visit. The minute I see it (which is pretty quick, considering my mother-in-law likes to worry), I’ve flagged it as important and I will follow up as soon as I have a moment without crying children in the background. That could take up to 24 hours because children are unpredictable (and there’s only so much coffee you can drink in a day).

When you schedule an appointment with us, you won’t be  meeting with a disgruntled worker. You will be meeting directly with my husband, a Certified Arborist and co-owner of our business. He won’t rush through your conversation trying to get to the next client, because your business is important to us. We take extra time to ensure that we are all on the same page and we’ve answered all of your questions (don’t worry, there’s no way you could ask more questions than our 3-year-old does on a daily basis!). My husband personally arrives at appointments to give estimates, and runs point on almost all of our jobs. Sometimes, appointments require additional time, jobs run longer than expected, or sick children require some attention. Please be patient with us if your appointment is delayed or needs to be rescheduled. We do our absolute best to keep you updated on any conflicts and ensure we get to you in a timely manner.

When you look at your estimate, you won’t see a bunch of legal jargon disguising endless fees. You will see a line-by-line detailed explanation of the work to be done, exactly as it was discussed during the appointment. Each line has an item number correlating to the marked trees on an aerial screenshot of your yard. If you want to remove trees from your estimate, it’s clear and easy to see which line items pertain to that tree and the pricing to go with it. If anything on the estimate seems to be incorrect or you have any questions or concerns, please don’t throw the estimate in the trash! Give us a call and we will be more than happy to review everything with you and even schedule an additional appointment if need be.

When you accept your estimate, you won’t be placed on an endless waiting list. You will be placed on our next available scheduling date, which is usually 4-6 weeks out. Every week I send out an email to keep you informed of where your work is on our calendar. We try to keep in constant contact with our customers so no one is left wondering what is going on. Please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to us if we are not meeting your expectations. As I tell my 3-year-old, I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong! We will do our best to work around your schedule and complete the work in a timely manner.

When your work is being done, we won’t be secretive about what we are doing. Please feel free to stay and watch or go about your day as usual. We will complete everything as listed in the estimate in a safe and timely manner. When you return home, you will hardly be able to tell that we were there (except for the now missing tree). We strive to “leave it better than we found it” and take care to clean up after ourselves.

When your work is completed, you won’t be left in the dust as we move on to the next client. We are always available for follow up questions or concerns to ensure you are completely satisfied with your job. If you are, we would greatly appreciate it if you would  take a moment of your time to leave a review. Small businesses such as ours thrive on word-of-mouth from our satisfied customers. If you are unable to leave a positive review, please let us know! Happy customers are our top priority (after safety, of course) and if we have not succeeded, then please give us a chance to make it right.
​
At the end of the day, your business means the world to us, and we are so grateful that you chose to support our little family business.

God Bless!
A Mother and Small Business Owner

To schedule a free estimate, click here!

Author

Rebekah Rushing is a mother of two under four and the co-owner of Classic City Arborists. When she isn't dealing with snotty noses and dirty diapers, she manages customer service, accounting & finance, marketing & advertising, and human resources. If you have worked with us on a project, then you have undoubtedly spoken with her on the phone at least once! Check out our website, which she designed, or give us a call to speak with her directly.

Editor

Emily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio.