Support Our Tour des Trees Cyclists - And the ISA Research Trust

This summer, not one, but two employees will be carrying the Asplundh torch as they ride their bicycles in the ninth Tour des Trees to support the International Society of Arboriculture’s Research Trust.

Technical Services Manager Geoff Kempter is riding the entire 600-mile tour for the fourth time and Supervisor Peter Simpson from the Don Cummings Region in Massachusetts will ride for his first time during the final days of the tour.

Full-tour riders like Geoff are required to raise at least $3,000 for the Research Trust and Peter will do his best to raise a similar amount. You can join Asplundh in supporting the Tour des Trees by making a tax-deductible contribution to the ISA Research Trust in the name of Geoff Kempter and/or Peter Simpson.

For more information, check out the website: www.tourdestrees.org.

Virtual Asplundh-A Tour of www.asplundh.com
By Dan Kinter
Kintercom, New Britain, PA

It left 1,448 files, five designs, and hundreds of decisions scattered in its path. It continues to blow through cyberspace with a force of 66 hypertext documents and 422 two bitmap files. A new kind of storm for our crews to clean up after? No, we're talking about the new Asplundh web site.

Launched this spring, the newly renovated www.asplundh.com has already been updated several times to incorporate changes, fix some bugs and make it a more powerful tool. But what kind of tool is it?

When we set out to build a new web site, there were three important goals. First, the site was to act as a marketing tool to help bring in new business. Second, the site was to act as a communications vehicle for existing Asplundh customers. And third, the site was to provide a fast means of communications within the company.

Making a Splash

You can't miss that Asplundh orange truck reaching out to you on the new "splash page" (click here to view it). The oval ring of service listings quickly communicates the fact that Asplundh offers much more than its traditional utility vegetation management serves. Each listing links to more pages of descriptions and ways to communicate with key people in the field.

In my initial meetings with Patti Chipman and Kristin Wild in Asplundh's Corporate Communications Dept., we found we were all on the same page ... web page, that is. It was a unanimous decision that the new web site should maintain a "feel" consistent with the recently-produced Comprehensive Services Guide, which I had created in collaboration with Corporate Communications. The next challenge was the “architecture” of the web site, a plan for organizing it -- one in which information is easy to find and quickly accessed. Finally, we needed some degree of "flash," as befits an industry leader like Asplundh

An Asplundh bucket truck was chosen as the central graphic for the entire site. The orange trucks are a familiar sight across the country and provide a very high profile for the company. To that, I added an animation of the slogan, "Let us show you what we can do for you," which was used in the Comprehensive Services Guide. These elements created a dramatic entrance to the site (which, by the way, you can bypass by clicking on the truck if you’re a regular visitor).

Then, the "surfer" is taken to our "splash" page. At a glance, the viewer is presented with a comprehensive graphic presentation of every service Asplundh offers. This was extremely important. One of the most common marketing problems I come across with large, diverse companies is "pigeon-holing." We wanted to avoid having a customer think of Asplundh ONLY in terms of the service he or she uses. When a viewer looking for line clearance comes to www.asplundh.com, he or she is going to see quite clearly that we do more than line clearance.

By using JavaScript to animate the menu items, the viewer is invited into the site and he or she is only a mouse-click away from concise information about each of our services and subsidiaries.

Navigating the Waters

The bucket truck theme is carried throughout the web site in the "navigation" bar at the top of the page. Forward and back buttons are also incorporated in order to invite the viewer to browse the entire site. (Those of us in marketing communications have fantasies about people reading every word we've written ... Hey, c'mon, it could happen.) And to make things even easier, the navigation bar offers shortcuts to the Home page, About Us page, Contact Us page, and a central e-mail address.

Between the look, feel, and content, we believe that the site markets Asplundh's services well and makes us very accessible to prospective customers. But there is more to the web site, features that help you and your customers.

At the bottom of each page is a direct link to that page's appropriate e-mail box so a viewer can send a message or inquiry while the page is fresh in his or her mind. Some pages are linked to a central "info@asplundh.com". At the top, as mentioned, are Contact Us, About Us and e-mail buttons. About Us takes the viewer to corporate background, history, policies, employment, TREE magazine, as well as the Name That Tree game page (more on this later). Contact Us links to an entire section of the web site that facilitates communications by phone or e-mail.

A great deal of consideration was given to the Contact Us section of the site. We think we've covered all the bases by providing contacts broken down into "regional" contacts (mostly for vegetation management) and contacts by "subsidiary," or individual business sectors. We hope these pages give employees and customers better, easier-to-use communications tools.

Flotsam and Jetsam

A few other miscellaneous pages, perhaps, need explanation. For instance, the Name That Tree page is a little game to challenge the viewer's arboricultural knowledge. The objective is to get viewers to come back to the web site, even if they have no specific purpose.

From the Contact Us page, you may jump to the Woodchip page, which explains that the distribution of woodchips depends on regional policies. The viewer is then directed to the Contact By Region page.

Equipment Maintenance and Used Equipment links take the viewer to a page that redirects inquiries to our equipment suppliers and vendors.

The Employment Opportunities page is accessed from both the Contact Us and the About Us pages. We try to keep this up-to-date, and encourage management folks to let us know about specific employment opportunities to announce.

Finally, we've published some of our most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's in web-speak). Our aim was to reduce some of the phone and e-mail traffic that cuts into productivity, while addressing topics the public may find interesting.

Well, there's the thinking behind the web site ... or at least my thinking. And, lest you wonder why I constantly use "we" and "us," let me explain. I have been working with Asplundh as an advertising communications consultant on and off for over a decade, beginning back when there was a Manufacturing Division (remember that?).

I believe that over the years, my blood has changed color, leaning slightly toward the orange side. I have to say I enjoy having Asplundh as a client, both for the fine people with whom I get to work, as well as for the opportunity to represent such a prestigious leader in its field.

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