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ONLINE EXTRA |
Are you:
• Dedicated, committed, quality focused with a strong work ethic?
• A people person, congenial, social?
• A self starter, entrepreneurial?
• Do you have strong communication skills?
• Are you honest and trustworthy?
These, according to the industry managers, technicians and training directors interviewed for this story, are the top five attributes needed to be a top-performing pest management service technician. The position is unique in many ways — most do not own their own business, but do operate their routes as entrepreneurs; they spend the majority of their day in someone else’s business (and much of it in their truck!); extensive training — both initial and ongoing — is not only encouraged but is state-mandated; and their routes can vary as much as their geography. And to excel at all these tasks on a regular basis, top-performing service technicians tend to exhibit some common characteristics.
To fulfill the service technician role, "we typically look for people that have a high energy level," said Craig Goodwin, Orkin director of training. "They’re in the service business. If they don’t have a high energy level, that is hard to do." Excelling in such a position really comes down to one thing, he said: customer service. "Treat your customer the way you would want your father or mother to be treated if they were a customer."
"If you don’t intend to make it a career, don’t get into it," he added.
Some people come in to the position of service technician thinking it’s just a job that they’ll do for a while then move on, said McCloud Services’ Dave Schultz, who was recently promoted from service technician to service supervisor. But that attitude is not fair to the customer or the hiring company who has invested time and money into your training and development. "You need to take your job very seriously," he said. So much of this job is performed independently that, to be successful, a technician needs to "perform to the best of your ability when you are by yourself," he explained.
To become a top performer, a service technician needs to consider him or herself to be a professional, agreed Massey Services Technician Rick Hoffman. In pest control for more than 37 years and nominated for PCT’s Technician of the Year, Hoffman explains, "You can take it and consider it a job, or you can take it and consider it a profession. When you come to that realization — you feel good about it, it’s your profession, you feel that you’re doing something for the community — that takes you over the top and makes you a top performer."
In the pest management industry, service technicians are most often working by themselves for their customers. They organize their business, maintain service and product documents, call on and service customers, fill customer orders, file end-of-day paperwork...often without seeing any of their co-workers. Because of such aspects of the position, it is critical that the service technician be a self-starter, organized and entrepreneurial, Hoffman said. "You’re out there quite a lot on your own almost like having your own business. You have to make a lot of your own decisions."
An Orkin route manager for 16 years, Gary Lewis agrees. You’ve got to be a self-starter with strong organizational skills, he said. "If you don’t know what you’re going to do before you get into the truck," you’re not going to be successful. You also have to be flexible enough to deal with things that come up during the day, he added. You have to have contingency plans to deal with the unexpected.
For these same reasons, "Communication is the number one thing," said Richard Baker, a service technician for Massey Services. A service technician needs to always let the customer know what you are doing and why, and take ownership for everything you do, he said. This can be particularly true when something goes wrong. An issue rose in one of Baker’s accounts for which the customer began blaming his employees and seeking the culprit. As soon as Baker heard about it, he realized that he had caused the issue and immediately went to the manager to tell him so. Although the manager became angry none of his employees was admitting to the deed, as soon as Baker went to him and said "I did it," and said that he would fix the damage, the manager eased back and the situation which had been turning catastrophic became a non-issue.
The situation which could have cost his company the account ended up enhancing Baker’s relationship with his customer and gave him added respect and trust in the eyes of the customer.
Honesty and credibility are important in this industry where technicians are working in the "back of the house," in areas not generally open to the public or even to many employees. "When you go into accounts for the first time, you have to establish your credibility," Lewis said, "and continually maintain it." Lewis works one account which is a cash center for its business. He has been there when there was, literally, $6 million out in the open, he said. While this may not be a common occurrence, the service technician is regularly in areas where people leave their valuables out and entrust you with their homes and businesses.
The ability to build and maintain solid relationships, which include such trust, is a key attribute of the successful pest management service technician. As a part of his company’s Integrated Profiling System, Brad Bartlett, managing director, Interview Technologies, conducted research to determine if personality traits could indicate performance for pest management service technicians. While these will vary somewhat on the type of service to which the technician is dedicated, Bartlett’s research found that there are indeed traits common to top performers.
Because the service technician is dealing with hazardous materials with specific application requirements, processes and procedures, it is important that he or she have high conformity — wanting to follow systems and procedures, attention to detail and the desire to do the right thing are very important for a service technician, Bartlett explained. And unless they are working night accounts where they have little face-to-face interaction with their customers, technicians will also be more successful if they are more extroverted — able to communicate and interrelate well with others and build strong relationships.
A person’s dominant character traits can also help a manager determine the type of route on which that technician will be most successful, Bartlett found. For example, "if you have someone performing commercial service, doing the same work over and over in very much a routine, then higher patience, more conformity and lower dominance are important." In a residential route, on the other hand, the person who is very task oriented, with more urgency and less patience, can be successful.
Regardless of the type of account serviced, though, most managers and technicians agree that there are some basic personality traits that top performers possess, and as McCloud Area Manager Hans Neilsen notes, "over the last 20 years, what it takes for a technician to be a success...has changed."
Dedication, knowledge, time management, documentation and communication skills (including persuasion skills to communicate the areas in which the customer needs to take action, such as structural repair and maintenance); the ability to think on your feet, be a people person and show up neat and well-groomed — all are important to success, Neilsen said, then add, "Sprinkle a little bit of humbleness over all that, and you have a good technician."
The successful service technician, said Tom Jarzynka, training director for Massey Services, is also "assertive in terms of wanting to be associated with quality, wanting it to be the best." They make the right decision on the tool to use; they can deal with the customer—any customer; they can take on a situation and handle it; they ask good questions based on what they know and challenge themselves to gain knowledge; they have a lot of confidence in their skill and their ability to see the job through; they service, not for today, but for what could happen in the future.
The successful service technician, Jarzynka said, is the one who sees a successful day as one in which he or she can drive home with the thought: "I accomplished something today for my customer, my company and myself."
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HIRING SMART
Let’s say you need to hire a new technician. You know that you are looking for someone who is dedicated and honest, is a “people person” and a self-starter, and has strong communication skills. You know that if you can find a person whose innate traits are well suited toward customer service, you can train them on the technical aspects. But how do you go about finding these top performers? And how do you know when you have found them? “Smart hiring begins with smart recruiting,” said Certified Management Consultant Jean L. Seawright, Seawright and Associates. “Contrary to popular belief, classified advertising does work — if you place the right ad, in the right paper, in the right section, on the right day!” And you need to use your ad space to sell the job, she said. “Your ad must look better and sound better than other ads in the same section seeking the same people. Make certain that your employment ad sells the company and the position. Make it appealing and professional.” Seawright said that professionalism is a key attribute for a service technician, but this professionalism must begin with your company image and culture. “Make certain your logo, trucks, uniforms, paperwork and advertisements are all professional.” Seawright said she believes the industry overlooks a key source of qualified candidates: women. Although employers cannot advertise directly for women, they can tap into sources where women are involved. “Women have the potential to make great professional service technicians, and, if employers are willing to ‘think outside the box’ in terms of scheduling and routing, women may be their answer to finding good candidates,” she said. THE HIRING PROCESS. There are steps you can take to create a professional hiring process and help increase your success in hiring good employees. Recommendations from managers and consultants provided the following steps to success for hiring a top pest management technician: 1. The first interview. Conducted by a manager, this first meeting includes behavior-descriptive questions designed to show what the applicant has done in the past; how he or she has acted in situations similar to those which will be encountered in this position. The application form (filled out previously by the applicant) should also be reviewed, and any spaces which were left blank discussed, then filled in by the applicant. The employer would also provide the applicant with a written job description at this time, and review it with them. 2. A personality profile. “Personality affects behavior and behavior dictates results,” said Brad Bartlett, managing director, Interview Technologies. For this reason, personality profiling can be helpful in determining whether a job applicant has the traits which will lead to success as a service technician. This can be done during or immediately following the first interview. Virtually no one will have all the traits of a top performer, but the profile will show strengths and weaknesses, from which you can determine if the weaknesses can be developed. Employers will always have to compromise on something, Seawright said, “the problem is, some managers compromise where they shouldn’t.” It may be alright to hire an impatient person for the position, but she advises against hiring a candidate with a history of job-related criminal convictions or a long, unexplained gap in employment — “no matter how well their personality fit the profile.” 3. Application and reference verification. “The biggest thing that I find clients fall down on is the job application,” Bartlett said. “Don’t assume it is true.” Discussing the answers during the first interview provides a check on some of the answers, others will need to be literally checked, such as education degrees and references. Always check references, Bartlett cautions, and make a rule of “no references, no job, no exceptions.” Background checks are critical in hiring, Seawright said, especially for technicians whose work is performed in the customer’s home or business. “The liabilities associated with hiring in the pest control industry are greater than ever before, and it is imperative that managers and business owners take the appropriate steps to minimize the risk.” 4. The second interview. If the results of steps 1 to 3 are positive, a second interview is conducted. During this interview, the personality profile should be provided to and reviewed with the candidate. The applicant should note any areas that seem applicable, and those with which he may not agree. Doing this can also build your relationship with the applicant (many firms do not allow candidates to see such results). “It tells the applicant that you care what they think,” Bartlett said. At this time (or during the first interview) also others should meet with the applicant. 5. A ride along. Many companies have the applicant, or in some cases, the new hire, ride along with a top-performing technician to get a feel for the daily aspects of the job. John Wilson, Orkin division vice president, said he sees great value in requiring the applicant to spend time on the job with a service technician before he or she is hired. “We insist that each candidate spend a period of time in the truck getting an up-close view of what the job is like,” he said. “It is worth four hours of (their) time. If not, then they’re not that interested.” 6. Hire, train and motivate. Once the applicant becomes an employee, the manager’s job has just begun. Whether the company’s training is conducted at the corporate level or by the local service manager, the manager’s ongoing involvement, interest and assistance will be critical to any new technician’s success. In addition, notes Hans Nielsen, McCloud Services area manager, motivation is very important. “It can be sometimes kind of lonely,” he said. “It can be a tough job.” As a manager he does track the technicians’ productivity, but he also finds it important to reward them for both measurable and non-measurable performance. For example, McCloud has a technician of the year award, in which the top performer receives a week-long trip for two to Hawaii. In addition to this, though, Nielsen gives out monthly Moment of Truth awards. This monetary award and plaque are given to technicians who have received compliments or testimonials from customers or co-workers. |
The author is a freelance writer. She can be reached at llupo@giemedia.com.
Explore the March 2005 Issue
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