[NPMA Update] Moving Ahead

QualityPro, the National Pest Management Association’s credentialing program for pest control companies, is now almost one year old. It was launched at PestWorld 2003, and as of press time, 51 pest control companies had the association’s "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," and another 142 were in the midst of the application process.

For Ray Johnson, president and owner, Johnson Pest Control Inc., Sevierville, Tenn., having his company become QualityPro approved was something he did for a lot of reasons. Integrity was one of the most important.

"Integrity’s a big thing," he said. "We wanted to maintain the integrity of our company we worked for 20 years building."

REQUIREMENTS. In order to become a member of QualityPro, a company must apply, be accepted and adhere to several regulations that fall under the categories of Business Operations, Consumer Relations, Environmental Stewardship and Training Guidelines. If a company has the QualityPro distinction, it means it’s meeting all the guidelines set by NPMA. The goal of the program is for the company’s degree of quality perceived by customers to be heightened and to raise industry standards. Additionally, materials are provided to companies that earn the "seal of approval" to help them in marketing the designation to clients. Examples of these marketing materials are door hangers, uniform patches, truck decals and brochures. (See doorhanger at right.)

Bobby Jenkins, president, ABC Pest and Lawn Services, Austin, Texas, and chairman of the QualityPro board, said he thinks becoming a QualityPro member is a great opportunity to be more successful (his own company is a member of QualityPro). Donnie Blake, past president of NPMA, named Jenkins chairman, and Jenkins himself was president of the association two years ago when the initiative began. He’s been passionate from the beginning about the idea of a program that would raise industry standards and expectations while appealing to a broad audience of PCOs.

"There is no hurdle here that the smallest of companies or the largest of companies can’t achieve," he said.

Johnson Pest Control was the first company in Tennessee to become a QualityPro member. Johnson is proud of this fact and markets it. The QualityPro logo is on hats his employees wear and on company trucks. He said he thought the QualityPro program was a valuable idea from the time he first heard about it. "I was very excited that we had a standard to shoot for," said Johnson. "I think all companies should be shooting for that same standard, and I think that’s what (the national association) is trying to do."

Johnson said he appreciated the information that the program provided him after his company became a QualityPro member. He used the sample application when he was going through the hiring process and looking for four new people, and found it useful. Johnson said he also likes that NPMA made available a third-party firm to perform QualityPro’s required employee background checks.

Many companies are already doing most or all of what QualityPro requires, Jenkins said. So, for them, the process of becoming a Quality-Pro company requires documentation and plans to implement components of the program they don’t yet have in place. As the program evolves, Jenkins said he hopes to see the bar go higher and higher.

HIGHER STANDARDS. The fact that the industry is taking control of itself and trying to improve on its own — not due to government (or any other) regulation — is a positive statement, Jenkins said. The approach is a proactive one, and the public will see value in the seal of approval over time, he added. Companies that are QualityPro qualified will have an advantage over those that aren’t, he said.

"We are taking control of our own destiny," Jenkins said. "We are moving the industry forward."

What he said he likes best about the program is that people will be able to hold their heads higher and have more confidence in the company they work for and the work that they do. "I think at the end of the day, the best thing is the technicians and the company employees that are going to feel that they’re working for a company that works at a higher standard," Jenkins said.

QualityPro is still a young program, and new additions and procedures continue to be put into place. One example is online testing. One QualityPro requirement is that technicians pass the program’s technician examination if there is not a state-required examination where they are located. Online testing for such technicians recently became available to facilitate this process.

A grievance procedure also was recently printed and produced, said Elizabeth Preston, director of marketing and communications, NPMA. It will allow people to file complaints about a QualityPro company by completing a form if they don’t believe the company is following the appropriate guidelines. The company can either respond to the complaint or not, but if it does not respond that will be viewed as no contest. The grievance committee will do one of three things after determining a complaint is QualityPro-related: It will either take no action, give the company a certain amount of time to correct its error or revoke the firm’s QualityPro membership. However, the third action will only be taken if the person signing the affidavit knowingly violated a qualification and didn’t correct it. Also, a company can appeal if it doesn’t agree with the grievance committee’s ruling.

Preston said there is also an audit system in place, which is performed at random. When audited, a company is asked to provide proof that it is meeting QualityPro qualifications. The proof would have to be supplied within a certain amount of time, and if not in compliance, the company must take corrective action within a certain amount of time.

"I think in the future any company you need to deal with should be QualityPro," Johnson said. "If my kinfolk in Texas call me and say, ‘What company do you recommend? Do you know anybody in this area?’ the first thing I would tell them to do is check for a QualityPro member."

The author is a contributing writer to PCT magazine.