No. 1 Small-Sized Pest Control Company: Sherrill Pest Control

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the August print version of PCT under the headline "Living the Values, Loving the Culture."

Rewind a decade, when growing pains and drama in daily operations created logjams at Sherrill Pest Control, Manchester, Tenn. “I have attended many industry conferences over the years and networked with companies to get ideas to implement,” said Kevin Sherrill, president of the third-generation family business his grandfather unofficially established in 1950 as a sole operator and his father made official in 1975, out of the U.S. Marines and ready to serve customers.

At this point, Sherrill’s dad told Kevin, “Make the changes you want and let’s see what a difference and impact you can make.”

Sherrill said, “The business had outgrown its leadership and by that, I mean my father and myself. We had outgrown our systems and processes, whether they were documented or just understood. It wasn’t fun anymore.”

He added, “I had been exposed to a lot of great ideas, but I didn’t know how to implement them.”

So Sherrill hired a business coach and adopted the Rockefeller Habits, a strategic framework for executive leadership. Alongside this, the pandemic accelerated a shift to digital — standardizing phone scripts, creating detailed SOPs and streamlining communication. Also, the company culture evolved, with team members embracing a ‘share the love’ mindset and regularly recognizing each other’s contributions. The result? Sherrill Pest Control is a PCT Best Places to Work company.

PLUGGING IN.

Sherrill dove into industry involvement, including joining the National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA) Leadership Development Group. “We grew a large network of professionals and picked up a lot of ideas,” he said.

But again, how to implement — how to make these strategies reality?

“It’s like, if you heard of a car and had seen all the parts but you don’t know how they all fit together,” he said.

Sherrill knew he needed to grow a leadership team to help manage expanding capacity. He recognized the younger workforce has different ideas about what’s really the best place to work.

Sherrill’s father was a Rotarian who lived by the Rotary 4-Way Test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

“We informally adopted those values and then worked through a process with our business coach to identify what we felt were the right core values,” Sherrill said.

Those were printed, posted, tested and edited.

“We needed these core values for our team, and it was eye-opening for them,” Sherrill said. “Our coach said, ‘Whenever you’re having interactions throughout the day, just look at that list and ask yourself: Are these alive and well within the business?”

Sherrill said the values are captured in the acronym GLOW: We’re here to Grow. Leave it Better than You Found It. Own It. We > Me. “Setting this tone along with refining our systems has resulted in removing our ‘owner dependency’ in operations, scaled our leadership team, and we’ve grown nearly 200% in the last nine years.”

SYSTEMS CHECK.

COVID was pivotal. “We had the technology, the pandemic just forced us to step it up and better utilize our software capabilities,” Sherrill said.

They created phone scripts for the office team for consistent service; the same went for sales. Documents were migrated to the digital platform. “Our SOPs were limited and on paper and now they are all digital, updated and easier to find,” Sherrill said.

The company implemented task lists for each role and offered commission pay to technicians for upselling services. “What gets measured gets done,” Sherrill said.

SHOUT OUTS.

Speaking to culture, Sherrill implemented quarterly themes to rally the team around “one big thing,” usually related to customer experience.

“We tie celebrations to our themes, which ensures greater success,” he said.

Sherrill Pest Control keeps shout-out forms in its office for any team member to fill out as a “woot!” for a job well done. The forms are posted for everyone to see, and they’re announced at meetings.

“The first few years, it probably felt more like a forced exercise that would take five minutes,” Sherrill said. “But slowly, I started noticing more engagement and more specific comments. They’re putting thought into this, and now our shout-outs and roundtable recognition take a good 20 minutes, and the team really appreciates the positive feedback from their colleagues.”

The shout-outs are forms while the roundtable recognition is a verbal way-to-go that occurs monthly. “I skipped this part of the meeting one month when we were short on time and was scolded by the team,” Sherrill quips. “This exercise really seems to mean a lot to them and has a positive impact on our culture.”

Aside from recognition, Sherrill Pest Control also gives employees paid birthdays off, offers robust benefits and “just cares about people,” Sherrill said.

Every employee has a “two-weeker” one-on-one meeting to review progress, discuss goals and share insight. Sherrill Pest Control offers leadership training, is active in peer groups and collects team members’ insight through employee net promoter score (eNPS) surveys. There’s an open line of feedback, Sherrill said.

Employees use the term “rare” in describing what makes the company special.

“We really have each others’ backs, the company really cares about you and they want to see everyone grow personally and professionally,” an employee told Sherrill.

WE GOT THIS.

Talking culture is one thing. Realizing the work environment you set to create is alive and well — that’s another. Sherrill knew they had something special when a few years ago, an employee called out team member for attitude on the company’s GroupMe chat.

“I was informed, after the fact, that the other team members spoke up and said, ‘This is not the way to handle this situation,’” Sherrill said. “This was when I realized our team was taking over culture enforcement instead of me having to be the only one to address it.”

Sherrill added, “There have been countless times when team members have supported each other during tough times, personally and professionally. This highlights the true bond our team is creating.”

Sherrill Pest Control is “picky and slow to hire.”

“Nearly all of our candidates mention our Google reviews as one of the reasons why they apply here,” he said, relating a focus on obtaining customer feedback. “When we do the right thing and love on our team, they are more likely to love on our customers.”

The author is a frequent PCT contributor.