Oh, No You Didn't!

Two guys pull up in a truck. One has a cigarette hanging from his mouth, a fitting accessory for his unshaven face and mangled T-shirt. (Note: no logo appears on shirt.) The other character offers some hope, clearly on task with a sprayer in one hand and a clipboard in the other. (Note: clipboard contains a pre-written invoice prepared by someone back at the office who didn’t see the property before pricing.)

 “You don’t (want to) walk into a law office and see that image,” says Stephen Rushing, co-owner of Rushing Pest Control Service in Texarkana, Ark.

Those two guys serviced your customer. And boy, does your client have plenty to say about the pest control sins witnessed that day.

“A lot of people have had bad experiences with pest control companies,” says Randall Eshom, president, Upstate Pest Management, Reading, Calif. “When you are at a customer’s house, you have to treat their property like you would treat your own home.

The seven deadly sins of pest control start with sloppiness and linger into shifty behaviors like lying to customers, low-balling, badmouthing, cheating on product applications and turning untrained PCOs loose without supervision. 

PCT magazine surveyed readers to find out what not do to on the job and, equally important, how you can correct these undesirable practices. 

#1 — Sloppy Image. Lou Iavecchia rehashes a scenario that describes about 10 to 15 out of every 100 pest control companies, he says. A customer who called him for a bee control estimate decided to go with a lower bidder. Iavecchia, president of Nevada Pest in Las Vegas, asked the customer if he could watch the other company perform the job — perhaps he could learn something.

Iavecchia showed up on the property, and several minutes later two gentlemen in their late 40s pulled up in a truck. One had tattoos up and down his legs. They both wore shorts, T-shirts and sneakers. “This was a big company,” Iavecchia says. “This was not ‘Joe’s Pest Control’ — this was a big, interstate company.”

Where were the long sleeves, the boots, the pants to protect the body from spills? This dress code isn’t a mere suggestion. It’s required by label, Iavecchia says.

 “You see how unprofessional that is,” Iavecchia says. “Keep that up and customers will go to Home Depot.”

Not every fly-by-night slaps a makeshift sticker on the side of a rusted-out pickup. Robert Mandevill’s competition at T-N-T Pest Control in Caldwell, Kan., pulls up in a luxury car and offers customers bids at half Mandevill’s price. His appearance isn’t sloppy — until he gets out of the car and starts a job. “He is good for my business,” Mandevill says, noting that his slick rival usually loses customers fast. “I walked around the property he treated to see what he did. All he uses is a 2½-gallon jug and a pump sprayer.” There’s something equally sloppy about looking like you stopped at the big box store to pick up your equipment on the way to the job.

What’s the fix for sloppy fly-by-nighters? Every industry has them, says Steve Christiaens, president of Awesome Pest Control in Salt Lake City, Utah. The good news is, with online rating Web sites that “grade” various professional services, customers can find out what companies are dependable, Christiaens says.

Iavecchia says continuing education units (CEUs) should include seminars on professionalism. “Instead of a manufacturer talking about their chemical, have them spend 15 minutes on professionalism,” he suggests.
 
#2 — Lowballing Liars. Marilyn Hooper thinks it’s too easy to start up a pest control business. “These companies spring out of nowhere,” she says. “They work for a big company and then go out on their own and come in low-bidding us.” Hooper’s company, Environmental Pest Control Services, has operated in Harrison, Ohio, near Cincinnati for 30 years. And she won’t budge on price.

“We’ve had customers for years, and we’ll keep those,” Hooper says. “But there are other customers, with our economy, that are going for the low-ballers.”

Hooper says requiring PCOs to carry more insurance might be one way to create a stronger barrier to entry in the industry. “For a couple thousand dollars, you can start up your own pest control business,” she said.

Customers get what they pay for, pest management professionals agree.

Eshom avoids the price game by refusing to give estimates over the phone.

This also prevents sticky situations if the property is larger or requires more work than the customer indicated during an initial telephone conversation.

“Giving prices over the phone is like a doctor telling you what he will do to fix your problem before he looks at you and diagnoses you,” Eshom compares.

Companies that do not hesitate to dole out pricing over the phone may be more interested in low-balling other bidding pest control companies. Mandevill knows of an operator in his area that tells real estate agents he will service any house and attached garage for $400 — without even looking at the property. “Come on, $400 for any house and any garage?” Mandevill says.

He would price this job between $900 to $1,200, and never before seeing the property first. “This company is cutting the price in half, “Mandevill says. “Maybe you can get by with $800 on a small house and garage, but you can’t pay for employees, a truck, licenses and insurance at $400 [a pop].”

#3 — Business School Dropouts. Low-balling originates from total disregard (or lack of understanding) for the real cost of doing business, says Tim Baietto, president of Quik Kill in Streater, Ill.

Most PCOs did not attend business school — that’s not a knock on the entrepreneurial savvy required to sustain a successful pest control business. But owners who ignore the hard facts of financing a company hurt everyone in the industry. “The No. 1 sin is not knowing what it costs to turn the key and open up the door to the business every day,” Baietto says.

“There are PCOs that operate their companies like glorified hobbies,” he adds.
Baietto says all he can do is “put on the blinders” like his father taught him, and continue with business as usual. “Don’t get sucked in and compete on price rather than value and service,” he says.

#4 — Chintzy Cheaters. One reason some low-balling companies can afford to cut prices and still cover their costs is because they cheat the system. That is, they water down their applications and chintz customers by making an appearance on the property, sometimes without bothering to treat.

If a PCO spends five minutes at a house, Eshom assumes the technician cheated. “You only have so much time to do a job, and customers aren’t paying you to spend an hour there, but you have to spend 10 to 15 minutes at least when you are doing a service,” he says.

Tracy Rice, president, Rice Pest Control, Anniston, Ala., won’t send a technician on a route without a written list of how much product each property requires. “When the tech goes out there, without having to recalculate he knows what he needs to use on the property,” Rice says.

Mandevill was informed of a dishonest company when one of his employees said to him, “I’ve never seen anyone use this much chemical before.” The employee previously worked for a fly-by-night that set up shop in a hotel room. Its owner cold-called homeowners and offered free estimates. “They would find termites on the property and hardly use any chemical,” Mandevill says, describing a water-diluted formula the company used. “A few years later, the company was gone.”

Rice says the best way to manage this problem is to set a good example and rely on state agricultural inspectors to identify the cheaters. “We react within and I reiterate to personnel that [cheating] will not be tolerated,” he says.

#5 — PCO Clueless. Before any technician runs a route solo, Eshom supervises the new hire for at least a month — this is after a thorough background check to ensure the employee will be granted a license by the state of California, which has tightened its policies in response to the Homeland Security Act.

 “In our industry, you have to send employees out on their own,” Eshom says. “You have to trust they are going to do the job.”

When technicians are let loose without training, they make mistakes that can cost a company’s reputation: not applying enough product or not properly diagnosing pest problems.

Eshom prefers to hire from outside the industry so new employees don’t bring bad habits to his business. “Each company operates differently, and we have our own philosophy of service,” he says. “We want our technicians to be uniform and service accounts the same way.”

#6 — Smack-Talkin’ Technicians. Bad mouthing other companies is strictly prohibited at Rice Pest Control. “I can’t stand when someone comes in and speaks poorly of another company,” Rice says. He doesn’t allow his employees to trash talk the competition, and he advises that they not participate in ill-natured conversations that customers initiate. (If the customer says, “XYZ Pest Control was incompetent,” Rice’s employees must reply, “No comment.”)

Rice feels strongly about avoiding negativity because his company has been the target of scathing remarks in the past. “I’ve had people spread rumors that the state closed us down, and back when my father was alive, I had people spread rumors that he passed away,” Rice says. All of these rumors were unfounded.

 “You can always wind up with an overzealous salesperson who is willing to say anything to get the sale,” Rice says, attributing some of the hearsay to irresponsible employees.

Be sure employees understand that badmouthing is bad for business, Rice emphasizes.

#7 — Ill Communication. The going rate for a McCall bird is about $2,000. A bird autopsy can cost double that price. The reason Rushing knows this is because his company reimbursed a client for a deceased bird when its coincidental death occurred after a technician treated the home.

The rule at Rushing Pest Control Service is that all clients must remove birds and fish from rooms scheduled for treatment. An alternative is to cover the cage or tank. Because this longtime client was in a hurry — she understood and had followed this rule in the past — the bird was left uncovered in a bedroom. The technician did not spray that space.

“I guess its time was up,” Rushing says of the bird, sympathetic toward the client but frustrated with a lack of communication that resulted in bad feelings. “There was no way we could convince her we didn’t kill the bird unless we wanted to go through the expense of a bird autopsy,” Rushing says.

 “That was poor communication on our part,” he continues.

 Communication starts in the office, Rushing says. “Whoever does the scheduling should explain to customer upfront what to expect.”

Tell customers that a termite application could wipe out their tulip beds. Don’t assume they know this. Tell customers that the price of your service is subject to tax so they understand the total cost, Rushing adds. Tell them everything your services include — then tell them again. “Don’t leave anything to chance,” he says.

The author is a freelance writer.