Ring, Ring, Ring...

It’s the kind of situation that can happen to anyone. You’re in the middle of enjoying yourself on a holiday weekend. The family is settled around hungrily watching you overcook the hamburgers on the backyard grill. Then the phone rings. A residential customer on the other side of town apologizes for disturbing you while frantically pleading for instant help. He explains that a swarm of yellow jackets has made the second floor of his home impassable for his wife and children. What to do?

Should pest control service fit into an "emergency" category? Are we like air conditioning contractors in summer or heating specialists in winter, available to give instant relief to address unexpected breakdowns? Are we the service equivalent of public safety personnel who work around the clock to serve and protect victims of medical, police and fire emergencies? What is the right policy for handling emergency after-hour calls?

WHAT TO DO? Just about everyone in the industry agrees that not all pests PCOs offer to control are a threat to human health and property. Surely, one more day in the life of a cockroach, ant or silverfish won’t make a difference and the amount of additional damage a termite can inflict on a building by postponing work for a day or two is negligible. On the other hand, few would dispute that squirrels and skunks merit instant attention.

Discussing the subject with pest controllers in various parts of the United States teaches a reporter a lot. For one thing, we learned that the number of honest-to-goodness, bona fide emergencies that are called in after hours are really few and far between. In addition, the level of tolerance for various pests, and the requests for instant emergency work, can vary widely among customers. Not surprisingly, an outbreak of ants in a kitchen to some fastidious customers is a shocking situation requiring instant service, while others are perfectly content to leave a call on an answering machine for later response during business hours. There is also the fact that callers can misidentify a pest and call for emergency service to control, for example, a bee swarm that in fact is an outbreak of winged ants.

Interestingly, we found that psychological counseling in the form of telephonic "hand-holding" is an element practiced by some pest controllers. A distraught caller is calmed with the smooth, soothing assurance that the pest sighted is harmless, non-threatening, and control procedures can be delayed until a more appropriate time.

Company size, length of time in the business, competition and locale are factors that seem to determine policy on making emergency after-hours calls. Large companies have sophisticated communications systems and widespread coverage in the field that make it easier to respond to these extra calls. Furthermore, while they are often reluctant to admit it, they can afford to be choosy about responding. However, newly established firms trying to make a name for themselves, and perhaps hungry for business, seem more prone to respond to customer concerns at a moment’s notice.

Then, in areas where the competition is keen, there are those companies that are less disposed to turn down after-hours jobs for fear the guy on the next block will get the work. And typically in small towns, where there are fewer service companies and the boss can be a well-known local resident, it is not uncommon for customers to call the company owner at his/her home and to expect emergency service as a "folksy" gesture.

HOSPITALS A PRIORITY. Pest control companies we questioned were unanimous in stating that hospital and health care accounts under regular contract are accorded emergency services at any hour of any day for which there is no extra compensation. But as might be expected, everyone we spoke with said accounts that require after-hours service who are not under contract, should be assessed an extra charge.

Sarah Bender, vice president of Bender Pest Control, runs a small company with her husband in the picturesque little town of Brandon, Vt. The Benders maintain a business phone in their residence. There is no regular weekend work scheduled, but in the event of an emergency call - such as the time when wasps faced off with an allergic homeowner on a Saturday or when a skunk tried to make a home under a customer’s porch - husband Gary Bender did the honors.

According to Carolyn Richardson, vice president of Peninsular Pest Control in Jacksonville, Fla., the company maintains a phone answering machine for after-hours calls. Managers periodically check these calls and it is left to their discretion as to whether the call is serious enough to warrant special attention. It turns out that such calls are uncommon. However, Richardson explains that the company services six large area hospitals which have the home numbers of key service people. When a hospital calls with an emergency, Peninsular employees rush to the scene. Richardson says that emergency service is part of the contract for which there is no additional charge.

Down in Birmingham, Ala., Harry Weaver who runs the Alabama Termite & Pest Control Co., has his home phone number listed in the phone book. He relies on his troops for Sunday and holiday emergencies. "I’ll call on men who have trucks at their homes to alert them, but only if I’m sure the caller has a real problem," Weaver says.

Jim Easter, skipper of Chicago’s Airway Exterminating & Products Co., is a skeptic when it comes to putting out pest "fires" after the office shuts down. "Practically all so-called emergency calls that come in are nuisance calls that can wait until we open," Easter told us. He says he gave up on the answering machine and explains that too often he’s appeared at the prospective account to find that customers have treated the job like a contest - they call several pest control companies and the first one to arrive on the scene wins the prize while the other PCOs are left to wipe the egg off their faces. Only on rare occasions, and as a special concession , will Airway perform after-hours emergency work for which there is a healthy charge, Easter says.

"Certain accounts like hospitals, health care centers and customers of that type are issued an after-hours number," says Ron Pelham, president of Dewey Pest Control in Los Angeles. "It’s like the Doctor’s Exchange that forwards calls." He explains that Dewey Pest Control is on call for hospitals 24 hours a day. Service people regularly assigned to these special accounts are the one’s who answer the calls for emergency service. Other calls are taken on answering machines and there is no special provision for down time service for others, Pelham says.

Richard Rohm president of Kenny’s Pest Control in Moline, Ill., operates both in Illinois and across the Mississippi River in Iowa. He relies on his telephone answering machine after the office closes and periodically checks in for crisis calls. He states that bona fide emergencies are rare, but when placating a caller is justified, he’ll summon a service person to do the work. If this isn’t possible, he says he’s been known to go out himself.

Brad Parker, vice president of Parker Pest Control in Ponca City, Okla., marches to the beat of a different drummer. He looks upon satisfying distraught customers at inconvenient times as an opportunity for generating good will. "We’ll do whatever it takes to satisfy (the customer). For established customers, we don’t charge extra unless the job is long and complicated," Parker says. He also explained that his company uses psychology in dissuading customers from taking emergency services unless the pest prompting the call "bites, stings or transmits disease."

Establishing a symbiotic relationship with a local bee keeper has been a boon for Wes Lydell, owner of Guaranteed Pest Control Service Co., Beaverton, Ore. "Most of our emergencies have turned out to be for bees and wasps. I immediately refer them to my beekeeper friend who works at all hours and does a professional job. He, in turn, sends me a lot of pest control work and everybody ends up happy," Lydell says.

J.C. Ehrlich Co., headquartered in Reading, Pa., is an example of a large company that deals with crisis calls hierarchically. Explains Executive Vice-President Richard Yashek: "All supervisors, operations managers and sales personnel are provided with pagers. The company uses answering services that flash calls to these people who are always on call. They are then responsible for screening them and assigning them to technicians to perform service as necessary.

Chuck Kettler, manager of Central Exterminating Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, declares that as a consequence of the number of hospitals and health care facilities his outfit has under contract, Central is well-placed for dealing with after-hours, weekend and holiday emergencies. "Our four top managers check in with a phone answering service. If they decide the call is a genuine emergency, they either assign he job to a service technician or handle it themselves." He said the after-hours service calls from sources other than hospitals and health care facilities would pay extra.

Having "inherited" a telephone answering machine from a company he bought, Jon Hockenyos, owner of Sentinel Insect Control Laboratory in Springfield, Ill., eventually discarded it for the simple reason that virtually all the calls that were recorded could comfortably be handled during regular business hours. Hockenyos, however, decided if an emergency problem like a bee swarm in a home, or a rat running through a restaurant occurred, he would handle the job at no charge if it were a contract customer. He further indicated that even though his company phone wasn’t manned during off hours, emergency services in town such as the fire and police departments would contact him at home, so well known is the Hockenyos/Sentinel name in Springfield.

CUSTOMERS WANT SERVICE. It would be interesting to gauge the public’s perception of the pest control industry with regard to its responsibilities to clients for putting out fires after hours.

Within limitations, we tried to feel the pulse of a few neutral observers in the Chicago area. Our reading was that while they respected the rights of personnel representing the industry to after hours privacy and freedom, they ewer in agreement that ours was an industry that should be prepared at all times to respond quickly to emergency calls regardless of whether the problem was a "true emergency" or not.

These people agreed that they would pay an additional fee for he work, regardless of whether or not they were under contract. They felt that, as in the case of physicians or pharmacists, responsible companies should provide coverage among service personnel or be able to refer the calls to other sources to back them up. As one gentleman put it: "Emergency service shouldn’t have to depend on the clock."

It’s something to think about.

 

Bob Berns is a staff correspondent for PCT magazine