Ten Tips for Passing Inspections

With health, regulatory and customer satisfaction issues at stake, there’s very little room for error when it comes to servicing audited accounts. Here are 10 basic tips to help ensure your rodent control programs pass inspection.

1) Know who’s performing inspections

A wide range of agencies and companies inspect facilities. Examples at the federal level include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There are also any number of state agencies that conduct inspections. Additionally, there are private sanitation inspection services, such as the American Institute of Baking (AIB) and the American Sanitation Institute (ASI). Companies in this group may be hired by an account or by one or more of the account’s suppliers to inspect their supply and distribution channels.

Given the diversity of organizations and inspectors involved, PCOs need to know which are auditing their clients’ facilities. Keep in mind there may be more than one.

2) Be familiar with inspection guidelines

Each inspection agency or company has its own set of "standards." The key to success is to ensure you’re crystal clear on the rules of the game. That way, you can modify your practices to ensure compliance. Contact the inspecting organization and ask to see or purchase a copy of their standards.

3) Understand the penalties

It’s important to understand what is at stake. Will the plant be shut down if an inspection fails? Will the client lose a key customer if a private inspection flags a few mistakes? Will the plant sanitarian miss out on an annual bonus if an inspection score is too low? Make it your job to know how important an inspection is to your customer and why it is critical to provide the best possible service.

4) Share information when appropriate

Pest control is changing rapidly! Share information about new products, recent discoveries about relevant pests and updates on rules or regulations, etc., with your clients. Also, check with your clients and ask if you can do the same with the inspector(s) assigned to the account. Or, give the client an extra copy to share with the inspector. Sharing information with an inspector might establish a line of communication which could help in resolving inspection issues. One word of caution: Always check with your customer first before you talk with an inspector.

5) Work from a clearly defined agreement

Never underestimate the importance of a clear, concise and well-written agreement when servicing an audited account. Its greatest value is in minimizing the potential for disagreement over who is responsible for what, especially if more than one inspection agency is involved. With pricing information removed, it also functions as the written pest control program, which is required by most auditing agencies.

6) Inspect thoroughly as part of every service visit

Your customer depends on you to locate, report and/or correct issues before an auditor does. Don’t just walk from trap to trap without inspecting high and low between them for rodent evidence. Furthermore, don’t restrict your inspections to the perimeters. Rodents often infest the middle areas of structures.

7) Respond rapidly and vigorously

Rodents typically carry greater consequences than other types of pests in audited accounts. Evidence or reports of even slight rodent activity may result in the client failing an inspection. Depending on the account, a single mouse or a few droppings may warrant intensive daily service until the situation is resolved.

8) Keep traps, bait stations and rodenticides in peak condition

The perception of many inspectors is that traps, bait stations and rodenticides in bait stations are indicators of overall service quality. Whether or not that’s a fair assessment, the traps, stations and rodenticides must be properly placed, operational and clean. Furthermore, these devices typically are required to be mapped, numbered and labeled.

Pay particular attention to the condition of rodenticides. If an inspector sees moldy or crumbled bait, it may result in "points off" the inspection score. The same holds true if bait is scattered outside the station. Pest control professionals may want to consider using a rodenticide that guards against mold and crumbling.

An added measure of protection against bait scatter can be gained by using bait stations that hold bait securely inside and are designed to prevent access by unauthorized persons.

9) Keep legible and accurate records

There are a lot of reasons to thoroughly, neatly and accurately document pest control services in an audited account, or any account for that matter. In an audited account, accurate records are especially important in making decisions about what may need to be changed in the program.

10) Re-evaluate your program regularly

Complex commercial accounts endure constant change due to many factors. These changes necessitate corresponding changes in rodent control programs. If control programs are not updated to reflect changes at the accounts, important considerations are often neglected while time and resources may be wasted on activities of little or no value.

A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT. There’s no question that providing rodent control services to audited accounts requires substantial investments in knowledge, materials and effort on the part of pest control professionals. Implementing these 10 tips in your control regimen should help ensure success when it comes to both inspections and customer satisfaction.

The author is national technical support manager for Liphatech and can be reached at tbruesch@gie.net.