5 Ways to Keep Customers Happy

 

Customers who know what to expect are less likely to be unhappy with the service. And these days it’s pretty easy for dissatisfied customers to find a new service provider. According to the 2021 PCT State of the Mosquito Control Market survey, which as sponsored by MGK and compiled by the independent Readex Research firm, 73 percent of pest management companies offered mosquito control in 2020, up from 38 percent in 2014.

 

Knowing what to expect also reduces expensive callbacks, which the survey found averaged 6 percent in 2020.

 

To ensure customers and company are on the same page, follow these pointers:

 

Emphasize reduction, not elimination. You cannot promise to eliminate every mosquito on the property. The pests may fly in from a neighbor’s yard, get blown in by the wind, or hatch out of a knothole way up in the tree canopy.

 

“We always tell people we can drastically reduce the number of mosquitoes that you have in your yard, but we can’t get rid of them 100 percent,” said Greg Loll, owner of Mosquitoes Be Gone in Marinette, Wisconsin. 

 

Brian Kelly, general manager of pest control at ABC Home & Commercial Services in Austin, Texas, agreed. “Most people are pretty reasonable” as long as you’re not saying you’ll never see another mosquito with your service, he said.

 

Tell them more than once. Loll repeats his message about mosquito reduction-not-elimination three times in three different ways because new customers don’t always hear it the first time. Any time a person is learning about something new, repetition is important. After three times, “hopefully it sinks in,” he said.

 

Don’t promise protection from disease. Mosquitoes transmit numerous diseases but implying your service protects clients from mosquito-borne disease is not professional. In fact, 80 percent of pest management professionals disapproved of using scare tactics to promote mosquito control services, even though 66 percent agreed mosquitoes represent a greater threat to public health than they did five years ago, found the PCT survey.

 

Neither is this wise from a liability standpoint.

 

Define responsibilities. You’ll need the customer’s help to eliminate mosquito breeding areas, such as clearing clogged gutters, dumping stagnant kiddie pools, and removing other items from the yard that are causing problems. Loll also reminds customers with sprinkler systems to not water lawns immediately after (or during!) service. “You have to assume they know nothing” about mosquitoes or how to control them, he said.

 

Stay in touch…constantly. Most customers aren’t home when mosquito service occurs. To maintain communication and reinforce expectations, technicians from ABC Home & Commercial Services take photos and record .WAV files that they attach to invoices and send to customers electronically.

 

“We call it our virtual service. We can show them pictures and tell them, ‘Here’s what we saw and here’s what needs to be fixed,’” said Kelly. “It really helps.”

 

A successful mosquito control program boils down to “good communication; that’s the bottom line,” said Loll.