Revenue-Generating Service Options for PMPs: Fumigation and Lawn, Tree, and Shrub Care

Offering other services often helps to grow your business with existing customers – and helps establish relationships with new ones. 

 

For many companies, fumigation work is a job to be subcontracted. However, some pest control companies are venturing into the fumigation market for a variety of reasons. For Jason Sahara, general manager and owner of Menehune Pest Management in Hawaii, “supply and demand” played a role in the decision, as two large fumigation companies were bought out, cutting down the quantity of fumigation crews. Oftentimes in Sahara’s area, real estate agents need fumigations performed quickly to close housing deals, so “we saw an opportunity to be another presence in the fumigation market. It has worked out well for us.”

 

Bryan Cooksey, president/chief executive officer of McCall Service in Georgia and Florida, considered entering the fumigation market four years ago when one of his vendors “told us we were missing the market.” Realizing opportunities were growing in the structural fumigation and bed bug fumigation areas, Cooksey’s vendor helped make introductions “to wholesale manufacturers, got us our certifications, re-educated us, and then we stopped letting those opportunities pass by,” he says. Although Cooksey’s company subcontracts the actual labor, McCall Service manages the fumigation jobs from the very beginning to the very end, acting as the interface to the customer.

 

Entering the fumigation market has helped Sahara with revenue growth, as well as operational bonuses, as he now has control over scheduling and quality. “I have the flexibility to work the schedule. I’m not at the [mercy] of my subcontractors and their availability,” he says. His company is now able to schedule last-minute and rush jobs due to having control over the work schedule. 

 

LAWN, TREE, AND SHRUB SERVICES. Invasive pests and environmental changes create new challenges for homeowners – and new market opportunities for PMPs. Justin Buckmaster, general manager of Mother Nature's Pest and Lawn in Oklahoma, says his pest control company expanded into the tree and shrub business six years ago because of the insect problems, such as the emerald ash borer, that began to emerge due to droughts and climate changes. Today, Mother Nature’s offers weed control, fertilization and control of lawn insects, like chinch bugs and lawn grubs, through the company’s lawn care program. As part of an annual contract, any tree over 4 inches in diameter receives tree injections for insecticides, fungicides and nutrients, explains Buckmaster.

 

By expanding into non-traditional pest control services like lawn and tree care, Buckmaster says that this growth is “helping out our traditional services.” The company is gaining a new customer base, while also being able to approach the current customer base with additional service offerings. Certain areas in Oklahoma are severely affected by changes in climate, explains Buckmaster. “Beetles and moths have been causing damage to these trees” and presenting these add-on services have been a great upsell to the traditional pest control services, and “has allowed us to be more diligent” to the customers.