CLEVELAND – The days of leaving customers with a paper ticket are mostly over in the pest control industry. Seventy-three percent of respondents to PCT’s recent poll said their service technicians use handheld computers, while only 27 percent said they do not.
Ron Harrison, director of global technical services, Rollins, said domestically all technicians have a handheld computer they use to provide service to a customer, and globally he estimates about half to three quarters of its technicians use this technology.
“The benefit is to provide just-in-time information to customers and provide them trend analysis,” he said. “We also can assess how the customers feels about our service.”
Harrison said when Rollins made the switchover there were some training challenges, but with newer technicians who grew up in the video game era it is “pretty intuitive” for them.
Stewart Lenner, owner and CEO of Arrow Pest Control, Westfield, N.J., said his technicians only use tablets. “The technology change was a small aspect of an overall change in software which is immeasurable,” he said. “We are truly 100 percent paperless.”
Timson Green, branch manager of Buchanan, N.Y.-based JP McHale Pest Management, an Anticimex company, said his company’s technicians don’t use tablets but utilize mobile phones in the field. “We do not use any physical papers,” he said. “Service reports are emailed to our customers after we complete the service on our mobile phone.”
Similarly, Greg Bausch, vice president of American City Pest & Termite, Gardena, Calif., said his company’s technicians use a cell phone app and do not write service tickets at all. “Our technicians carry mobile printers. The technology has allowed us to communicate immediately with the customer through email/text notifications, instant charge of credit cards, uploading pictures so the customer can see relevant issues, and more.”
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