Pestworld Magazine Focusing on the Business of Pest Management
QualityPro accreditation is a demonstration of a company’s commitment to the highest standards in the industry, but communicating the value of a company’s accreditation to customers can be tricky. As with all other aspects of business operations, the QualityPro program sets companies up for success with multiple resources for gaining and retaining customers.
QUALITYPRO.ORG
Accredited companies that haven’t taken time to explore QualityPro’s new consumer-facing site at QualityPro.org may be missing out on the ways we’re sending potential customers to your business. Our consumer-facing site is designed to anticipate customer questions and provide them with the resources necessary to find and use local QualityPro companies.
Customers new to QualityPro will find a description of the program and standards to demonstrate why a QualityPro company is the best option for them—descriptions that also make excellent talking points for your sales staff. We have talking points available for the program as a whole, and for any further service certifications a company may have so that customers can educate themselves about the value of the program and the levels of certification they want in a company.
From there, potential customers are able to use our Find a Pro service to find all QualityPro companies in their area. Companies whose QualityPro accreditation is current are listed, along with any service certifications they’ve earned and contact information so that customers can reach them. QualityPro companies are encouraged to regularly update their contact information and service area to make sure both customers and other QualityPro companies can find them for referral purposes.
REFERRING A QUALITYPRO COMPANY
Maintaining good customer relationships sometimes means admitting that your business cannot fulfill a customer’s needs. Often this is just a question of the customer being outside a company’s service area, no fault of the company’s or the customer’s. Counterintuitive though it may be, in these situations the best path forward is to refer the business to another company in their correct area. Giving a referral can put your company’s name on the line since the quality of service provided by that company will be seen as acceptable by your standards. If a person calls from outside your service area and you want to refer a company, teach your CSRs to go to QualityPro.org to make sure you’re referring to an accredited company.
Referring customers to an accredited company not only ensures that the services being performed are up to the same high QualityPro standard that our industry wants customers to expect, but also improves their perception of the referring business as well. As always, accreditation is intended to raise all boats in the sea, not just increasing the perceived value of a company’s services but also the profile of the program that QualityPro companies have all committed to being part of.
GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
Finding customers who seek out accredited companies has been rare in the past, but QualityPro has been aggressively taking this problem on. A new resource made available to QualityPro companies is a weekly list of government procurement RFPs tailored to the pest management industry and organized by state. Procurement in the states includes contracts for public schools, roadways, parks, universities and other situations where QualityPro accredited companies are uniquely qualified. QualityPro is working towards a day where state procurement agents and other businesses include QualityPro accreditation as a consideration when reviewing bids. In the meantime, we want to make sure that accredited companies have access to opportunities that expand their customer base and increase the profile of their company and of accredited companies overall. Most state governments prefer to award contracts to local vendors and some focus on small/veteran/women-owned businesses. States want to work with businesses of all sizes and QualityPro can help you get started in this work. Additional tips for keeping up with public procurement opportunities and for making the most of opportunities with state governments are available to all QualityPro companies through the toolbox at QualityProTools.org.
For more information, and to see everything that QualityPro has to offer, reach out to us at [email protected] today.
QualityPro is administered by the Foundation for Professional Pest Management, an independent organization that has been developing good business practices and standards since 2004. Designed specifically for pest management companies in the U.S. and Canada, we are proud to certify over 500 of the best companies in the pest management industry. QualityPro is endorsed by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). For more information, contact us at [email protected].
BY GRIFFIN VOLTMANN, CERTIFICATION MANAGER, QUALITYPRO
