Top tips to guide your company’s finances and maximize efficiency and profitability For most of us, digging deeply into finance, accounting, bookkeeping and other financial tasks is as dreaded as a root canal. Not so for Kelly Rogotzke, co-owner of Done Right Pest Solutions, and Ron Swindall, chief financial officer and business development for Clanton Pest and Holifield Pest. Both ...

 Focus on solving problems rather than selling; provide training and support Continued success in any industry relies on retention of existing customers, the addition of new customers and the expansion of services purchased by customers. In service industries, the key point of contact is the employee going to the home or business to provide service. Many pest control management companies ...

What’s The Buzz? KEN SMITH Senior VP of Operations Palmetto Exterminators Charleston, SC How did you get started in the industry? A friend from college went to work in the industry and I was intrigued. Here I am, 32 years later. Did you have any mentors along the way? Yes. Tom Gradel (now with Terminix) taught me a lot of ...

Taking a strategic approach to community outreach can yield major benefits Community outreach is one of the most valuable efforts a business can make to strengthen its organization, bolstering key strategic areas such as brand awareness, employee engagement, recruiting, customer loyalty and relationship-building. For pest management operations, the question is not whether they should emphasize community outreach—it’s how they should ...

Brett Lieberman, owner and CEO of My Pest Pros in Fairfax County, Virginia, doesn’t have to go far to experience great customer service. He finds it every time he’s in a drive-thru, picking up a chicken sandwich. “Look at Chick-fil-A. Is their chicken sandwich the best out there? People would say no, but it’s their customer service,” Lieberman said. In ...

In all industries, prices are rising, and providing good communication on your price increases and on billing in general is important. Three pest control experts share how their firms are handling this sensitive issue. PESTSTOP Communication is “definitely” key with price increases, said Billy Olesen, CEO of PESTSTOP based in Olympia, Washington. It’s a delicate balance—when questions about price increases ...

LEIGH FRYXELL Smart Operations Manager, Anticimex Marshfield, MA How did you get started in the industry? I applied to a position as an observational biologist for a pest control company in the Boston area in 2015. During my interview, I realized that the position was a service technician role. Although skeptical at first, I quickly grew to love helping customers ...

Sponsored Content BY RYAN NEFF, Ph.D., WEST COAST TECHNICAL FIELD SPECIALIST, MGK Q: What is the most common pest ant in the United States? A: This is a difficult one to answer: Do you go by total number of accounts that treat for a certain ant? The geographic range a particular species covers? Total abundance in the U.S.? If you ...

Essential to Retaining Employees   BY CATHY LANDRY A strong company culture is essential to providing world-class customer service and keeping employees focused, happy and on the job for the long term, several experts say. “A company’s culture plays a huge role in excellence,” said Travis Aggson, branch manager and associate certified entomologist at American Pest Management, a Rentokil company. ...

Sponsored Content Q Where does automation fit into pest control? A For a lot of folks, the term “automation” conjures up mental images of complex code and robots carrying out jobs that would best be left to people. As a result, some businesses hesitate to consider automation because they incorrectly assume that software will make mistakes or go awry without ...