Insight Pest Canada has a visionary idea: an “everything app” to influence everything from employee retention and engagement to administrative insights. The company is one that embraces change – especially when it comes to technology – and so the execution of such an app isn’t a long way off. Still, National Manager Matteo Stradiotto recognizes how a powerful data warehouse could help accelerate the process and get them there even faster.
So, when WorkWave launched the Early Adopter Program for Wavelytics (a comprehensive business intelligence platform that includes components like a plug-and-play curated data warehouse, advanced analytics, self-serve analytics and benchmarking tools) Stradiotto was ready to jump in.
The Vision
Although the use cases for “the everything app” are endless, Stradiotto has initial needs in mind from the get-go, including:
- Creating leaderboards for technicians to incentivize performance
- Unifying business analytics for better overall operational intelligence
- Simplifying workflows – particularly for time-consuming tasks that fall to branch managers
The employee leaderboard was already proving successful in early development. “We found that having technician-specific stats had immediate impacts on our bottom line,” Stradiotto explains. “It’s really helped get our technicians excited and involved in their day-to-day work. We’re tying various incentives to these stats – they might get an extra day off, or a cash bonus if they hit a certain threshold. The buy-in from our teams has been massive.”
But scaling those programs required better data, which led to Stradiotto’s second goal: unified business analytics.
“Callbacks are an important one for us,” Stradiotto notes. “We monitor those metrics over time, understand what’s driving them and determine action steps to address the cause. From there, we can ask questions like, ‘Do we need to get better at treating rodents? Treating ants? How does that evolve throughout the year? Being able to slice these metrics in different ways is really powerful for our business.”
Without a reliable data warehouse to stream these metrics for them, though, Stradiotto admits there are challenges in collecting this kind of information.
“We work in an industry where, when a tech is doing a great job, you rarely really hear about it,” he explains. “So, you end up relying on the customer service team to relay information about your techs and services.” The process can become a game of telephone, where anecdotal information can’t provide a complete picture of how a tech is actually performing.
Stradiotto’s third goal – simplifying workflows – was an evident need across operations. Take onboarding, for example.
“To get a technician started on the road, we have to get them set up with lots of different accounts. They might have different names across various systems – someone might go by their middle name in messaging apps but use their legal name in payroll, for example. There’s a chaos there that we want to move away from: those hundreds of tiny data-entry tasks that saturate our branch managers’ mental bandwidth need to be automated away.”
Enter, Wavelytics: A Data Warehouse = A Data Powerhouse
As a user of PestPac, WorkWave’s best-in-pest control software solution, Stradiotto had already built chained reporting to leverage data downloads on a daily cadence. The manual process worked, but scaling to fit the company’s new vision would require more.
“We’d looked at using the PestPac API to pull information and it would have been possible, but it would have required a lot more development work from our team,” he explains. When he learned that Data Factory, a comprehensive data warehousing solution from WorkWave’s Wavelytics branch of business intelligence offerings, could provide a more curated approach, he immediately saw what it could mean for their timelines.
“Even as an early adopter, we’re already getting our information neatly formatted and curated for us. That lets us bypass a huge chunk of the infrastructure setup and jump straight to the fun part. From day one, we have the information we need – fast. Now, [with Data Factory], the entire PestPac database is at our fingertips, enabling us to put live stats directly in front of people. That’s something we’re genuinely excited about.”
Wavelytics Early Adopters: A Partnership That Delivers
Moving slowly is not in Insight Pest’s vocabulary. As a part of a company known for being at the forefront of technology, Stradiotto was quick to put the Early Adopter’s Program to the test.
“Early on, I sent an email to the team. I was up against the clock and I needed an extra data field. I said, ‘Can we push this through and make this a high priority?’ And the response was awesome. They were able to put that to the top of their list and turn around a data field for me in a day; two tops. To see that responsiveness to our needs – especially given how large WorkWave is and how many customers they’re serving – was awesome.”
Business Analytics: Looking Ahead
Stradiotto defines success simply: “Data Factory is really forming the bedrock of our new business analytics approach that’ll include not just PestPac, but GPS, payroll, gas card data – everything. Six months from now, we’re looking for that full business analytics package that pulls together all of those data sources and automatically refreshes in near-real time.”
Stradiotto also envisions the new business analytics framework to influence every single role in the company. A branch manager will be able to sit down with a technician and say “Okay, it looks like your service completion rate drops to 60% on Mondays instead of 95% during the week – why is that?” Or, “It seems like your driver safety score improved a lot this month. Nice work! What changes did you make?” With this data behind them, they will be able to really dig into information to help their teams work better, faster and more efficiently.
For a technician, Stradiotto wants to leverage leaderboard data in a way that encourages more productivity and enthusiasm. By looking at a leaderboard of peers, one tech can see at a glance where they place out of a team of thirty. They’ll be able to see where the benchmark line of performance is and if they fall above or below it. And, with an almost gamification approach of incentives and competition, these employees are motivated to keep improving the work that they do.
Then, there’s the untapped possibilities that self-service analytics provide.
“The beauty of self-service is that it gives everyone the ability to do their own investigation. If a branch manager wants to use more bait boxes at a house, instead of coming to a manager they can pull a bunch of stats and run an analysis and see if that’s something we’d want to do or not. If someone wants to switch to a different type of rodent bait, they can run their own experiment to see if the more expensive option also drops callbacks and if that ROI is worth it.”
And, it won’t stop there – at least not for Insight Pest. Stradiotto plans on pushing the Wavelytics technology to its maximum potential throughout its innovation process.
“The hype around AI is real and it’s rapidly changing the pace of development on initiatives like these. We’re moving at least 100x faster than what would have been possible 24 months ago. We’re quick to incorporate all the newest technology. When a new product comes out, we try it out. We put it in the trucks and see what we can do with it. Every time [WorkWave] implements a new software package, we’re going to give it a shot. It’s been an incredible journey.”
Interested in learning more about Data Factory and more Wavelytics capabilities? Contact us today.
Insight Pest Canada is the country’s fastest-growing and largest residential pest control provider. Known for their “youth movement” and fresh approach to the industry, Insight Pest incorporates cutting-edge technology, like Wavelytics, across their entire operation to deliver exceptional customer service experience while maintaining a great quality of life for their technicians. The company has doubled in size every year since launching in 2020 and its rapid growth is driven by its commitment to smooth operations, innovative technology adoption, and a team that brings energy and new perspectives to traditional pest control services.
