Delivering exceptional service quality can be demanding for any pest control business. Whether you’re working to scale vertically and achieve more with your current staff and resources or you’re looking to expand your business into new territories and service offerings — or if you’re working toward both, like many ambitious PCOs are — it can feel like what you really need is more hours in the day.
While you can’t add more hours to the clock or days to the calendar, you can achieve the same results through automation. By automating common tasks so that they’re taken care of without a second thought, PCOs can free up significant labor hours to consistently get more done. In fact, multiple studies, including a recent estimate from the McKinsey Global Institute, suggest that automation of manual tasks stands to free up 20-30% of a given employee’s time.
So where should pest control businesses be putting automation to work to get more done and bring in more revenue? The answer, in short, is just about everywhere.
Streamlined Scheduling
Deploying technicians effectively starts with creating a schedule that simultaneously addresses your technicians’ capabilities, the equipment and materials to which they have access and, of course, your customers’ needs. There’s no room for missed appointments or double bookings, given the importance of repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations for pest businesses.
Using technology to automate the scheduling process has a two-fold benefit. Firstly, it significantly reduces the burden on office staff, saving monumental amounts of time. Secondly, the resulting schedules are built around customer needs and technician capabilities, ensuring jobs are handled on the first visit and reducing callbacks.
When choosing a software to automate scheduling, be sure to focus on options that allow you to:
- Assign service appointments based on specific times or time windows
- Find the best fit for high-priority last-minute appointments when they arise to minimize disruptions
- Send out service reminder calls or emails to customers automatically
Accelerating Service in the Field
While many automated processes tend to take place in the back office or behind the scenes, there’s no overstating the value of equipping technicians with an industry-specific mobile app to save time by providing the info they need, exactly when they need it. PestPac Mobile showcases some of the most valuable features available, including:
- Automating workflows by providing customers with fillable quotes and forms on the spot
- Allowing technicians to cross- and upsell to customers directly
- Displaying up-to-date schedules and optimized routes
- Completing service orders, triggering review and payment requests sooner
- Scanning bait stations, automatically tracking activity and pulling material data from the database
Stellar Service
In many cases, automating one area of your business can lead to improvements in other related areas. For instance, improvements you make to the scheduling process create a ripple effect that can improve customer satisfaction simultaneously. When you set up automated service reminders, customers benefit just as much as your business does; the same is true when you’re able to accommodate unexpected emergency service visits without missing a beat.
Automated messages can provide high value after service is completed, as well. Consider automating follow-up messages as a way to reach out after service is delivered and keep your business top of mind. The reminders and messages you send should vary from one customer to the next based on their unique preferences, but consider options including:
- Requests for customer reviews
- Reminders for upcoming services
- Service summaries
Be sure not to limit your communication to pre- and post-service notifications; innovative solutions like PestPac’s Communication Center can enable you to track all of your customer communications across platforms, automatically siphoning interactions into a single dashboard alongside customer records, freeing up valuable time for customer service reps to address the issue at hand rather than digging through earlier conversations and searching for service histories. Better yet, every exchange is automatically accompanied by an AI-powered summary, including next steps and insight into customer sentiment.
Keep Cash Flowing
Another crucial post-service interaction, of course, is collecting payments. This can be a major sticking point for many pest control businesses — if they’re not using automation to stay on top of things, that is.
“Having that autopay and monthly billing [in PestPac], that has been a game-changer.” – PestPac user
In addition to review requests and service reminders, automatically sending invoices after service can get you paid faster and save your team time trying to chase down payments. Consider a solution that allows you to send invoices and payment requests in multiple ways; customers are likely to pay faster if they see their preferred method right away. These may include:
- An invoice emailed out automatically
- Links to a customer portal for credit card payments
- ePay links sent directly via SMS
Offering multiple payment methods and automating requests for payment can make a huge difference in days sold outstanding. For an even smoother and faster process, getting customers signed on for autopay is key; PestPac users have seen a 5% reduction in unintentional churn among autopay customers — which translates to a 25% increase in profits.
Reliable Reporting
Beyond helping your team to free up time and get more done before, during and after every service visit, automation can also be the missing element when it comes to ensuring your business has access to crucial data at the right time. By enabling users to go paperless and store data digitally, the right software can eliminate mistakes and delays due to lost or damaged paperwork.
“Once they started using PestPac Mobile, they would never want to go back to filling out paperwork, dropping off paperwork, picking up paperwork.” – PestPac user
PestPac’s eLogbook provides added value for users by digitally tracking and storing various reports. By having inspection reports, sighting logs, regulatory forms and licensing information readily available, PestPac can save PCOs significant prep time, effort and costs associated with audits and other compliance needs.
Finding It All in One Place
At every stage of the customer journey, automation stands to change the game for PCOs and redefine the way you do business for the better. From time and cost savings to stronger customer satisfaction and increased revenue, automation simplifies your business to put you back in control — and PestPac provides the tools you need to implement automation, all in one place.
As one customer said, “WorkWave is really pushing innovation, and AI will be the key to maximizing efficiency. We’re already leveraging RouteOp with AI to better serve our customers and improve internal operations. AI is the future, and we’re ready to embrace it.”
Is your pest control business ready to embrace automation, too? Schedule a PestPac demo today to see how you can redefine your business’s future success — automatically.
