[Problems & Solutions]

This is an observational piece on a topic I feel I should write about. During the many years I have worked in the pest control industry, I have spoken and written about the importance of the technician. Along those lines, I had the opportunity a few years ago to be a judge for PCT’s Technician of the Year Awards, which honors outstanding technicians. And technicians really are the cornerstone of our industry.

What many of you do not know about me is that I am also a company owner. I own franchises of Critter Control in the Northern Virginia and D.C./Maryland markets (none of which are easy markets). And I too experience the ups and downs of hiring and firing, as well as dealing with various technician personalities, office staff and customers.

AN EXAMPLE. I have here an excerpt from a customer letter I want to share with you.

“A friend of mine who is a Realtor recommended Critter Control, and I can tell you from start to finish Chad Lee exhibited the ethical qualities and superior knowledge of the problem that defines an expert in ways I rarely witness. Equally important, I knew he took pride in his services and is trustworthy in a way we seldom see in this day and age.”

This, to say the least, makes everything worth it to me. All my technicians and staff are important to me. We have return cards that customers can fill out about our service, but as you probably know for a customer to take the time to sit down and write a letter, it means we have done our job and we have created a “cheerleader” for us in the community. Examples like this motivate people and give them the boost they may need to excel in their work and life.

I can say that in my mind this has to be an ingrained personality trait. How do you hire for this? And more importantly, how do you inspire someone to strive to provide this type of customer service? I have seen many technicians in this industry that treat work as “work,” not with the sort of pride that, in my opinion, is needed to create such a response from a customer.

THE NEXT STEP. In company training regimens this sort of training is lacking. The technician needs a mentor. Who is that mentor at your company? You? Your service supervisor? A long-time employee? Can you sit there as you read this and say, “Yep, I know who that is?” If you can’t, you need to be able to. In an industry that is rapidly changing to a more IPM/green-oriented service, the importance of customer relationships and your technician’s role in selling IPM services is paramount to your success. I am not saying that you won’t be successful if you don’t consider my comments here — we all know of companies that are in some measure “successful” and they do not provide high-quality service. It all depends how you want to define “success,” right?

So where am I going with this? There needs to be more discussions about these topics. NPMA’s Academy meeting last month is a great sounding board for this since that meeting is all about management and personal development. Management topics are usually absent from state meetings because those meetings are all about recertification. Management talks I have given at state meetings that have dealt with topics like safety and training were not well attended because the state did not award recertification credits. Considering that state regulators often get involved with customers through complaints, regulators do not understand why people do not attend these meetings. To me, it would seem that they would be interested in encouraging attendance for these topics through the issuance of recertification credits.

The author is president of George Rambo Consulting Services, Seneca, S.C. Questions can be faxed to him at 864/654-2447 or e-mailed to grambo@giemedia.com.