Big Success in O-Town

Published December 11, 2018

At the BASF-sponsored Final Night Party, attendees dined and shared their PestWorld experiences with other attendees.

The National Pest Management Association announced record-breaking attendance at PestWorld 2018, reporting more than 4,000 pest management professionals from across the globe convened in October in Orlando, Fla. This makes PestWorld 2018 the association’s most well-attended annual conference since its inception in 1933, NPMA reported.

“It’s no secret that PestWorld has proven itself once again as the premier pest management event in our industry,” said NPMA CEO Dominique Stumpf. “With packed educational sessions and a sold-out exhibit hall, this year’s event demonstrated the industry’s desire for an event with emphasis on learning and networking.”

As part of the Bayer-sponsored Opening Ceremony, performers Street Breakz entertained attendees with a variety of street dancing, acrobatics and routines.

With expert-led educational sessions, attendees discovered the latest business trends and earned valuable recertification credits. Highlights this year included educational tracks covering recent trends in pest management, online marketing strategies and impactful thought-leader sessions.

Additionally, PestWorld featured inspiring General Session speakers Yossi Ghinsberg and Dennis Snow (see related articles, below). During his presentation, Ghinsberg delivered a message that no one can be courageous unless fear comes first; fear is the guide that shows you the way. Snow shared stories of his time working at Walt Disney World and offered attendees advice on how little moments of “wow” add up when it comes to customer service.

Stumpf added, “I am proud that PestWorld can be the platform for educating PMPs on the latest research and technology to ensure our industry continues to make a positive impact on society by protecting public health and property.” Next year’s PestWorld is Oct. 15-18, in San Diego, Calif.

Adventurer Ghinsberg Provides Business Survival Advice

Yossi Ghinsberg related how the skills he used to survive while lost in the Amazon jungle can help business leaders.

A PestWorld highlight was a General Session speech from adventurist and humanitarian Yossi Ghinsberg, who related how the skills he used to survive while lost in the Amazon jungle can help business leaders. His presentation was sponsored by Corteva Agriscience.

In 1981, Ghinsberg was stranded in an uncharted part of the Bolivian Amazon jungle for three weeks following a failed thrill-seeking adventure. Ghinsberg shared how he overcame the physical challenges of the jungle, but perhaps of greater importance was how he learned to overcome the psychological hurdles — many of which are common to business owners.

For example, a starving Ghinsberg once climbed a tree to pick fruit and encountered a highly venomous snake. After first falling from the tree, he faced his fears, climbed back up the tree and killed the snake with a rock. The lesson Ghinsberg learned — and related to PestWorld attendees — was that “if you run away from fear it grows; if you face it, it shrinks.”

Ghinsberg was eventually rescued by a tribe in an isolated Bolivian jungle village. Ten years after being rescued, he returned to the village, which was dying out due to subsequent generations moving to urban areas for better opportunities. Ghinsberg promised to help, and then followed through on this pledge by obtaining $1.5 million in funding to help the village re-invent itself as a resort town. His story was made into the 2016 motion picture “Jungle.” – Brad Harbison

Wow Customers with an Experience, Said Ex-Disney Exec

Dennis Snow, a customer service expert who spent 20 years with Walt Disney World, urged attendees not to take a “task mentality” to customer service.

“When companies take a task approach to customer service people feel processed. When companies care about the quality of the experience, [customers] feel valued.” That was the message PestWorld attendees heard from Dennis Snow, a customer service expert and consultant who spent 20 years with Walt Disney World. Snow spoke during a General Session sponsored by Syngenta.

Snow said that with daily job pressures it’s easy for employees (including managers) to take a “task mentality” to service when they should always be striving to “deliver an experience.”

Snow said three things are necessary to create an experience:

Look at everything through the lens of the customer. Snow recommended that any business should take a step back and review all processes from the customer’s perspective. “You will find that you do some things well and other things not so well,” he said. An example Snow provided of an entity not viewing things from the customer perspective was a hospital he visited that had a colored and numbered directory sign that really only made sense to hospital employees — and not to visitors. An example Snow provided of a company that does excel at delivering the customer experience is Southwest Airlines. He recalled a recent flight in which a flight attendant gave the routine and mundane speech about “checking the overhead bins for items that might have shifted” by adding the phrase, “Shift happens.” It was a fun and easy way to enhance the customer experience. Reflecting on his time at Disney, Snow said bus drivers began asking trivia questions and singing, after Disney recognized that it needed to do something to address the “end of the day blues” and stresses involved when exiting the parks.

Pay attention to details. “Every detail from the quality of work you do, to the tone of voice you use, either enhances or detracts” the experience, Snow said. For example, Snow once stayed at a hotel room with a sign that read “all towels will be inventoried.” Although not the intent, the message came across as accusatory. Snow said that the more people are held accountable for their actions, the more they become habits (e.g., at Disney, team members are always on the lookout for trash that can be picked up).

Create moments of wow. Don’t deliver one big wow moment; deliver many little wow moments. Again, Snow reflected on his time at Disney for an example of a company that strings together little wow moments. He said Disney team members are always on alert for families taking photos. If they see a mom or dad taking a photo, they will approach the photographer and volunteer to take a family picture.

Relating the customer experience back to the pest control industry, Snow suggested companies review all customer touch points (e.g., phone calls, initial and follow-up visits), identify if they are taking a task-based approach, or if they are delivering a wow experience.

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