IS YOUR OFFICE A WELL-OILED MACHINE?

Is managing your company’s office work nothing more than a necessary evil that is dealt with when you get around to it? It shouldn’t be.

Although many pest management professionals are proficient at controlling pests, sometimes they need a little help managing their offices. The owner of a growing pest control company not only has to be an expert in pest control but he or she must also be an expert in management. This person must be able to manage people, a changing customer list and the detailed information that flows in and out of the firm. This article will focus on how to manage this information for better business growth.

Pest control is not a high-margin business. It is a moderate-margin business, where you generate high profits from customers who use your service on a scheduled recurring basis. You foster a relationship with your customers that is ongoing based on your ability to meet their needs. Some owners believe that companies will lose their personal touch as they grow. It doesn’t have to be that way if you manage your customer list correctly and develop office procedures to manage the growth.

If we could compare the pest control business to a manufacturing business where machinery is used, PCOs’ "machinery" are their customer lists. As the lists build, they must be treated in a prudent manner like any other asset. Therefore, the office work in a pest management firm should be focused on building, maintaining and nurturing this customer list in order to facilitate its growth. It goes without saying that every customer should receive appropriate pest control service. But it is just as easy to lose a customer because of poor office work (i.e., over billing, incorrect scheduling, not returning phone calls, etc.) as it is to lose a customer for poor field service.

MORE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE. If we continue the machinery comparison, we know that a well-tuned, well-maintained machine would produce at a more efficient level, allowing greater output. A well-maintained customer list also produces more output by showing key statistics about a customer (i.e., dollars per hour, renewal dates, etc.). Having this type of information at your fingertips allows you to determine whether other services might be appropriate for a customer or whether a particular customer might be a candidate for a price increase.

By manipulating your customer information you can spot certain trends. For example, one firm I know was able to capitalize on an outbreak of cicada killers that were tearing apart customer lawns. This PCO noticed that he was receiving calls from a particular neighborhood and was able to contact his other customers in the area and offer to provide additional service to control the outbreak.

By querying his customer list and formulating a quick letter, this PCO was able to generate several thousand dollars in new business. The whole process took only a few minutes. The fact that his customer list was well maintained allowed him to capitalize on this situation with almost no effort.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE MANAGED? As you grow it becomes increasingly difficult to manage this list. However, with the aid of computers we are better able to manage this information. It’s not enough to buy fancy computers. The successful firm has established office procedures with respect to data input. Data put in the computer must be accurate in terms of:

• Customer info (i.e., name, phone, etc.)
• Financial information (i.e., amount for service, customer payments, etc.)
• Service information (i.e., service date, materials applied, areas treated, etc.)

One of the best ways of managing information is what I call "management by checklist." The checklist approach allows you to see what needs to be done and to complete those tasks in an appropriate time frame. Without an organized approach to office work we have no priorities in completing work that needs to be done. A prime example of this is the office worker who has many piles on his or her desk but never gets through them. The reason nothing is accomplished is that there is no clear-cut method to get things accomplished.

The box on this page is an example of a checklist that is used on a daily basis to enter customer information into the computer. A checklist can be developed to aid in the management of any project or group of tasks at your company.

DEVELOP A LIST. Checklists can be used to manage projects or ongoing procedures. To develop a checklist you should:

1. Determine a time frame with which all tasks must be finished (i.e., daily, weekly or monthly procedures, etc.).
2. Determine what tasks need to be completed over the time frame (i.e., customer entry, financial entry, etc.).
3. List those procedures that need to be completed to finish the project.
4. Complete each task on the list and have the person who completes the task put his initials on it, thereby creating accountability and giving ownership of the task to that person.

DAILY OFFICE PROCEDURES

• Enter work orders for new jobs that have been sold.
• Enter new customers and sales prospects into the computer.
• Deactivate customers who have cancelled service.
• Enter sales commissions for technicians or salesmen.
• Apply customer payments as they are received.
• Make sure renewals are set up for any renewable work.
• Post work to computer for work completed the prior day.
• Reprint service order forecast by technician for the prior day. On a daily basis, there should be no service orders outstanding except for those technicians that hand their work in weekly and estimate tickets.
• Technicians should check all paperwork from jobs performed that day.
• Print service orders and technician appointment listings for the next day.

The author is a CPA and owner of PC Opportunities, a consulting firm, in Budd Lake, N.J. He can be contacted at dgordon@pctonline.com.