J.C. EHRLICH: The 911 of Pest Control

In focus groups conducted by J.C. Ehrlich a few years ago, the company heard from people who were frus-trated with service companies that are slow to respond, don’t show up when they’re supposed to and don’t do what’s expected.

The challenge was how to succinctly communicate to customers that Ehrlich provided service in a way that customers did want and that they can still get good service.

“Our focus groups told us that consumers want a company that is responsive to their needs,” said Victor Hammel, J.C. Ehrlich president. “Responsive doesn’t just mean fast (although that is necessary in some situations). It means that we will arrive at a time that is convenient for the customer. It means that we’ll have the tools we need to do the job. And, if there’s a problem, it means that we stand behind our work.”

ENTER EHRLICH. “We believe that ‘The 911 of Pest Control’ sums up a professional, knowledgeable service. The fact that people want responsive service made us feel good because we believe strongly that this is the quality of service that we already deliver,” Hammel said.

Responsive also means being more accessible. To make communications more convenient for customers, Ehrlich created the Customer Service Center (CSC). Located at the company’s headquarters, the CSC handles any calls that come in on a district office’s lines. The CSC is not an answering service — it serves as an extension of the district office. Because of the Ehrlich Information System (EIS), the CSC has access to all customer information throughout the company. When a customer calls in to ask about an invoice, schedule a service or change an appointment, the CSC makes the change on a real-time basis in the system. The CSC is open until 9:00 p.m. during the week and until 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Another long-standing value was to put the customer first in choosing a convenient time for service. “We always give customers several times to choose from, and then stick to arriving at that time,” said Winfred Roby, senior technician in the company’s Hagerstown, Md., office.

This applies not only to routine service calls but to emergency situations as well. “When someone calls with a pest problem after regular hours, we let them determine if it’s an emergency or not,” says Gary Rohr-bach, district manager in the company’s Hatfield, Pa., office. “For some people, a mouse in the kitchen can wait until morning; for others it requires immediate attention.”

That’s why every Ehrlich office has a technician “on call” at night and on holidays. Technicians, sales representatives and management are all on call for a week at a time. After 9:00 p.m. when the CSC closes, calls go to an answering service, which then forwards the information to the on-call technician.

TAKING IT TO ANOTHER LEVEL. Despite all of this, J.C. Ehrlich realized it could not be complacent about responsiveness. So the company took it further. Using its corporate Continuous Improvement Process, Ehrlich got co-workers in every district office involved in designing systems that would ensure ongoing responsiveness.
The company set a new standard that existing customers should receive service within 24 hours of calling the company. New customers should receive an inspection or new service within 24 to 48 hours.

“I think that this type of approach is one of the things that allows us to continually strive for excellence as a team,” Hammel said. “Although we set corporate guidelines regarding the importance of responsiveness to our customers, we leave the specific implementation up to each office. Then the individual office allows a group of co-workers to determine what works best for them within those guidelines. In some cases, they exceed our guidelines and customer expectations – just like my great grandfather did.”