Key Aspects

Measurement. “Whatever you measure, improves. If you’re not even measuring it, you don’t know you have a problem,” said Israel Alvarez, owner of Insight Pest Management.

Many PMPs used scorecards to track key performance indicators. Some tracked an extensive array of metrics; others took a simpler approach, only monitoring data they deemed most insightful.

According to the PCT survey, 17 percent of PMPs said tracking vehicles and routes with GPS systems affected productivity and efficiency at their companies in the past year. Fourteen percent said tracking the time to complete specific jobs had an impact; 13 percent said tracking callbacks did as well.

Incentives. By measuring key performance indicators and rewarding people who outperform, PMPs introduced a competitive edge to spur on their teams and boost productivity.

Daniel Shank, owner of Broken Arrow Pest Control, incentivized office staff to reschedule missed calls. “[Before], we’d have months where we’d have 100 or so jobs just hanging out there because they hadn’t been finished. Today, we might have five,” he said.

This has allowed the company to nearly double the number of quarterly service visits it completes each month. “Where we went from 300 a year ago, now we’re hitting 600s every month,” said Shank.

Twenty-six percent of PMPs said increased incentives for employees had an impact on company productivity and efficiency in the past 12 months, found the PCT survey.

Carefully consider what incentives to actually reward, as some employees may game the system to earn extra cash, cautioned PMPs.