Outside Looking In

The average pest control service technician is a busy person. Five to six days a week he drives from customer to customer attempting to provide the highest quality service possible for each customer. In any given month, a technician might provide up to 300 or more services for customers, including regular preventive services, initial services, follow-up visits, and customer calls for extra service. It's a lot of work for anyone, and each service technician has a vested interest in making the best use of his or her time.

When any pest management service is priced and offered to a customer, it is usually based on a dollar-per-time-unit scale. Pricing cannot be offered based on the amount of insecticides that will be used or how many pests need to be killed. Generally, price is based on how much time the sales person thinks it will take to complete the service.

A good manager knows how much each of his or her technicians needs to produce each hour of the working day for the best profitability. Technicians with low productivity can adversely affect profits. At the same time, high producers could also adversely affect profits because the technician works too fast and doesn't give the customer the results they expect. Customers then often cancel their service.

Effective service technicians walk a fine line between trying to be as productive as possible while at the same time providing a high-quality service. Managers also have a vested interest in each service technician making the best use of his or her time.

What do customers expect of the service provided by their service technician? Many things go into quality service including appearance of the technician and the service vehicle, keeping appointments, responding quickly to customer calls, politeness, courtesy, and last but not least, the fact that their pest problems are eliminated or controlled to their satisfaction.

It is the latter expectation that generally bears the most amount of weight of any single component of quality service, and it is the one that generally will lose a customer more quickly than any other. After all, what does a customer hire a pest control company for in the first place? They have a pest infestation they want eliminated, and if the customer chooses to purchase it, they may want additional service that prevents new infestations from becoming established. Foremost on their minds is employing a company that will send a service technician capable of accomplishing these goals. This article will explore an approach to keeping pests out of buildings that will help service technicians be both effective and productive.

INITIAL INFESTATION. The customer originally hires a pest control company in response to a current pest infestation. That infestation can involve any one of more than 100 different pests. Most infestations, however, are attributable to one of 10 to 12 different pests in any given geographical area. Ants and fleas tend to make up most of the customer calls for residential service; German cockroaches, rodents, and ants are the primary concerns of most commercial facilities.

Each situation and building is different. The technician needs to identify the pest(s) involved, find where they are living, treat where they are living, and make recommendations to the customer to correct contributing conditions. Most technicians do a good job of inspecting and treating the inside of infested buildings, but they often are lax on the exterior portion of the service if they do it at all. In the author's experience, the exterior is extremely important for every pest management service, including the initial service.

Think about it. How many different pests are dependent on people to carry them into new buildings so they can infest that building? The German cockroach is the primary pest that comes to mind. Pharaoh ants are another. So are fleas. Occasionally, mice are carried in. Stored product pests are certainly carried in frequently, especially in homes, but new research is proving that exterior monitoring is crucial in controlling many stored product pests around food storage and manufacturing facilities.

Where do all the other pests come from all the other species of ants, flies, rodents, peridomestic cockroaches, yellowjackets, ground beetles, crickets, scorpions, spiders, and so on? These pests originate from outside an infested building. So simply eliminating these pests from inside the structure often does not provide the long term relief a customer is looking for from their pest control company.

Remember, the second step to solving a pest infestation described above was to find where the pest is living. Just because one or two harborages where the pest is living are found doesn't mean that infestation has been eliminated or even controlled. Too many service callbacks are the result of the technician being satisfied with the results of the service because he found several "pockets" where the pest was living. It is not the technician's satisfaction that counts, however; it is the customer who requires satisfaction. Good service technicians know what it takes, and they inspect until all potential harborages are examined, both inside and out.

IDENTITY & LOCATION. The key to being both effective and productive is to follow the basic tenet of situational pest management the key to where to look for the pest is found in the identity of the pest. A pest has preferred conditions that support its survival. The technician needs to key in on these preferred conditions and look for sites in and around the building where these conditions are likely to be found. In some cases, most of the sites will be inside. For the majority of cases, however, the outside is more important.

Let's look at a couple of examples. A home with a German cockroach infestation will require considerable inside service, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. German cockroaches are rarely found living outside, so outside inspections are not necessary, right? Wrong. Is it conceivable that in any given situation, a customer could have more than one pest infestation or potential pest infestation? Good service technicians take the time to look for the presence of other pests, and they often find them. If the German cockroach infestation inside is eliminated, where is any new pest infestation likely to come from? Outside! An exterior inspection is necessary on every initial service no matter which pest is originally involved. This is especially true in southern states where a greater variety of pests is found.

A second example reveals a different situation. A homeowner is experiencing a smoky brown cockroach infestation. What do we know about this pest? First, it lives primarily outdoors. When the cockroach populations in outdoor harborages grow too large, some will move into a nearby house, usually into the attic or crawl space first. When populations in the attic and crawlspace grow larger, cockroaches will start regularly entering the living areas, thus creating the customer's concerns. Certainly, inside service is necessary, especially in the attic and crawl space, but the key to successful control is found outside. The populations in the exterior cockroach harborages near the house must be reduced dramatically and kept that way. If the outside harborages are not addressed, the customer will continue to see cockroaches inside, and this customer will ultimately cancel the service because they obviously are not receiving the expected value for their service dollar.

This second example holds true for the initial infestations involving most pests. Inside inspection and treatment is important, but the outside holds the key to stopping renewed infestations. The initial infestation inside likely originated from the very same outside harborages that can be found near the structure. For these reasons, the time taken to focus on the exterior pays big long term dividends.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. Keeping any building totally free of pests where the customer will never see another pest is impossible. An occasional insect or spider is likely to be seen inside. A good service technician, however, can provide services so that the customer does not see the same type of pest on a regular basis.

Following the initial service, what do we tell our customers? We explain what we found and what was done about it, and we provide them a list of recommendations for correcting contributing conditions. We also explain to them what to expect after we leave and estimate how long it will take for the initial pest infestation to be totally eliminated. This education process is very important for quality pest control service. Giving the customer unrealistic expectations or allowing such expectations to remain "unchallenged" only leads to customer dissatisfaction.

If the customer has purchased a schedule of regular preventive services, they expect exactly that. Their service technician should show up at the appointed time and provide service that will prevent pest infestations from becoming established inside and, hopefully, prevent any pests from being seen inside. After the initial pest infestation has been eliminated, where will new ones come from? If you guessed from the outside, you would generally be right on target. This is especially true for homes, but is less true for many commercial facilities.

If a home had a German cockroach or pharaoh ant infestation that was eliminated, what are the chances that a new infestation of the same pest will be reintroduced? Not very likely, especially if the service technician educated the customer about inspecting incoming goods and supplies for pests. In a restaurant or hotel, what are the chances that German cockroaches could be reintroduced? Actually, the odds are pretty high new cockroaches could be introduced with any shipment on any given day. For any commercial situation involving German cockroaches, inside services become more important than outside service.

On the other hand, if that same commercial facility had a mouse or rat problem originally, the situation changes. Rodents usually invade from outside, so now we are back to the exterior being the most important part of the service. See how the situation changes with different types of buildings and different types of pests? Effective technicians are thinkers who analyze each situation. This analysis doesn't take much time for experienced technicians, and the components involved need to be explained and taught to new technicians.

RESIDENTIAL PREVENTION. Let's focus on preventive services for homes, because this is where the most pressure is generally brought to bear on a service technician to be both effective and productive. Quite a few residential customers have to be visited every day to establish the kind of productivity necessary for acceptable profitability. Working smart is especially crucial for a residential service technician.

For a residential situation, two things are evident:

(1) The customer will always be most concerned with preventing new infestations of their original pest problem.

(2) Most new pest infestations are likely to originate from outside the home.

The service technician must be sure to check likely sites where the original pest could reappear, and also to inspect for other pests that could already have invaded the home or that might be poised to invade.

On regular preventive services for homes, very little interior application of insecticides is necessary. An exception may be flea control where an insect growth regulator, at the very least, needs to be reapplied every few months. Inside service should involve looking for signs of pests. Don't spend a lot of time treating cracks or surfaces where pests either are not found or are not likely to be found. Inside treatments should be directed at active pest harborages, except for limited dust applications into wall voids where pipes are located. Most of the service really should be focused on the exterior because that is where the greater threat of pest infestation is located.

How should a technician service the exterior of a home? First and foremost, inspecting is the most critical procedure. Beginning at the foundation, lift up items, rake mulch back, and flush exterior cracks in the building. Carry a compressed air sprayer along to treat around likely pest entry points and to directly treat pests that are found living under items. Exterior cracks should be treated with a residual dust insecticide and then sealed (by the customer or the technician).

After finishing with the foundation area of the building, inspections away from the home are necessary. Where to inspect depends on the area of the country and the most common pests in that area. In smoky brown cockroach territory, inspect tree holes, ivy, outbuildings, firewood piles, etc. Where carpenter ants are common, inspect landscape timbers, tree holes, firewood, porch columns, etc. Other types of ants, like crazy ants, pavement ants, and odorous house ants, require inspecting under items on the entire property, including vegetation against sidewalks, patios, shrubs, and trees. Looking for ant trails and following them back to the colony is also important.

When performing an exterior inspection, finding anything is possible. One needs to focus on the key pests but must always be aware that other pests could be present. This holds true for any type of structure, even the largest commercial facility.

CONCLUSION. A productive and yet effective service technician always works hard but also works smart at the same time. A lot of valuable time and effort can be wasted making insecticide applications to sites or surfaces where they will do little good. Insecticides should always be applied with a distinct reason in mind. Think about where pest infestations are likely to be located or where they will originate, then inspect those areas. Once found, pest harborages are typically easy to treat.

Most importantly, don't overlook the importance of a building's exterior in the long-term results expected by the customer. Always strive to give each customer the full value of their service dollars. PCT

PCT contributing author Stoy A. Hedges is manager of technical services for Terminix International, Memphis, Tenn.