[ViewPoint] Mobile Makes a Move

A couple statistics caught my eye in the aftermath of this year's Cyber Monday — the Monday after Thanksgiving when companies offer online shoppers deep discounts.

Online sales rose 33 percent on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to a report by IBM Benchmark. I was mildly surprised by this number, but this was the first time I recall Cyber Monday being this heavily marketed.

The IBM Benchmark statistic that really caught my attention was that "about 6.6 percent of online shoppers used a mobile device to shop, up from 2.3 percent in 2010." It was an eye-opener for me to see that so many Americans are comfortable using mobile technology such as tablets and smartphones to make purchases.

Many pest control companies have realized the potential of mobile technology for both customers and sales/service professionals. Terminix, for example, rolled out a new app for customers in October. Terminix customers who download this app are able to schedule appointments, to reschedule appointments and to look at their account history — and the app will continue to evolve, according to the company. "Ultimately, anything and everything that Terminix.com does we want to reside in this app, so this includes buying, paying, rescheduling and alerting customers that a service professional is on the way to their home, " said Steve Good, vice president of sales and business development, Terminix.

Terminix service professionals have been using handheld technology for several years, which Good says has helped the company become more transparent. "It's allowed us to send a service professional where they need to be, on time. It's given [service technicians] the ability to complete their work order on their handheld, to print out that work order for the customer and to provide a very accurate account of what we did while we were on the property. That technology is about to undergo its second evolution right now."

Similarly, for the past two years, Terminix's sales professionals have been using a mobile device that enables them to complete agreements, to create a graphical representation of the structure and to finance contracts. "It's been a real good tool for us and as we go into our second year we are again going to continue to enhance it to ensure that we become a much more professional and accountable sales organization," Good says.

A major appeal of online shopping is the ease at which customers can find their best deals, and one of the most popular trends among e-shoppers is joining group-buying websites. Here's how these sites work: A company offers a service at a reduced rate, the deal site communicates the deal to its subscribers through e-mail and/or social media and, as subscribers buy the online coupon, the business and the deal site share the take at an agreed-upon percentage. The group buying aspect comes into play as many of these sites determine a "tipping point" — the minimum number at which a deal becomes active. Is this type of alternative marketing a good fit for your company? PCT explores this topic in "Is Online Couponing Right for You?" (page 66) — which is part of this month's special report on social media usage in the pest control industry.

The author is Internet editor of PCT Online (www.pctonline.com) and managing editor of PCT and can be contacted at bharbison@giemedia.com.