Pest E-Limination

The proverbial lightbulb went off for Greg Clendenin while he was watching Super Bowl XXXIII. It happened as the multitude of high-budget, futuristic-looking Internet commercials flashed before his eyes.

"Watching those commercials it occurred to me that somebody is going to do this and I wanted to make sure we were the first," says Clendenin, president of Middleton Pest Control, Orlando, Fla.

Sixty days later, Middleton became the first pest control company in the United States to offer customers the option of ordering, scheduling and paying for both pest control and lawn services via the Internet.

"If they see roaches in their kitchen at midnight and we’re not open, they can get on the Internet right then and there or while they’re at work the next day and schedule their service and go on about their business, and we’ll show up," Clendenin says.

In a word, Middleton has gone high-tech, becoming one of the first service businesses to offer customers the option of electronic commerce, a field dominated by marketers of tangible goods like Amazon.com (i.e., books, compact discs, etc.).

Mike Reynolds, Middleton’s information systems director, says e-commerce is a natural fit for service businesses. "The pace of society and the difficulty in managing your personal life gets a little crazy. So to be able to go online and buy not just books and CDs, but purchase services and communicate with a company…we see this as a platform for the future," Reynolds says.

Since launching the service in June, Middleton has logged about 20 sales through the service. In late June they launched an extensive advertising campaign to promote the site in their service area, which covers eight counties in Central Florida. The company also has invested in direct mail, radio and billboard advertisements.

"We are going to advertise the heck out of it during the last six months of the year. If it goes, and we project that it will, like other e-commerce initiatives, this is going to be fantastic," Clendenin says.

In fact, he’s banking on it. While the company won’t reveal the actual cost of entering the e-commerce arena, Middleton officials say they spent well into five figures launching the program and contracting with a local Internet services company to help design the service. Much of the expense involved linking each of Middleton’s 11 branches via a computer network, developing programs that automatically run the e-commerce section of the website and developing the infrastructure to respond quickly to customers scheduling a service online. "The customer goes in and fills in their information and makes their order, but there are a whole lot of things that go on behind the scenes to make it happen," Reynolds says.

ON-TIME SERVICE. "It’s obviously a unique concept for a service organization to be selling their services online, it’s exciting and different, but the real hook is that people can tell us when they want us to be there and we’ll be there," Reynolds says.

For example, a customer who schedules service online with Middleton can designate an appointed time for a technician to visit their home, say 9 a.m. the next day, and a Middleton representative will show up at 9 a.m. sharp. Middleton hopes this precise scheduling will allow them to attract and retain consumers frustrated by their previous experiences with the service sector. "People associate services like pest control with cable companies and telephone companies. They think, ‘Oh geez, they’re going to tell me they’re going to be there sometime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and then they’ll show up at 10 minutes ‘til 4 p.m.,’" Reynolds says.

While Reynolds says such responsive service based on an e-commerce business model is an important strategic advantage for Middleton, it also takes a tremendous amount of resources. "Having dedicated people that can respond requires a whole lot of work that goes into this type of project. I think that in the long term companies will model their activities on what we are doing, but I don’t think there are a lot of companies that could do it right now, based on the great expense and level of work it takes to get there," he says.

In addition to the organizational expenses, a significant amount of time and money were spent developing computer programs to translate the information entered online by consumers into estimates and schedules. When a customer logs on to Middleton’s site they can receive an instant estimate on the service they request. To be able to offer that service, Middleton had to develop a computer program and formula to translate data into a reliable estimate. What’s more, programs had to be developed to efficiently schedule the new service and forward that information to the appropriate Middleton branch office. For example, the system will not allow two accounts to be scheduled on the same route within the same hour.

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY. In addition to making it convenient for customers to schedule service with Middleton, Clendenin says e-commerce offers several additional organizational benefits, including increasing pro ductivity without adding people.

"One of the challenges we have is finding enough people to fill the spots we have in our organization to keep up with our growth. We are growing at more than 20%," Clendenin says. Mid-dleton currently has 130 service vehicles in operation.

"One of the things we want to do is increase productivity per truck, without unnecessarily and unrealistically adding a lot of work to the folks in our trucks. Internet sales increases your sales without adding trucks because technicians don’t have to go to the customer’s house to sell it," Clendenin says. It also saves on vehicle and fuel costs, because technicians don’t have to drive to a prospective client to sell a job.

For obvious reasons, Middleton technicians are also excited about the e-com merce project. It allows them to attract more customers and garner more commissions with less sales work up front. If there is an online sale in their service area, the technician still gets the commission from the sale, as well as the added productivity, without the time or effort typically required to attract new customers.

If this all sounds too good to be true — happier customers, happier employees and more business — consider that e-commerce is still a gamble. Middleton has spent tens of thousands of dollars and made significant organizational changes with no guarantee that customers will feel comfortable using the service. While Clendenin admits that he doesn’t think e-commerce will replace face-to-face selling (nor does he want it to), he is banking on his business instincts that e-commerce is the wave of the future and that one day a significant percentage of customers will reach for the mouse before reaching for the telephone to order a service (see sidebar above).

While e-commerce is still a new frontier for service businesses and has a relatively uncertain future, Middleton officials are beaming like a new father over the launch of their e-commerce project. "We have something that is definitely a first in our industry and we’re excited as all heck about it," Clendenin says. Only time will tell, however, if the project will live up to its enthusiastic billing.