Those other pests

LCOs have plenty of experience with pests in lawns and plants. So it could be a natural transition to take care of ones that fly through the air or crawl up your customers’ legs while they are enjoying time in their backyard. We talked to a few companies who offer nuisance pest services to find out what providing the service entails.
 

Annual service agreements.

Having customers already locked into an annual service agreement makes add-on services easier to sell.

“Our basic service for pest control essentially covers all crawling insects,” says Bobby Jenkins, president of ABC Home & Commercial Services, headquartered in Texas. “We try to sell service agreements on everything we do because the pest season is so long; the climatic conditions are so harsh.”

This agreement includes exterior service to treat the perimeter of a structure six times a year, which is needed in Texas where repellants break down quicker in a hot climate. Interior service and nuisance pest control are performed on request. ABC Home & Commercial Services employs about 650 people, had $51 million in revenue last year and offers lawn and landscape services to residential and commercial customers – with pest control being their core offering.

Similar to ABC, at Arbor-Nomics Turf, service plans include seven visits per year, says Doug Cash, vice president of the company, which is headquartered in Norcross, Ga. Arbor-Nomics serves almost entirely residential customers with lawn and shrub care including insect treatments. They employ 50 people and annual revenue is at $8.5 million.

“We try to make sure our customers understand this is a marriage between us,” Cash says. “We ask them if they see something out of the ordinary to call us or email us and we can respond within 24 hours.”

At Triangle Pest Control, a $2.3-million company that targets high-end residential customers, its signature service, called SafeLawn, includes treatment for the most common offenders – mosquitos, ticks, ants and fleas. “That’s always a good way to lure someone into a reoccurring service,” says Jesse Rehm, chief operating officer for Triangle Pest Control, headquartered in Holly Springs, N.C.

“Many bugs, like fleas, used to be separate. We’ve taken our service line and pretty much covered 90 percent of the insects people are going to experience.” Bed bugs, termites, yellow jackets and ground nesting bees are not covered.
 

Nuisance Control.

Some nuisance pests, such as bees and wasps, can be controlled on an as-needed basis.

Knocking down and destroying a nest is typically all that is needed, and this service is usually a courtesy to customers already locked into an annual agreement, Jenkins says.

“Good service means you let the customer know what you found and did. That’s very key to the customer understanding the value of the service,” he says. “Communication of what we are doing is really the biggest key to a successful pest management program.”

While the majority of pests are covered under the SafeLawn treatment, Rehm says they sometimes treat occasional invaders such as bed bugs and termites. About 30 percent of calls are customers in need of a one-time service, he says.

Technicians at Triangle Pest Control will often treat a problem as they spot it, sometimes at no extra cost, as a courtesy and to avoid charging a trip fee. “We don’t nickel and dime our customers,” Rehm says.

A new smart phone app recently created and implemented at ABC Home & Commercial Services allows field technicians to take a photo of an issue, make recordings describing the issue and send notes to the office. The office can then call the customer to schedule further inspection or give an estimate for the needed service, Jenkins says.

At Arbor-Nomics, about half the customer base is also on an email list. If a known issue is present in a region or neighborhood, the team will send an email blast to customers to alert them, along with a photo, and ask them to let the company know if they need service to remedy the issue.

“That’s been very successful,” he says.
 

Necessary Training.

Training is an expense, but one that’s worth it, according to Cash. At Arbor-Nomics, training is ongoing year-round and includes work in a classroom, monthly tests and bi-yearly exams, he says. The training for nuiscance pest treatment and lawn treatment are incorporated into normal training meetings.

“Your technician becomes more well-rounded and more of a source for the homeowner on their landscape versus just a drone out there spraying a lawn,” Cash says.

New employees are typically trained during a four- to six-week timeline and that includes employees who are new to the company, but not to the industry – to create consistency, Cash says.

TPC University is the Triangle Pest Control powerhouse for learning and training. There, technicians take part in computer modules, learn basic entomology, study service descriptions and more, Rehm says.
 

Profitable pests.

Treating occasional invaders makes up about 15 percent of annual revenue at ABC, with profit margins in the area of 60 percent.

“It’s an efficient, profitable additional service to provide to customers,” Jenkins says, adding that having that basic service plan is core to business. It allows teams to be on the property already serving the client and able to identify and treat these additional issues quickly and easily.

Technicians at Arbor-Nomics operate on geographic routes, allowing them to circle back to a property and treat an issue if communication is made with the customer before end of day, and save time and fuel costs in the process.

“You don’t have any travel time so your revenue can be enhanced by treating it while you are there,” Cash says. “Added services are huge.”

Nuisance control services make up 3 to 5 percent of sales or about $400,000 annually at Arbor-Nomics.

“That’s nothing to sneeze at,” Cash says.

The author is a freelancer based in Cleveland.

Listen to Mosquito Joe CEO Kevin Wilson talk about the similarities between the lawn care and the nuisance pest control industries, the challenges LCOs face when adding the service and if the company would consider adding the lawn pest service to its portfolio. Visit bit.ly/llmosquito to hear the podcast.