Invisible and Amazing!!

I love getting new accounts that belonged to another pest management company. I love that the client trusts me by referral to provide a better, more thorough pest service. I love that I make money to do an initial account setup. I love educating the client about all things pest control that will help their facility run better. I love the fact that my company can provide pest management that goes unnoticed.

You heard that correctly… Pest management should go unnoticed, mostly.

Pest management services shouldn’t be a burden on the customer. It’s our job to take that responsibility away from the client and keep their pest pressures limited. Pest management is not a be all, end all. It’s called management for a reason. Our job as the pest professional is to limit the number of mice, rats, insects, birds, skunks, squirrels, and everything pest related from a client property. Our clients hire us to make sure pests don’t enter their homes, businesses, food products, industrial warehouses, or manufacturing plants.

Yes: when we do our job correctly, pest management should be invisible. Or at least the pests should be invisible.

On a holiday weekend, I received a call from a grain elevator client saying they had a raccoon on the top bin deck floor. (How that trash panda got up there is anyone’s guess.) I asked all questions of who, what, when, how, and why so I could make a plan. My supplies consisted of a live cage trap, marshmallows, and canned cat food. I tied the trap to a sturdy conduit piping so it wouldn’t fall off the elevator roof or into a product bin. Remember, I was trapping in a grain facility. Which means most food safety rules apply. No adulteration. No contamination. No allergens.

Early the next morning, I received a text from the facility manager to come get my angry masked bandit. As I signed in to the facility, a grain scale operator shouted, “You’re F-##@@@-n Amazing!!” My reply was that I do what I get paid to do. I thanked her for the enthusiasm.

When pest management is done correctly, it should be a seamless partnership between the pest company and the customer. That union can’t exist unless both parties agree to make it work. And that means great communication, individual responsibility for checklist items, and acknowledgement when things are out of sync. Customers notice when something great happens, but they also notice when NOTHING happens.

So…. Are you, the pest management company, invisible? Or are is the service you provide seamlessly invisible?