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A+ Customer Service

Lay the foundation for a satisfied customer base with happy employees and a positive company culture 

M. Diane McCormick

Good customer service means more than efficiently handling calls and scheduling. In top pest control services, A-plus customer service drives entire operations and growth. 

“Customer service is the backbone,” says Mickey Thomas, senior vice president of the customer care department and inside sales, Arrow Exterminators in Atlanta. “It’s where it all begins. From the first phone call to the first service, first impressions are everything. We wouldn’t be where we are if we didn’t have our customers. We need them and grow with them. Everything starts with a phone call.” 

With the pest control market filling with new players and do-it-yourself solutions, the key to success is personalizing every interaction, say customer service leaders. Established firms want to compete by growing and becoming more profitable, but they can’t lose sight of customer needs, says Jeremiah Prevatt, customer experience manager, Cook’s Pest Control in Decatur, Alabama. 

“If a company isn’t careful, customer names can easily turn into account numbers,” he says. “Our goal is never allowing a customer to become an account number or a stop on a route. It’s critical that leadership at all levels continues to humanize the work we’re doing.” 

YOUR FIRST CUSTOMERS ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES 

A high-level customer experience can’t happen without a high-level employee experience. Kevin Taylor, owner and founder of Guard Pest Control in Snohomish, Washington, strives to treat employees “the best they’ve ever been treated.” That includes industry-leading pay scales, paid vacations, and not forcing technicians to work long days just to get their routes done before or after taking vacation. 

“If we treat our employees well, it’s going to naturally flow to the customers,” Taylor says. “If you’re at a company where you don’t like the people you’re working for or don’t like the people you’re working with, it’s hard to sustain good customer service long term.” 

Guard Pest Control defines its company culture with six H’s for employees:  

Honest: Tell the truth and do the right thing, even when it’s hard. 

Happy: Choose an optimistic outlook. In pest control, things can go horribly wrong, but circumstances don’t have to determine attitude. Taylor’s operations manager, for example, once pitched in on a job and ended up with a funny story about getting maggot-ridden food splattered on his pants. 

Humble: Be a lifelong learner, and don’t become arrogant. 

Helper: As servant leaders, be quick to help colleagues and customers. Managers serve and support staff, because “when we help them, they help our customers,” Taylor says. 

Honor: Recognize and respect the efforts and successes of colleagues. Guard’s weekly meeting of office staff and technicians starts on a positive note, with everyone sharing a win for the week.  

Hungry: Look for opportunities to grow and get better professionally and personally.  

“Everyone talks about culture,” Taylor says. “If you hire the people who exhibit these characteristics, you’re going to have a fantastic culture without doing much to build it.”  

At Arrow, expectations are clearly spelled out from the first job interview. It’s a way to make sure that each new hire is good with the company’s mission, vision, and culture of doing the right thing every time.  

From there, those new hires are celebrated from day one and welcomed with posters and flowers. One woman who mentioned her love of sunflowers during her interview found her desk decked out in the yellow blooms.  

“We want them to feel like part of the family right away, and their welcome is warm and inviting,” says Thomas. “That sets the bar for our expectations in customer service. When you have that type of joy in a fun environment, the customer experience follows.”  

But there’s fun, and then there’s fun. When Matt Bailey joined Baltimore’s Brody Brothers as customer experience manager in October 2023, he found a commitment to customer support and a fun culture where Nerf gun battles could break out at any time.  

However, the cheerful atmosphere didn’t always translate over the phone. So, Bailey told his customer service representatives (CSRs) that they are customer service heroes, swooping in to save the day. They quickly learned to put smiles into their voices. They also discovered the difference that a change in wording can make, such as replacing a bland, “I can schedule you in today,” with “I’m sending someone there to help you.” 

LISTENING = CARING 

Younger customers may prefer to schedule service online, but people who pick up the phone to schedule service don’t want a price list—they want a conversation. Since Guard Pest Control’s model relies on the call center to make the sale, CSRs are trained to ask detailed questions to get to the heart of the problem: Where are the ants appearing? What room? If the customer has had them “forever,” just how long is “forever”?  

“It says that you are listening, and it says that you care,” says Taylor. “It relieves a lot of anxiety for the customer when their questions are all answered, and that makes it easier to purchase versus calling the competition and just getting a price.” 

Cook’s recently revamped how it handles its customer service, to increase the availability of customer support and improve quality. Its new remote call center connects CSRs in its 38 field offices into a single phone queue system. Prevatt works to make sure that messaging on calls is consistent, but he is careful not to depersonalize them or strip representatives of their power to find solutions and show empathy.  

“If a customer is having a fit over the phone about seeing a roach in their home, I want them to feel we’re having a fit, too,” says Prevatt. “I want our people to match that energy, so the customer understands and feels we care about the issue as much as they do.” 

At Brody Brothers, CSRs undergo the same training as technicians and learn about pest behavior from in-house entomologists. That way, they not only know how to give a preliminary diagnosis to a problem but can also provide a reassuring voice.  

“Our customer service reps go through a lot of training to educate them so they can help the customers understand what’s going on in their own home,” says Bailey. “When we get out there, they understand how we’re going to take care of it.” 

At Arrow, continuous training does more than renew the licensure of call-center reps. Customers today want answers and resolution—and want them fast. So, training gives CSRs tools for customizing every conversation. There are no scripts, but through training, CSRs develop the know-how to solve the puzzle “without having to call a supervisor or wait for somebody to call them back,” says Thomas.  

“We believe our team members in that moment are the experts,” she says. “We want to provide them the confidence to be able to solve those customers’ needs. When you empower your team members, they get to shine. It empowers them to be the best version of themselves.” 

CUSTOMERS ARE EVERYTHING 

When you have A-plus customer service, that plays a key role in driving growth. Bailey joined Brody Brothers from a financial background. He was brought in to align customer service with the company’s growth strategies. Now, every new hire is put in place based on anticipation of growth in target areas. With that kind of planning, new customers keep coming through word of mouth, but customer service doesn’t have to run to catch up in ways that could frustrate the customer.  

That way, a positive company culture doesn’t cave in to increased pressures. 

When employees are happy and customer service is excellent, that’s a strong foundation for delivering top-quality care to every home, whether it’s a mansion or a cottage, Bailey adds. “We believe that if we take care of the customer, they’ll take care of us, and it’s working,” he says. 

At Arrow, the company has a motto every employee knows by heart: “Do everything with a clear conscience.” 

“That’s something we take pride in,” says Thomas. “Everything’s done with a clear conscience, and that gives customers peace of mind.”   

Technology Gets an A+, Too 

As a 95-year-old company, Cook’s Pest Control wants to connect with younger, tech-forward customers while “respecting and appreciating the values of our older generation,” says Jeremiah Prevatt, customer experience manager. It has added texting and an interactive voice response phone tree to help streamline calls. But changes like these are rolled out in small steps to help older customers adapt. 

At Guard Pest Control, technology is consolidating all customer interactions into a unified record—even capturing text messages from customers for rapid response. The company also adopted an artificial intelligence (AI) option in its customer service platform. AI is now transcribing and summarizing calls so they can be added to the record. And the business is already seeing benefits: For example, one upset customer thought she had changed her service plan, but the transcript showed that she had decided against switching. The AI summary of the call allowed for an amicable resolution. 

At Arrow Exterminators, data collection and customer service “have to mirror each other,” says Mickey Thomas, senior vice president of the customer care department and inside sales. The company collects data from calls made to district offices, revealing local trends. Weekly software audits pinpoint calls according to type—bill payment, complaint, scheduling—and make sure that everything was resolved. Employees are also incentivized for excellence in inputting data, for a 98% accuracy rate companywide. That’s because “every stroke of that keyboard affects somebody’s service, affects somebody’s pay, affects somebody’s schedule,” Thomas says.  

Customer feedback remains the gold standard for judging success in customer service. Brody Brothers is testing a feedback system that captures immediate impressions by automatically surveying customers when the technician clocks out. Just by participating, customers help the technician get a $5 tip, and the technicians with the highest scores compete for bonuses. 

“Immediate feedback is always my preferred method of communication,” says Matt Bailey, customer experience manager. “I want to know exactly what’s going on to address issues or provide praise.”  

Then, Bailey can share feedback with all customer-​facing employees and help post the names of standouts on the recognition board. “When we come into a home, we are partners with the homeowner to make sure their home gets pest free and stays pest free for the future,” he says. “We make sure people know that we hold ourselves to that standard.” 

 

Let’s Def ine Company Culture 

Company culture fills customer service with purpose, but what exactly is it? Customer service leaders in the pest control industry say it’s a set of core beliefs, a passion for the field, and peace of mind for homes and communities. 

Consider these tips for creating a positive company culture that customers can feel: 

Celebrate the wins: Trips, dinners, gift cards, “employee of the month” designations—successful customer service rewards its people with meaningful incentives. “We believe that celebrating your team is what’s going to make your customer happy,” says Arrow Exterminators’ Mickey Thomas. 

Get involved: Supporting local causes and serving local institutions such as sports teams demonstrate a pest control company’s love for the community. 

Go above and beyond: That’s encapsulated in Guard Pest Control’s “Helper” pillar. For example, one technician bought and installed batteries for an elderly customer whose lift chair had been stalled for two weeks. At Arrow, CSRs send thank-you notes to new customers, and one rep learned Braille so she could send a personal note to a blind customer. 

Encourage ideas: Arrow accepts ideas from employees, and an innovation committee reviews them. If they’re workable, the employee is rewarded. At Cook’s Pest Control, Jeremiah Prevatt has begun holding regular, structured conversations to collect feedback from field staff, “whether good, bad, or ugly.” That leads to fresh ideas, and even when one idea doesn’t make the cut, “you’d be surprised how many alternative ideas come from those conversations,” he says. “Make sure your front-line people have a voice. They’re the ones in the trenches.”  

Tear down silos: Building bridges between divisions can strengthen team bonds. Guard Pest Control’s Kevin Taylor tells his schedulers to call technicians directly when they have to shoehorn an emergency case into the day. Schedulers can show empathy and acknowledge the disrupted schedule. Then, more often than not, techs don’t grit their teeth but instead say, “Don’t worry about it.”  

“That give and take in the office is so nice,” says Taylor. “It’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey.”