The Pest Academy File #5 | How To Do The Best Residential Service | A Pest Control Podcast

In today's episode, Anthony goes over his simple yet effective guide to residential services. Also, with some tips and tricks you may not know yet.

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of the Pest Files. As always, I'm your host, Anthony. I am a business owner and operate of a pest control company out of the state of California. And it is June. It is warming up and I am dealing with a ton of wasps right now. What are you guys and gals dealing with out there? That kind of segues into uh in the description wherever you're listening to this podcast, there's a link. It should say something like contact or reach out or something. I don't I forgot what it said, but if you click that link, you can send me a voice message or a text message. So reach out. Do you have any tips, tricks? Do you have any advice, any critiques? If you have any feedback at all, please reach out. Or if you even want to come onto the show and talk, I love pest control. This is my life. So let's talk about it. But let's jump into today's episode. This one's more of a niche episode. This is sort of just the best way to take care of a residential property during the summertime, I guess you could say. I'll I'll work out the title later when I upload this. But how do you take care of your residential properties? What type of services do you do? How are you going to guarantee the best service possible during the hardest time to keep a home under control? Because we're going to be dealing with ants, wasps, spiders, a huge uptick in just, you know, outdoor cockroaches, at least in the California area, in uh the Sacramento area, we are absolutely invaded by Turkestan cockroaches. And it goes from gosh, one at most in glue traps at like residentials in their garage or like my commercial buildings to the glue traps are full with 40 to 50 Turkestan cockroaches. Once it gets hot over here in the Sacramento area, it gets very bad. So that is one tough thing we have out here. And I'm sure all over the country, all over the world, when it heats up, certain pests start to get a little crazy, right? So I'm just going to sort of break down how I treat a residential property, and then you could sort of curtail your service based off of it. I know everyone kind of has their own little tips and tricks or their own little methods, right? Uh the biggest thing is what does your company offer? Is it web removal, interior, exterior treatment along with the garage? Are you treating any uh you know, sheds, mother-in-law, shacks, things like that, right? So, what is it that your company does? So I'm just going to explain as if I'm training you from like let's say I'm a manager, and I'm going to train you on the best tips and tricks to assure 100% satisfaction from your clients. Okay, let's get started. It's hot, I'm drinking water. I got like this big old jug right by me. So when you talk on a podcast, one thing you forget is how dry your mouth can get sometimes. So, okay, let's start with the very beginning. This service that I will provide for a residential home will include a web removal. It'll include a shed in the backyard. It's your typical, let's say, four-bed, two and a half bath home, um, probably about 2,000 square feet, uh, single story. Okay, so all leaves are pretty much accessible. I know some companies don't touch second story eaves, things like that. Um, so let's go ahead and picture it. We got ourselves a 2,000 square foot single story home. There's a shed in the back, it's a pretty decent backyard, nothing too crazy. Okay. So what's the first thing you want to do? Always, always, always check into the client. Interview the client, right? IPM again. It's uh it's all over where we are. That's how IPM works. So the first thing we're gonna do is when we pull up to the house we're treating, interview the client, talk to them, knock on the door, present yourself. Um, some companies web first, other companies web last, and they'll treat first. I'm more in the ballpark of uh taking my web poll, going up to the client, checking in, then hitting the webs because while I'm hitting the webs, I do my inspection during that time. I look for wasp nests, ant trails, spider activity, black widow activity, things like that. So I'm going to train you as if you're part of my company. Now, let's grab our web poll, let's go on up to the house. We're gonna check in with the client. First thing I always say is, how's it going? How are you? Right? Keep it cordial, keep it friendly. They are your client after all. Then I ask, is there any particular issues going on around the home? Now, this is key because it is going to essentially help you focus on what you need to focus on. You're still going to do the full service and take care of all the needs, but now you know what the client is paying attention on. Okay, so you check in with the client, and let's just say, yeah, I'm seeing some ants um in the back fence line in the backyard. Okay, cool. Let's do our service. So, general rule of thumb for the maximum timing possible, because remember in pest control, time is money. You can't spend two hours at a house, unfortunately. Maybe if you quote for that and you're making that much money out of it, then yeah, obviously you can. I think some companies want to be at $150 to $200 an hour, right? Production. So if you're spending, you know, let's say on the high end, if you're if that residential client's charging or paying $400, all power to you. But let's say we want to get out of this house by 20 to 25 minutes, okay? Let's say they're paying anywhere from 90 to 120, right? 20 to 25 minutes, that's sort of a sweet spot for that. The client feels like they're getting what they paid for, and 20 to 25 minutes is pretty good. So after we've checked in with the client, now we know there's ants in the backyard. We're gonna go ahead and start at one end of the property. Usually you start away from the gate, so you're working your way completely around the home, like a circle. You're hitting the whole perimeter, right? So, what I always recommend is starting opposite of the gate, hitting the eaves, the window seals, the gutters, everything like that with your web pole, because Black Widows, at times, once summer hits, they're gonna go to the drain spouts, they're going to go to the gutters, places like that, the sub-areas, the vents, the foundations, everything like that. So we're going to use our web pole, do our typical dewebbing service, right? I always train guys, don't look for the webs, hit where you think the webs are going to go. And while you're hitting where the webs you think will go, you'll find them. So essentially what that means is when you're hitting an Eve, don't examine the Eve, just hit the Eve. Do the full little rectangle on the Eve, and then next Eve, okay? Because now you're sweeping regardless. It doesn't look that good if you just stand there and you're like looking at the Eve. Okay, I don't need my web poll. You take a few steps, you're looking at the Eve. Alright, maybe that one. You hit that one. Take a few steps, no webs there, no webs there, no webs there. Okay, one's there. It doesn't look good. Okay, that's just my opinion. I like to always look active. Pest control, a lot of it is optics to your client. Now, this is outside of IPM, okay? IPM doesn't care about optics, but the salesman in me and the customer service representative in me knows that optics matter. You being busy webbing around the home accomplishes the same thing as you just walking along the home examining. So why not just web? Do it real quick. In fact, it'll probably be quicker in the long run because you're staying active, you have a routine, and you're staying on top of it. So be very careful of wasp nests, especially paper wasps, they're going to be up in the eaves with their little nests, things like that, right? They're gonna be in your vents, um, around sheds. So always be careful that you don't want to get stung. But hit the webs. And I always do one where I sweep the webs of the eaves and I backtrack real quick, and then I just run the web pull along the foundation of the home, and especially around drain spouts and gutters, things like that, where I know webs are going to be. Now you go around the home, the front door is key because that is where your client is going to be spending most of their time walking. You never want to forget a web then, right? Hit the light fixtures, hit around the door. If there's a window above the door, hit the window above the door, hit the archway, the pillars, everything like that, because that's where the client is going to be interacting with their home majority of the time. And if they're seeing webs and wasp nests and muddauber nests there, then well, they might be like, Well, how does the rest of my home look? They're not even taking that care of this part. So work your way around. Hit the eaves, hit the foundation, the drain spouts, the gutters, things like that. Some companies don't uh touch any landscaping or vegetation or bushes, things like that. Um, sometimes if it's just, you know, while I'm walking, I'll go ahead and just like rub the uh web pole along the top of a bush, hit the webs, den. Now I've worked my way across the whole home. One thing I sort of do, not every home can do this, obviously, but I'll go ahead and hit the fence lines, then I will hit all of the patio furniture in the backyard, such as like the barbecue pit, maybe a table, some chairs, things like that. I don't hit every tiny inch of those, but I do just really quick. Now, here's one key thing. Take care of your client's play structures. They have kids, grandchildren, whatever it is. If they have a little wooden play structure in the back or a swing set, make sure you're taking care of that. Hit the webs, and I tap with my web pole. Let's say if it's a swing set or play structure, I'm tapping looking for wasp nests. Because the last thing I want is for a wasp to sting a client's child or a child in general. And I'm supposed to be your pest control person. So go there, peck around with your web pull, hit the play structure, hit the swing set. Obviously, I'm not saying don't hit it like a bat, like you're trying to home run, but just enough little agitation will send wasps out and is going to help you determine where the activity is. And things like Black Widows, spider webs, just overall making sure the play structure is the webs removed and the wasps are not there is key and will save you in the long run from a very unhappy climb. So we've hit around the home, we've hit the fence line, now we've hit the play structure, um, we hit the shed. Sorry, I added the play structure in there. Uh, we hit around the furniture, the barbecue pit. Now I'm working my way out, and here is a key detail. This one detail here will give you insane longevity of your clients. Hit their garbage bins, remove the webs, sweep where the handles are. I don't know how many times I've done pest control where I've taken over from another company. Their home looks amazing. There's no webs in the eaves anywhere. And then I go to the dump, the uh garbage bins and the recycling bin, and it is like it's never been hit before. Webs all over the handles, webs in the the you know, the lid, things like that. So I just take my web pull, I remove all that. I clean it up, I make it look nice. All right. So the webbing's done. I've hit all the main areas, I've done my inspection. I did find a wasp nest inside uh the eaves in the backyard, and and other than that, I did find the ants because the client said we're dealing with ants, and there was an ant trail in the backyard by the back fence line. So, what I usually like to do is I'll do the target products first, then I'll do the general treatment. Okay, so now I know I have a wasp nest and I have an ant trail. So let's grab a bottle of wasp freeze. If you don't have wasp freeze, I know that Alpine WSG at 30 grams can knock down wasps pretty quick. And I know at bifin at the right dosage can knock down wasps pretty quick as well. And I'm going to grab some ant bait, whether that be Advion ant gel or Optiguard ant gel, whichever bait you use. Now I have my ant bait and I have a bottle of wasp freeze, right? So I'm going to the backyard, I'm applying my ant gel, doing it the correct way, right? Oh, you you dab it and you put little lines along the trail. You don't want to disturb it. The ants took the bait. Great. Now I'm over to the wasp's nest, hit it with the wasp freeze. The wasps go a little crazy, but most of them are dead. Great. I'm gonna let them simmer down over there, then I'm gonna come back and knock the wasp nest down. All right. Now I'm going to do my general treatment. This is the bread and butter of pest control. It's a general pest treatment. They call it uh barrier treatment, ban treatment, whatever you call it in your state, your area. I think California we call it band treatment now. And as always, make sure you're following the waterway laws, the runoff laws, things like that. So I usually hit you know things like the Eaves. Certain products you can't treat it in the Eaves, so really make sure a lot of times I use Accentria IC Pro. Um, that is a very broad label, right? So, and it's a acts as sort of a repellent. So I'm gonna hit the Eaves, the window seals, the foundation of the home. I'm following all the you know the pesticide laws. Like I said, just follow that label, the label's law, and of course, during your training with your business or your management, or whenever the the distributors come and train you, um, or the manufacturers, just make sure you're following their rules and guidelines too. Follow that label, put the right dilution, make sure you're applicating in the right areas, okay? You shouldn't even be applicating unless you understand how the product works. So that's pretty much how our license works, right? So now I'm treating around the home. Um in California, you can't treat the garage, uh, the front of the garage door or the garage driveway for runoff laws. So unfortunately, uh treat around that client didn't need any interior. If they did, then I'd be ready for the interior. But now I go around, um, do my band treatment. I'm hitting cracks and crevices, I'm hitting the foundation, eaves, and I'm hitting the window seals. Okay. A lot of companies are just hitting the foundation, that's it. They're just running around the home, in and out in 15 minutes. Clients will cancel with that. You're not going to get the best results with that. You're just not. The eaves are still going to be bad. The window seals are huge because those wee poles, a lot of times spiders could get through those. The little wolf spiders, things like that. And the main way to control spiders is to get rid of their food source. So, how do you get rid of their food source? Well, you're going to destroy the habitat of the spider along with repelling their food source, such as if you're using Alpine, or sorry, not Alpine, excuse me, a Century IC Pro. Um, now I do the ban treatment uh depending on your company. Um, some companies have the um the agriculture license. So then you could apply, let's say the client wants, you know, to treat for fleas, things like that. Um, some companies just make sure you have the proper licensure. Um, you can treat the broadcast treat the yard, the backyard, the front yard, things like that, um, around some bushes. Um, obviously you can't treat like edible plants, things like that. So I would avoid those. But uh you treat the whole exterior printer of the home, you're hitting the window seals, the eaves, the foundation, the cracks and crevices, you're hitting the front yard, the backyard, the lawns. And now I always work my way out, right? It's like the dog run. I'm doing like a little uh pinstream treatment along the sidewalk, walking out, and I'm always busy. That's one thing I've always trained everybody. Be busy. Whether you're examining, looking, always be busy, right? Because you're going to find so many things just pop up, whether that be a wasp nest, or whether that be um, you know, an ant trail. And you're like, oh well, now I need to come bait this. But we head out and don't forget we had the wasp nest. So next thing you do, only do this if the wasps were all dead and they're not really flying around. Now you knock down the wasp nest. Okay. So the ants took to our bait. We found the wasp nest while webbing. We treated it with some wasp trees. They're all all the wasps are dead. We knock it down. Now, one thing I do is I will let the client know. Um, I usually what I do is I toss the wasp's nest itself away. Then I'll sweep the wasp into like uh their landscaping or something. But I always let the client know because sometimes they like to sweep the wasps up, right? So we're all done. We finished our spraying, we finished our webbing. We're gonna knock again, let the client know we're all done. Probably leave an invoice, leave you the details, whatever it is. The client answers the door, we give them the invoice, our little farewell card, whatever your your company does. Some companies just do email. Um, and we tell them, hey, by the way, I knocked down a wasp nest, I already tossed the nest itself, but you do have some wasps back there. So you might want to sweep that up before you let the dog out, things like that. Clients happy, they're satisfied. I update them on the ants. Yep, I found them. I applied the bait. Within about you know, 48, 72 hours, those ants should be all gone. You shouldn't have to worry about them anymore. Clients happy, thank you. You hop on your little app or paperwork, you say all done, boom, production's done. That whole process probably took anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. That's it. And every little detail you did, and the way you interviewed the client and the way you handled it, it's a five-star service, and it's that simple. There's no secret there. A lot of you probably already do that, but a lot of you probably skip some details. Oh wow, I didn't know to you know remove webs around the garbage bin. Or, oh okay, I always look busy. Okay, because now I'm going to find certain things. I can't tell you how many times where I go around a home, the client said they're not dealing with anything, and then I just find uh an ant trail in a crack somewhere or a crevice, right? I'm like, okay, cool. Now I can come apply some ant bait. So look busy, keep examining. I always like to web first because it's your inspection. Look for the wasp nests, look for ant trails, black widows, things like that, right? And then when you treat, treat according, follow the label, follow the dilution rates, right? Make sure you're staying on top of where you're applying your product. Now, residential homes are some of the easiest clients, the best bang for your buck, essentially, but they could also be some of the toughest clients, all right? So by following those protocols, then you just lock down some of the easiest revenue on your route in your company. What's easier than getting done with a home in 20 minutes, sometimes 18 minutes, 17, 19, whatever, and they're paying you $99, $109. And you just knocked out that home, and then they have another neighbor about three blocks down, and then do the math. Let's say 20 minutes, 20 minutes, that's 40 minutes. And you just made yourself around $180. Right? You made your company $180. The production is there, the client satisfaction is there, right? And that's all within under an hour of work. Okay. It's manageable. And let's say there's another client in the neighborhood. You can do up to three clients within an hour and have $2,700, or sorry, geez, $2,700 an hour. That'd be amazing, right? I'm sure some of you out there have done that. So hats off to you. But um, let's see, let me think. I've done I've done a job where it was like a thousand dollars, it took me two hours. So that's $500, $500. So that's pretty good. It's definitely not $2,700, but geez, that's a lot. Anyways, so yeah, imagine doing three clients all in the same area. They're paying, let's say, just $90 residential, you're in and out, you know, 18, 19, 20 minutes, and within an hour, you just generate $270. Okay. There's some people out there, be grateful for you are, but there's some people out there that don't even make $270 in a day. Okay. So now you're starting to realize the how lucrative pest control can be. But it's not always that lucrative. There's a lot of moving parts, there's a lot to it. Okay. Because you obviously don't see all $270 that dollar. Um, $270, you don't see all that. There's a lot of cost and under that. Especially if you work for a company. I mean, but a lot of companies you know pay you 20-25% of that. Um, and yeah, a lot of people have an hourly rate wage, things like that. So um, you know, I'm probably the wrong person to be to be giving advice because I'm just like, seriously, go start your own company. That's that's my advice. Because I'm just doing the math and I'm like, huh. I mean, you know, imagine if you're like I don't know, making $19, $20 an hour and you do $270, you know, your company's gonna love you when you're like, cool, I made $20. Um, and I'm not knocking anybody, please. I'm just I'm probably not the best person to get advice from. I'm not. But hey, if you want to start your own pest control business company, I have a series going on. Check it out. Oh man, I feel so bad. Like, I feel like crap right now. Um, because it's hard to give advice when you know I was a route technician. So, okay, let me rephrase this. All right, I'm not trying to devalue any company, I'm not trying to devalue any position at all. Okay, you need the experience. I went for about eight years working through companies, working a route before I even thought about starting my business, my own company. Okay, I cherish every single moment of my time working under companies, under management, as management, as a route tech, as a commercial tech. Okay. I cherish it. So cherish what you're doing now. The the everything you're learning, all the details you're learning, and all the tips and tricks you're gaining, they will all pay off in the long run. Because maybe down the road, you will start your own business and you will accomplish your goals, and you will be the master of your destiny. Okay? So thank you for letting me rephrase that. I apologize for earlier because I'm a terrible person to give advice, I think. Because I was just kind of crunching the numbers in my head. I'm like, wow, you know, when I first started pest control in California, oh gosh, when did I start? Um I think I started in 2017 or 2018 or something like that. Um and I started making $14 an hour. And you know, I was doing $1,000 production days working in about six, seven to eight hours, right? And you know, to me that was the most I've ever made. I went from making $14 an hour. Oh, yeah, actually, pay me $14.50. So I went from the warehouse $14 an hour to $14.50, and I slowly got some pay raises. So I cherish every moment about working for with the companies I've worked with, the experience I gained. Okay. So cherish it. Don't be bitter, don't be angry because it's just going to affect you, your clients, and your company. All right. Anyways, back to the episode. Gosh, this podcasting is dangerous. So that's essentially my guide on residential homes. It's very easy. You don't rethink the wheel. Companies have been doing the same type of service for so long and it works, it garnishes the results, right? Now, here's some tips and tricks you might have not known. All right. The bonus segment. Here we go. I already said one earlier. Remove webs from the garbage bins and the recycling bins. All right. Remove those webs. Okay, you gotta do it. Bonus tip number two. Do a little road inspection. If you're a more advanced technician, look for any holes. If you see any holes in the piping, in the AC, uh where the duct and the wiring is. Um, if you see any holes in the Eve pockets, the vents, anything like that, let the client know. Say that can turn into an issue, and we need to get something going here. Let me do a full inspection for you. Okay. Or maybe the client will tell you, yeah, I am dealing with rats. I didn't know you guys did that. How many times do you guys have a client saying, I didn't know you guys did anything for rats? I've been hearing them in the attic. And you're just like, huh, face palm. Yeah, I'm a pest control specialist. I'm here to help you with everything, right? So bonus tip two, always look for little entry points. Look for that upsell. Okay. Bonus tip number three is upselling itself, right? If the client says, I'm seeing, you know, some some rodents by my shed, or I'm noticing a lot of wasps, or I'm we're dealing with so many flies that think that they're coming from the neighbor. Upsell. If your company doesn't offer it, pitch it to your company. You could buy in bulk wasp traps, fly traps. Obviously, all companies have, or most companies have rodent stations, bait stations, right? Upsell those. It's going to increase your production, right? Let's say the client's seeing rodents in the backyard, like, can you do anything about it? Upsell, upsell, upsell. I'll tell you what, let's do two rodent stations in the backyard, one along the fence, one near the shed. I'm going to install them for you for $50, um, whatever the cost you have, and then we're going to charge you an extra $10 a month. Or sorry, $10 a service to refill the bait. Okay? So that's an upsell. You just got an additional $50 on top of that stop, right? Installing two bait stations, because I think, gosh, they're like $20, $25. Uh, I always lease them, I don't let the client keep them, but uh essentially I charge them an installation fee just in case they get destroyed, stolen, moved, or the client, you know, never wants to see my face again, and they just don't want me to get the stations, whatever, it's fine, right? Um, and then now an extra $10. So let's say you were charging the client $90 per trip, now you're at $100. And all you're doing is you're adding rodent stations to the mix, which is pretty easy. It's only like an extra five minutes at that, if you're, you know, smooth with your routine, because you do start to build a routine at these homes. You know, by the fifth, sixth time you've done a home, you you know it in and out. You know, you know exactly what routine you're gonna do, you know exactly where you're gonna hit the webs, things like that. Okay, so that's bonus tip number three is upsell. Bonus tip number four is always offer to treat the garage or something. Okay, this is like my little secret weapon. A lot of times people or technicians want to avoid doing extra work. They might want to cut it short and say, Yeah, great, cool, you know, say anything awesome, I'll get it done. What if you just say something simple? Oh, do you need me to, you know, check out the garage for you at all, or anything like that? A lot of times, like 90% of the time, they'll say no, we're all good. But that client will say, Oh, wow, you know what? I did see, you know, an outdoor cockroach or a water beetle in there. Clients love calling them water beetles, right? So it's just little things like that that will help set you apart. It is going to help you keep that client knowing, wow, you know, Anthony really does care. You know, no one I've had pest control for the past 10 years, you know, five different companies, but Anthony he asked, he asks, goes out of his way and asks me if, you know, hey, you want me to check the garage out, put a trap out, treat the garage, things like that. Okay, and bonus tip number five, work quick. Okay, I'm not saying fast, I'm not saying, you know, speed around, rush your service. I'm not saying that at all. Please don't rush your service. You're dealing with pesticides, your safety, your client's safety, your client's family's safety, their your client's pet safety. They're all at stake. Okay. But when you do stuff, do it quick. Now there's a time to do it quick. Don't don't try to rush mixing and diluting your products. Okay. But it's simple things like web removal. You can pick up the speed there. All right. I get it. It gets hot, we get sluggish, things like that. But there's certain aspects of the job where you can work quick because I'm telling you right now, whether you own your own company, you're running your own route, or you're working for a company, your life will be so much easier if you just pick up the speed. What's worse than you dragging your feet out of home at a residential service, and before you know it, you're there for 45 minutes. Your whole day is ruined. You're going to miss some time frames, you're going to be working later in the day, things like that, right? So just work quick. There's there's spots where you can pick up the pace, okay? There's spots where you shouldn't pick up the pace. You need to be safe. I'm not going to sit here and say, hey, get the world record for mixing bifen into your backpack sprayer, right? I'm not going to ever say that. But there's little aspects of your life that you can be quicker, okay? Such as the web removal. Maybe doing an inspection of a certain little detail. Like, okay, I'm going to check out this little crack and crevice over here, real quick. Or I'm going to check around the shed. Or checking bait stations is pretty easy. You know, I always build a rhythm with bait stations because a lot of times, you know, you know for sure, okay, time to switch out the bait or not to switch it out. You're not going to sit there and examine, but be careful. Sometimes snakes are in bait stations, sometimes there's rats. You know, I've seen it all myself. So those are all my little bonus tips. I hope this episode helped you out. This was focusing on uh residential homes. Um, you know, it's it's sort of catered towards the summer because that's when issues start picking up, but it works year round. So get out there, you know, be safe, get some get some results done, make some money. So thank you so much for listening. Until next episode. Bye.