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Hello and welcome to another edition of the peskies pest control podcast right here in Montgomery, Alabama with your host, Travis and Michael. We do this podcast as a community service for the River region. This includes Montgomery, Prattville, Millbrook, Wetumpka, Pike Road and any other surrounding areas for people just like you.
Michael Wienecke
Hey, so here on the peskies podcast, we like to talk about real life events, things that Travis and I experienced day to day. And one of the things the other Day got me thinking about just talking about customer expectations, and how sometimes miscommunication can cause bigger issues than you would think it would.
Travis McGowin
You’re definitely right. So communication is a foundation for anything, I don’t care if it’s servicing, pest control or any other type of service industry, job. Communication is important in all aspects of your life, whether it’s, you know, dealing with your spouse, your children, your family members, communication is huge, because effective communication, if not handled appropriately, can leave some things either up to misinterpretation, you know, it can, it can cause things to just not be handled appropriately. So effective communication will definitely help set expectations a lot easier than ineffective communication.
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, and, you know, I think it’s, I think it’s good to say that, you know, pest control, wildlife control, road and control, mosquito control, any of that is a process, it does take time to get rid of some issues. Like we were just talking a minute ago, rodents can take a week. I mean, I’ve done them in a day, and had an not a problem. It could take a week, take a month, we have some that linger on for a little bit longer than that. But it’s definitely a process.
Travis McGowin
Well, there’s been plenty of times that I’ve been on site with the customer, whether we’re the first company, they’re called, whether they’re the you know, we’re the third company that they’ve called, or something like that. I’ve had customers after speaking about a problem, whether that’s rodents, whether it’s fleas, whether it’s ants, any of those things. It’s funny how many times they look at me, and they go, Oh, I didn’t know that. Or, oh, okay, well, that’s really cool. Because the previous company may not have explained things appropriately. And I’m not saying they didn’t do the job, right, or they didn’t do it, you know, the best way or what have you, they may have done it exactly like they needed to, however, not communicating those expectations of what’s going to happen next, how is this product going to work? How long is it going to take this product to actually take effect? can leave some doubts in the customers mind?
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, definitely, um, you know, over our Friday, and over the weekend, we had a an issue where we had a lady at her lake house, she was getting fire ants all over the steps. And we had treated it that the Friday. And for whatever reason, the communication did not get back that, you know, this, this particular issue takes about 24 to 48 hours to go away. So she had family over, over the weekend. And she was calling us. We were closed on Saturdays and Sundays. And you know, we got back to her Monday morning, right at 8am. And explained to her, you know, what was going on, went back out there and retreated and took care of the situation. But just just missing that communication of it’s a 24 to 48 hour period before those fire ants are gonna go away, was huge for her. So like I said, that was just an event that made us want to start talking about the expectations of like said not just fire ants, could be German roaches could be just general cockroaches, you know, restaurant issues, flies, dragonflies, all this stuff just takes time to get rid of it’s not it’s not always a one and done situation.
Travis McGowin
Sure, and with the knowledge that a pest control professional has, and I’m probably very, very guilty of what I’m about to reference or say next. My customers that I service on a regular basis would probably tell anybody this is that Travis sometimes over communicates. And I’m guilty of it, I promise you, I’m guilty of it. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I enjoyed the job so much, or I enjoyed the little tidbits of information that I think are kind of neat, or that interest me and I like to convey those over to the customer. But sometimes I find myself I’m like, I really I really just need to slow down and stop because I mean, they don’t really need to know all of these habits of this particular insect or whatnot. But I will say that if it is pertinent to the problem, if it’s pertinent to what’s going on, if it’s pertinent to the treatment type, and how long the treatment takes. Then, in my personal opinion, it is worth communicating that to the customer. And you know what they say about assuming if you leave things up to the customer to assume, then sometimes they’re going to assume wrong. And any problem that arises or any callback that arises May would have been completely squashed with just a few seconds of details from that technician to that customer.
Michael Wienecke
Yeah you know another storing think of carpenter base you know or wasp or any flying insect really you know we can control to an acceptable level or you know getting into the house eating into the woods, the Wasp, you know, wasp nest around the outside wasp nest in the, the, around the eaves or the gable van or something like that, but we cannot, we cannot control wasps and bees and, you know, any any flying insect from flying around your house, they’re just that’s not possible.
Travis McGowin
Well, and I love what you said any flying insect because key word right there they, they fly.
Michael Wienecke
So Zephyr mosquitoes, mosquitoes we, we can control.
Travis McGowin
Yes, we and we do a very good job. But, you know, a realistic expectation for a customer. With an insect like that with one that has wings, that’s a good flier is with the understanding that yes, there are preventative things we can do. And there are things we can do or our technicians can do while they’re on site. To mitigate some of those circumstances. For example, if you’ve got live or active walls nest or something like that, we you know, we always remove those, knock them down and try to get rid of those walls for you. And try to make those places where they’re at less inhabitable, if you will or make make things less than habitable for the insect to want to build their again, you know, such as applying dust or things like that. So, but but communicating that, hey, they fly, you can’t ultimately control where they come across from your neighbor’s yard to your house and then try to make their home on the side of your house. But we can definitely come and take care of the problem for the customer for sure.
Michael Wienecke
Definitely. And, you know, that’s part of our training too. We don’t you know, just train on on these our technicians learning how to apply pesticides, insecticides, anything like that or the machines that they use. We also were trying pretty hard on on, you know, getting that message across the customer, what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how you’re doing it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
