Smart ways to automate your pest control business
By automating key areas of your pest control business, you can ultimately improve efficiency, free employees from repetitive tasks to focus on more important jobs, and improve customer satisfaction.
Although pest control is a very practical, hands-on industry that often involves navigating challenging environments, automation can play a key role in the admin side of things. In fact, automation technologies can improve customer satisfaction by 92%, increase capacity to handle volume by 91%, and boost customer engagement by 88%, Business Wire reports.
Automated scheduling software
Scheduling customer appointments is a key part of running a pest control business, and requires a considerable investment in time. Fortunately, automated scheduling software gives you the ability to book appointments in bulk, as well as assign certain locations to set technicians. In fact, you can also plan and select the quickest and most convenient routes from one job to the next – therefore improving speed and efficiency. Ultimately, with automated scheduling software, you can avoid common hiccups like accidentally double-booking technicians, or not accounting for travel time in between jobs.
Automate appointment reminders
Appointment and follow-up reminders function as an essential line of communication between you and your customers (in fact, over 85% of customers expect businesses to be proactive and initiate regular communication). Not only do appointment and follow-up reminders keep your customers up-to-date, but they also make sure you’re not wasting valuable time. This type of software can also be tailored to suit your unique needs – so, for example, you can schedule an email reminder to be sent a week prior to the appointment, followed by a text reminder on the day. And, once the job’s done, a follow-up email can also be sent; this can include relevant details about the appointment, instructions, and a thank you note. Automated appointment reminders can also be useful for businesses practicing integrated pest management (IPM): “an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices”, while also taking the natural life cycle of pests into account. Rather than being just one pest control method, IPM involves an ongoing series of evaluations, measures, and controls, which require multiple appointments over a period of time.
Chatbots for customers
Over 87% of customers say chatbots can answer their questions and resolve their problems effectively. So, by using chatbots to deal with common customer queries (such as, asking about pricing, rescheduling appointments, or confirming account details) your staff can then be freed up to place their efforts and focus into high-priority customer needs requiring more than a quick text response. Additionally, using chatbots to fast-track these smaller, simpler requests means customers no longer have to be put on hold. Responsiveness and customer satisfaction naturally improves as a result.
Automation offers clear benefits for your pest control businesses. Automated scheduling software, appointment reminders, and chatbots are just some of solutions available to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction.
