Pest Management Professional, August 2012
Growing Pains business Pete Schopen Contributor Keep Your Cool Watch Your Mouth and her husband to remove the firewood because it was full of powder post beetles When I sat down with my client at the end of the 10 hour treatment I mentioned the wood The customer told me she had been too busy to move it I suggested perhaps she was too lazy to move it What In my brain it sounded witty Luckily for me this particular client laughed it off Most pest control business owners and managers could write volumes on things their technicians have said or done that created trouble for the company For example we once hired a tech that flipped off a motorist on his first day of training I remember another tech that called one of my dads clients a deadbeat to his face for not paying his bill The all time best though comes courtesy of yours truly When I was 19 I was running a route for Mid Central Pest Control I remember the day clearly I had just finished listening to the Cubs beat the Reds on my work truck radio when I pulled up to a yellow jacket job It was hot out and the yellow jackets were buzzing around ferociously under the customers railroad ties I told her Id take care of the problem and asked her to keep her two children ages 3 and 4 inside while I worked I walked up to the railroad tie with my bulb duster and shot Drione dust into the hole At least that was my intention The duster clogged up on me and just enough Drione came out to drive the yellow jackets nuts I remember turning to run and seeing two additional problems both children Continued on page 74 B ill Cosby once hosted a TV show called Kids Say the Darndest Things My wife and I watched the show religiously Mr Cosby and the shows producers would get kids into situations that often led them to saying the darndest things In the pest control industry you are constantly talking to clients and its easy to slip up and say something youll regret Sometimes it can be as cute and funny as one of the rugrats on Kids and other times it will get you kicked out of a customers home Stressful jobs can shorten a fuse and make it unexpectedly easy to snap at a client or make a poor word choice Recently I was at a clients home providing a follow up service for carpenter ants treatment I was working through my tenth straight hour in 96 degree heat 102 degrees in her un air conditioned house I was tired hot and sweating up a storm when I noticed she still had firewood on her porch During my Initial visit a month earlier I asked her 72 August 2012 Pest Management Professional www mypmp net
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