Pest Management Professional, July 2016

Start Up DiarieS going from hero to zero and back again I t finally happened We got a zero rating from a client Over the past 10 years the worst rating we ever received was a 30 out of 5 If you were to look at our company online on the Home Advisor or Yelp apps you would see our average rating is a 48 which lets be honest here is freaking hard to do We are a four time repeat winner of Home Advisors Highest Honor for customer service This particular client had used us before for rodents and had given us a 50 just nine months earlier What the heck happened Strike 1 i make a client wait I preach to all of you the importance of getting back to your clients quickly yet here I dropped the ball The voice message Mrs Jones left me said Hi Pete Just wanted to let you know that your exterior treatment didnt work very well I found one really big ant and an even bigger wasp in my house over the weekend Please send someone out to look at this for me Normally I would quickly call the client back and explain that one ant and one wasp is not worthy of a callback extra service because the wasp could have flown in through the garage sliding glass doors chimney etc The ant that had wandered in would probably be dead shortly after crossing our chemical barriers Unfortunately the day in mid May that she called was the third straight hot day in the Chicagoland area I was answering one call for every three that were coming in To make matters worse I was training a new employee so I was super slow in responding On top of that the travel baseball team I coach had games every night that week so I was leaving the office each day around 4 p m instead of my normal 6 p m Excuses be damned I did something I never do I made this particular client wait to hear back from me Strike 2 i make my client wait Some more Later that night I got an email from Mrs Jones reminding me that she had called and asking me again to call her back It would have been easy to reply to her email and let her know that I would call her back the next day But by the time my baseball game was over and I got home it was 10 30 p m and I was tired I just went to bed your clients have power and their ratings can make or break your company Strike 3 my upSet client iS not yet my priority Early the following morning Mrs Jones calls again I plan to call her back but one of my techs needs my help first By the time I was done with my tech I had a dozen voice messages on my phone from new clients who needed help One by one I start calling them back pushing my upset client farther down the line I teach both my baseball players and my technicians to work with urgency A small ant problem for one client might be an annoyance for another client that small ant problem could cause severe anxiety For Mrs Jones my lack of putting By pete Schopen Contributor Photos sChoPEN PEst soLUtIoNs IstoCk Com 07_ av Continued on page 76 SchopenS open Book Start up Schopen Pest Solutions Inc HeadquarterS McHenry Ill Founder Peter F Schopen Jr Start up date April 11 2006 nuMber oF eMployeeS 7 2006 revenue 97235 one employee 2007 revenue 172495 one employee 2008 revenue 203732 one employee 2009 revenue 243427 two employees 2010 revenue 325960 three employees 2011 revenue 425847 four employees 2012 revenue 489887 five employees 2013 revenue 572772 six employees 2014 revenue 687326 one part time and six full time employees 2015 revenue 858180 one part time and seven full time employees 2016 May 89006 nearly 25000 more than May 2015 2016 FirSt Five MontHS 360531 nearly 100000 more than last year 2016 projection 1081306 10 fulltime employees 74 July 2016 pest Management professional mypmp net