3 Things You Need to Retain Good Technicians

Imperative to any service provider of any industry is providing the first-rate service to the customer. For your pest control company in the current competitive market, this is certainly no different. The pest control companies leading the industry are aware that retaining happy customers is much less expensive than acquiring new ones.

It is also no secret that customer retention is most often a direct result of the service rendered by a company’s technicians. Hiring good technicians is the first step to retaining good technicians. Once you’ve hired a solid technician team, there are proven ways to keep them.

Bottom line, when your technicians are productive and satisfied, your company will retain more customers and that’s going to mean more money in your pocket. Where there is higher productivity, there is also a higher profit. You already understand this, but it isn’t always clear just how to retain valuable technicians.

Outlined here are 3 important things you can do to retain hard-working technicians and to support them in providing quality services to your customers.

1. Route Optimization

Pave The Way For Technician Success

When asked why he switched to a different company earlier this year, Aaron N., a technician in the industry stated,

“I was constantly driving from one end of the city to the other, wasting time in traffic, every day. On every job, I was concerned about getting to the next one. I was constantly in trouble for missing jobs that were impossible for me to get to without missing other jobs. I ended up talking to a few of my friends and switching to a company that was smart about it.”

Aaron’s frustration is common in the industry. Your technician’s productivity and your profits will both increase if your pest control company implements ways to optimize technician routes. This can be done by using an app, like the one provided through Briostack, so that your technician can take control of the daily route. Giving them this freedom then lets them take ownership of their performance.

With route optimization and turn-by-turn direction, the stress of getting to each job will dissipate and your technicians will focus again on what is important, taking care of each of your valued customers.

2. Smart Scheduling

Save Time And Increase Productivity With An At-A-Glance Schedule

Vital in supporting your technician is giving them a smart, easy way to schedule appointments. We will all have developed different methods of scheduling appointments and jobs. Some use old-school methods such as meticulously writing everything inside planners, others will utilize the calendar app on their phone.

While any of these methods can work for an individual, handling such important customer scheduling and information individually will never benefit your customers or company as a whole.

A technician’s schedule is bound to be very dynamic, changing by the week, day or hour as new appointments are made and as other appointments are changed or canceled.

Giving your technicians a streamlined application to access these appointments as they come and go will enable your technicians to complete their work with as much efficiency and ease as possible. Meanwhile, keeping customer addresses and contact information in one easy to use app keeps their information private and safe.

Being able to stay on top of customer requests, account changes and re-services is key to helping the customer know they are important to you. Using technology and mobile apps help the technicians communicate with the office and the office with the technicians to best resolve any concerns your customer has. Taking notes on paper or sending emails can be a recipe for disaster if something is missed or misplaced.

Your technicians need to be confident that they have all the information they need to help the customer and provide the highest level of quality service available. In turn, job satisfaction will increase for your technicians because the interactions on each job are positive.

3. Show Appreciation For Your Technicians

Reward Good Work To Inspire More

Forbes Magazine recently funded a study on companies that spend money rewarding their employees for their accomplishments in contrast to companies that do not spend money on employee recognition.

Interestingly enough, it was found that the companies that spent between 1-2% of their payroll on employee recognition consistently outperform the companies that don’t. Outlined in their research were several ways found to be most effective in rewarding employees. A few of their recommendations would be good practices to implement among your company’s technicians. It was suggested that managers make rewards more specific.

Rather than choosing a technician of the month, (although not a bad idea altogether) rewarding a technician for handling a specific issue with good judgment and service to a customer will demonstrate a higher level of appreciation and set the bar high for the rest of the company’s technicians. It is suggested by many in business management that this type of appreciation be awarded by both an employee’s leaders and peers.

When leaders of any company successfully cultivate an environment where employees are surrounded by support and encouragement and where peers reward peers, continuing to work for such a company isn’t a difficult decision.

Smart leaders will double dip on their achievement spending, rewarding hard-working technicians with apparel adorned with the company logo, serving as an advertisement wherever that article will be worn. Some leaders will choose to give gift cards, others will take their employees out to lunch. Whatever you decide to do to recognize your technicians, do it genuinely.

Bottom Line…

Retaining good technicians will be critical to the happiness of your customers and the success of your company.

Many companies will choose to cut corners or costs in the short term, but the companies that will lead this industry are the ones that will invest in the tools that will increase the productivity and optimism of their technicians.

The technicians that will produce the most will have their schedules at their fingertips, an optimized route pre-planned for them, and a supportive, encouraging company environment. 

Learn more pest control tips here, 7 Steps to Improve Your Pest Control Business.