More often than not those who run pest control businesses wonder what they could possibly do to bring in more customers or improve the quality of their services. After all, there are only so many ways in which you can hope to spin a service as basic as pest control. Local pest control companies often have a limited number of resources and just enough manpower to cater to a specific geographic area and a small number of customers.
However, there are a few ways in which you can market your service without splurging the big bucks on a fancy ad campaign. Now more than ever, Display Marketing is being recognized as the forerunner in online advertising solutions. However, it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t have the time and resources to devote to an elaborate ad campaign. We all know that success isn’t always guaranteed with such campaigns and the large monetary investment they require doesn’t always pay off in the ways you want it to.
Besides, it can be more than a little challenging to get creative and market a pest control business since essential services rarely have unique features that make good selling points. Therefore, it would appear that finding alternative ways to market your business over executing a lackluster ad campaign should do the trick. One way to do this would be to offer customers additional services to complement your routine services. For instance, you could consider starting an emergency line for your pest control business.
All said and done, pest infestations don’t exactly come with a warning or an advance notice. To many people, a pesty nuisance could spell big trouble if they don’t get rid of it as soon as possible. Think about it, it’s not just about offices and businesses, even homeowners who are anticipating guests or simply can’t live with a pest infestation would want to have their living spaces pest-free quickly. Therefore, it’s not difficult to imagine that there should be sufficient demand for a pest control emergency line.
Having spelled that out, we might as well acknowledge that setting up such an emergency line is easier said than done. There are a few factors you’ll need to consider before you rush into a decision that might cost you more than it’s worth in the long run. Let us address a few of these factors below.
Cost
Even if you’ve been running a pest control company for years and have had a steady stream of revenue, don’t expect an emergency line to come cheap. It’s far cheaper to have standard working hours for labor than it is to hire people that cater to aggrieved home/office owners on demand. Besides, if your emergency line doesn’t see enough action, you could end up spending more on wages than you’d be benefiting from such labor.
Alternatively, if you receive too many calls for an emergency pest control job, you may not always have staff available for the same. In such a scenario, you might have to pay other staff members more or hire someone else in the nick of time to take up the work. As you can imagine, this will turn out to be quite expensive (not to mention stressful!) in the long run.
However, if you’ve conducted adequate research and concluded that the demand for emergency pest control will be healthy enough, the profit you’ll make should more than compensate for the extra labor costs. Also, another way in which you can ensure that you don’t end up paying more for labor, etc. than you make, you could charge customers a higher fee for emergency pest control services than you would for regular pest control services. In other words, you’d be charging them a premium for using an emergency service to make up for the extra costs you’ll have to bear.
Additional Resources
It’s not just extra staff you’ll be requiring for an emergency pest control line, other resources come into play here as well. You’ll need to take into account the extra fuel costs, insecticides, and more that you’ll have to stock up on to meet increased demand. Unless you’re anticipating a good number of emergency calls, the holding and ordering costs associated with the extra inventory of insecticides, etc. may not be worth the investment.
On the other hand, if your market research indicates that you’ll bring in enough customers, you could consider ordering in bulk to take advantage of any discounts from suppliers, thereby cutting costs in the process.
Brand Image
Only the biggest and best pest control companies have emergency lines as these are often the only ones that can afford them. However, if you keep the aforementioned points in mind to cut costs and maximize profits, it could well be worth it to invest in an emergency line for customers. After all, offering such a service can boost your reputation in the eyes of customers and potential customers. In doing so, it’ll help you build a strong brand image and cement your presence as one of the best pest control companies in the area.
Also, having a strong presence can help you run successful ad campaigns – both online and offline. Think of it this way, it’s easier to market yourself when you have more to offer customers than your competitors do. Sure, every company out there will claim that their services are of the highest quality, but the average consumer knows that these are often tall claims. However, having an extra service to offer (such as an emergency line) could be your ace in the hole that’ll give you a competitive edge both in the short and in the long run.
Well, that’s that, all the reasons why you should or shouldn’t have an emergency line for your pest control service. If you bear the aforementioned factors in mind, you should be able to make an informed decision regarding whether or not your business will benefit from establishing an emergency line.
