How are pest control businesses using GPS fleet tracking?
Jul
When the bugs invade your home you don’t stop to think too much about how that pest control technician makes it to your house. You just want him there – fast!
But let’s take a moment to step into the world of a pest control business and go behind the scenes. What’s involved for a pest control business, from the moment you contact them to tell them you’re being overrun by termites or tarantulas, to the actual arrival of a technician, ready to fight those nasty bugs?
A lot of fleet companies are recognizing the advantage of using GPS tracking to run their business and pest control firms are no different. GPS fleet tracking gives them several distinct advantages to better handle jobs, whether they’re regular appointments or ad hoc emergencies like the one we mentioned above. It means the customer service team can take your job request, find the closest capable technician and dispatch them immediately – resulting in efficiency gains for the pest control business and a faster service for you, which is perfect when the bugs are advancing!
Let’s look at a real-world example of how GPS tracking is being used by pest control firms. Established over 50 years ago, JP McHale Pest Management is a Westchester pest control company that serves the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut areas.
They have a lot of technicians and inspectors that go to a lot of our customers homes each and every day. For them, having a GPS system is essential to making sure all their workers get to where they need to be, more easily and more efficiently.
Here is how GPS improves their business:
- Improved customer service – By implementing GPS, they know exactly what time they will arrive at a customer’s house and the route they will take. Once they type in the route, they will know exactly what time they can service the clients. This information helps them to schedule the right amount of appointments each day. They can also give our clients a more specific time frame so they know when they are going to service them. Their technicians will services clients in the same areas to be more time efficient. They can do this because, after all the addresses have been added to the GPS system, the GPS will tell them what route will be the most effective to cover the most properties in the least amount of time.
- Better prepared for every job – Using satellite imagery, they can see exactly the size and shape of the customer’s property. This helps them prepare well, knowing how much of the products they will need to bring to the appointment. The geography shows them exactly what they are dealing with, whether it’s woods, lakes, meadows or some other kind of topography. By seeing the size and shape of the terrain they can predict exactly how long the appointment will take to cover as well.
- Less downtime - If one of their trucks breaks down or has a problem, they know exactly where they are. They can come to their aid immediately.
JP McHale Pest Management have found using GPS fleet tracking to be a great return on investment, and intend to keep using it for many years to come.
If you’re a pest control business, maybe it’s time you looked into GPS fleet tracking can help you fight your own pests – pests like rising fuel prices, technician overtime and maintenance costs. In fact, you can even work out how much you could potentially save by using this handy ROI calculator.
With fleet management software and GPS tracking taking care of your mobile workers, you can focus on helping your customers stay ‘bug-free’!
