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Catching Flies (and Business) on the Web
1 Jul, 2008 By: Heather Gooch Pest Management ProfessionalEleven years ago, Jeff Klein decided he was downright bored with watching pipes rust.
As an operations manager for a water treatment company, he had his pesticide license but did little with it. When a friend of his who owned a pest management company asked him to help out on a commercial cleanout, however, Klein had an epiphany.
"I realized just how satisfying it was to walk into an account with so many problems, and be able to improve it," he says.
Klein had the technical know-how; his wife, Lisa, had the sales experience. Together, they founded AAA Superior Pest Control in Shohola, Pa., in 1997. And it's far from boring: "There are so many different aspects to the business," Jeff Klein points out. Today, A3 Superior serves New York City's five boroughs as well as northeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Because of their focus on the Big Apple, A3 Superior technicians do more walking and subway riding than driving — so keeping a fuel tank full is less of an issue when planning a route.
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A 'CLEAN' BREAK
From the start, the Kleins made kitchen exhaust cleaning an integral part of their commercial services. Many fundamental sanitation problems posed by older buildings housing restaurants, bars, etc., can be at least lessened by a thorough steam cleaning into all the nooks and crannies where fly larvae and food particles can hide. But by 2004 — for a separate insurance policy as much as for a growing clientele — they spun the cleaning division off into its own company, Systematic Cleaning Services. They also expanded its array of service offerings to include duct cleaning, drain jetting, pressure washing, dumpster and pad cleaning, and graffiti removal, among others.
In the early years, the Kleins realized that there was an opportunity to reach out to non-fly control customers in need of help by providing fly control products on the Internet. ProFlyControl.com was born.
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"We sell traps, lights and literature all across the country, as well as directly to other PMPs," Klein says. "We get product directly from manufacturers, and in some cases distributors — we do enough volume that they're able to get us good pricing. We don't mark it up a lot, and we offer free shipping to the continental U.S."
Klein is able to drop ship U.S. orders, and is currently planning to go global by the end of the year. "We'll probably have to have the shipments come here to the office first, but with the value of the U.S. dollar declining, we felt it was a good time to expand," he says.
Klein notes that the Internet has been a boon to his business (See "Five Sites Build the Brand," page 62). "We do very little phone directory advertising anymore because the return on investment is small by comparison," he explains. "The Web allows us to target specific audiences. It more than pays for itself."
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