CLEARWATER, FL—Industry veterans Chuck Steinmetz and Jim Swayne have partnered to launch a new once-a-year pest control and termite protection company in Clearwater, Fla.: Safer Home Services.
Steinmetz pioneered the once-a-year concept with Sears Authorized Termite & Pest Control from 1982 to 1997, growing Sears to one of the largest pest and termite companies in the nation. While building the Sears business, Steinmetz also led Middleton Lawn & Pest Control to become one of the largest and most-respected companies in the industry from 1977 to 2009.
Swayne began working with Steinmetz in 1985 at Middleton, and joined the Sears leadership team in 1990. He played a large part in Sear’s growth in the west Florida and Texas markets.
After the Sears pest and termite business was sold in 1997, both Steinmetz and Swayne pursued various interests outside of the pest industry — but the question on why no sizeable company picked up the once-a-year concept routinely came up in their conversations about the industry. In the summer of 2012, they began formulating their ideas for a new once-a-year pest control company, combining their proven technical service delivery model with new, state-of-the art prescriptive-type materials.
Chuck Steinmetz, left, and Jim Swayne have launched Safer Home Services.
Safer Home Services will concentrate primarily on the residential market, and has developed a once-a-year service protocol that locks pests out of the home for an entire year – with one comprehensive annual service. Safer Home Services also provides subterranean and drywood termite protection. Steinmetz and Swayne maintain there is a great demand for pest protection that is not only more convenient, but also more effective while remaining more family-friendly, more pet-friendly, and more environmentally responsible.
The pair says the once-a-year model not only provides the customer greater value, but allows the company to grow at a faster rate. Primarily using a sales-technician approach, where the same person making the promises to the customers is the same person delivering on those promises, Safer can build a stronger relationship with the customer while being able to pay their technicians substantially more than the industry average, thereby attracting the best talent.
In addition, Swayne has developed a comprehensive marketing and advertising plan that takes advantage of the many geo-targeted streams available to launch Safer Home Services to the public, beginning July 1, 2014.
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