Mail termite service postcard to GPC customers

In a recent webinar, Barry Bryant, sales and marketing manager for Bill Clark Pest Control, Beaumont, Texas, explained how to create a postcard mailing to let general pest control (GPC) customers who don’t have your company’s termite coverage, know that they’re not covered for termites.

This struck a chord with me personally because on many occasions, when customers call to let us know that they have a problem with termites, they soon learn they didn’t purchase termite protection in the first place. Most are OK learning this news, but one in 10 might be upset that we didn’t do a good job of communicating this to them before now.

After the webinar, I immediately created a “You are not covered for termites!” notice for that portion of our customer base. The postcard explains that their current coverage does not include termite protection and offers them a checkbox to either request or decline a free inspection and estimate. In today’s world of litigation, this could come in handy, just in case they want to sue your company because you did not let them know.
 

Reaping the benefits

As a result of this single mailing, we have sold several new termite service agreements to our GPC customers. We only had one complaint about the notice, in which a customer explained that she thought we monitored for termites anyway while we were providing her service. After explaining that we are always on the lookout for termites while we perform our service, we just wanted to inform customers formally that they had no termite protection, she calmed down.

We also asked customers to sign and date the notice so we could place it in their files. Several customers thanked us for sending the notice, because from their point of view, it verifies that they have already paid for this peace of mind.

As we continue down the road of doing business in today’s world, it’s refreshing to learn new ideas — and more importantly, to do something with what we’ve learned. Our industry is filled with folks who are willing to share how they conduct business and offer ideas that have had a positive impact on their business. I’m still learning new tricks, and I look forward to learning even more and sharing them with you.

You can reach Contributor Ray Johnson, a past president of the National Pest Management Association, president of Sevierville, Tenn.-based Johnson Pest Control, and founder of ACES for Business, at ray@johnsonpestcontrol.com.