Take a trip to the grocery store, coffee shop, big box store, bank or gas station — or drive past most major highway intersections — and a video camera is recording your every move. This is not news to your commercial customers; most have been doing this for years. But as the technology for video recording becomes more affordable, your residential customers are getting up to speed and monitoring what’s going on in and around their homes. What does this mean for you and your business?
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Your team may be performing an outside-only service at a home, and while the owners are at work, the “eye in the sky” (or more accurately, the video camera mounted to the roof) may be watching. Just about every security video camera on the market has motion sensors to activate recording and alert users that someone is within camera range.
At work, your customers can watch on their smartphones, tablets or computer screens your technician’s every move, and decide for themselves the quality of service your company is providing. Even if you are performing a service indoors while your customers are home, they still may be watching your every move from the privacy of a room where their monitors are set up.
Furthermore, a customer watching your technicians perform a service may talk to them as the camera records them and say, “Hey, you missed that spider web” or “Make sure you treat for the ants around the back deck” — and then watch to see whether they do it.
Time for training
I have many customers from around the country who own second homes here in the Great Smoky Mountains. Many of them have security systems and a host of video cameras that give them real-time access to activity on their properties. Many of our residential customers who live here full-time have cameras as well.
You must address this issue with your staff. They need to know that nearly everywhere they go, they are being recorded and possibly watched live as they are working. As you kick off 2018, this is a great topic to talk about in your all-employee meetings. Bring this issue to the forefront, and make sure everyone knows they probably are being watched.
Heck, it might just make better technicians out of some of your employees. If they realize they are being watched, they may do their jobs in a way that would make their mothers proud.
Last month, lots of homeowners received security cameras for Christmas. Security cameras are seemingly everywhere, so you can bet your residential customers who can afford pest management services can afford security cameras, too.
It’s worth noting security cameras are getting smaller and can be hidden in places that make them unnoticeable. I’ve seen cameras hidden inside a soda can and an alarm clock. So, I’ll close with a few words to the wise: Always perform as a professional and just like you are being watched, because you most likely are. Happy New Year!
You can reach Johnson, a past president of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), president of Sevierville, Tenn.-based Johnson Pest Control, and founder of ACES for Business at ray@johnsonpestcontrol.com.
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