Lobster Marketing: 6 tips for working through the pandemic

Ross Mawhinney

The team at Lobster Marketing Group realizes that door-to-door sales is not really an option during the COVID-19 pandemic, so we’ve put together the following six tips for pest management professionals (PMPs) to focus on instead:

1. Make a plan, and determine what is best for your company. Many companies are up against the question “What do I do?” First, you have to find what is right for you and your employees. Limiting your services to exterior services, alleviating physical touchpoints like handshakes and customer signatures, and providing interior services by request only, all can help protect against the spread of COVID-19 while still completing your service and maintaining healthy relationships with your customers. On the other hand, if the personnel, plan, and chemicals are in place, creating a solution to fight back against COVID-19 through offering sanitation treatments and services could increase the opportunity at new revenue.

2. Don’t panic. Everyone is going through the same thing, and we all have the opportunity to learn it at the same pace. Combatting COVID-19 from a marketing standpoint is a never-before-seen circumstance that takes innovation and communication.

3. Show customers that you care. Go above and beyond to help them overcome the hurdles they are facing. They, too, are going through this for the first time, and the fear surrounding COVID-19 is very real. Be patient and empathetic. How you handle their concerns now determines how they do business with you in the future.

4. Communicate. Tell your customers about the transitions you are facing. Let them know what to expect that may be outside what they would consider “normal” business practices. Be willing to have a plan in place to update interested customers as new information comes out.

5. Innovate. Being flexible on how you do business, both out in the field and in the house, is important. Being able to make changes to your processes will allow you to adapt and overcome quickly. As more objective knowledge becomes accessible, learn it and use it. Adapting quickly will see your business through to the other side.

6. Seize the day. Take advantage of this time to better understand what marketing channels are generating your highest return, and focus on those outlets.