Johnny Echeverry, a Virucidal Program Service specialist for Westwood, N.J.-based RK Environmental Services, disinfects equipment controls at a commercial bakery. PHOTO: FRED MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY
We asked Pest Management Professional‘s columnists and editorial advisory board members to share ways pest management professionals (PMPs) can effectively promote their disinfecting and sanitizing services. Here are some of the experts’ responses from our May 2021 print edition.
Please take a minute to answer our latest one-question poll on this topic and let us know how you promote disinfecting and sanitizing services: Reader poll: Effectively promoting disinfecting, sanitizing services
PMP’s Editorial Advisory Board and Regular Contributors
Greg Baumann: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions against overselling, but that doesn’t diminish the value in surface disinfection. The key selling point is that this service further reduces the chance the virus survives on surfaces, thus offering customers peace of mind.”
Judy Black, BCE: “A disinfection service after an ‘incident’ can provide peace of mind for workers in a facility, in addition to the actual killing of potential pathogens.”
Mark Sheperdigian, BCE: “Lots of businesses are advertising their cleanliness and safety programs. Disinfection is effective against a wide variety of pathogens, and can anchor a ‘clean’ program.”
Michael Broder: “The easiest customer to sell to is to your existing customer. But disinfecting and sanitizing services are geared more to the commercial market, so companies with a strong commercial base will have a head start. Educate customers that it is not just about COVID-19. Proper sanitizing and disinfecting treatments are essential to eliminate multiple strains of bacteria and viruses that can contaminate any facility at any time.”
Foster Brusca: “If you are looking at offering disinfection and sanitizing services to your customers and you don’t have the ability to ramp up to offer this service, then use a subcontractor. But just like using subcontractor for any other service, you need to fully vet them before signing on. Get references, and check out those references. Confirm that they have the proper training and licenses to perform the required services. Last, but not least, find out how long they have been offering this type of service and what manpower they have. If they are not staffed right, they could get overwhelmed very quickly and leave you holding the bag with your customers.”
Doug Foster: “The most effective way to promote these services is to start with your existing customers first; they already know, like and trust you. We performed some courtesy treatments early on to help businesses that were struggling or didn’t know what to do, and referrals came from those jobs.”
Desiree Straubinger, BCE: “This service is not just for COVID-19. If we learned anything from last year, it’s that we don’t disinfect and sanitize surfaces enough. These surfaces should be disinfected frequently anyway, pandemic or not. Providing a focused message on keeping others safe and healthy will go further than focusing on COVID-19 itself.”
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