5 Things You Shouldnt Say To A Pest Management Professional
Working in a service industry such as pest control, PCOs have interactions with all types of people through out the day. Other then exterminating pests and making peoples homes and businesses a safer place, PCOs also speak with people about their pest issues amongst other conversations. Sometimes people see pest control professionals as college drop outs or working a 2nd job. Today we’ve made a list of 4 Things you shouldn’t say to a pest control professional –Well thats at-least if you want a good job.
- “I went to college so I didn’t have to be an exterminator”. First of all don’t call us an exterminator its demeaning. Only we can call ourselves that. We prefer Pest Management Professional or PMP. Attempting to denigrate or disrespect someones chose career path is never a good idea; especially if you’re trusting a PMP to do a good job on your home/business. Pest management professionals need plenty education to do their job. Between trade school, apprenticeship, certification tests, continuing education classes, and most importantly real world experience. Just because your pest control pro didnt sit through a semester of world economic lectures does not mean you should not respect their knowledge and hustle.
- “My Brother in law is an exterminator in Montana, and when I called him he told me you should do this.”. Well then instead of paying us to inspect and treat you should be on Expedia looking for the next round trip flight from Montana to NYC since hes the expert. Unless your friend or relative has physically inspected the property they may not see all of the issues we are seeing. We know they mean well but please leave it to the professionals. Besides you’ve hired us because you trust us, so just let us do our work.
- “Can you come down on the price a little bit?”. To where we respons “Sure we can, if you would like a less quality job i know a company down the block called “Cut Rate Exterminators”.” Please remember you get what you pay for. Not everyone can afford everything so you may want to investigate and get quotes that you feel you can afford. Our services are priced accordingly to what the quality and value of our work provide. If you were going to the doctor for a knee replacement would you ask the doctor for a break on the labor? Some people are just natural hagglers and thats okay but remember, your PMP has a family to feed and bills to pay too. Being a PCO is a blue-collar job with blue collar wages so trying to haggle down the price of a monthly service isnt fair to the PMP trying to make a true honest buck.
- “How do I know you’re not selling me things that I dont need, I dont trust you”. Most honest PMPs are hard working and honest. They are usually sensitive about their trust worthiness. Dont let one bad apple spoil the bunch and paint with a broad brush. Just because your friends PMPs ripped him off doesn’t mean they’re all crooks.
- “That stuff your using is attracting them. If you got rid of all my roaches then you wouldn’t be coming here anymore.” That couldn’t be furthest from true. We actually will always target the roaches with baits that may at first attract them but will later eliminate them. Sometimes clients see roach activity a few days after treatment and assume the treatment didn’t work. Our baits and gels are not magic wands that eliminate the pests as soon as we leave. These cutting edge baits work slowly so it doesn’t cause any alarm to the infestation. Once they all share baits and ingest it, it slowly starts to eliminate them. We want a good reputation which is why we will always do the right thing!
Please remember all hard working people have souls and to treat everyone with respect. Many PMPs actually love their jobs and wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Try to be humane and trust your pest control professional that they will give you a quality job at a reasonable price. Most members of this industry are honest hard working people who just want to make an honest living so with that in mind, be kind. No matter what the job is, sanitation worker, pest control worker, lawyer, custodian, or CEO all jobs are the same, we are all equal.
