Does The Age Of Your Exterminator Matter? Maybe
Depending on what task is being asked of a person, the expectation is sometimes based off the age of the person. When people think of a young person they think flexible, quick, sharp, hungry. On the other hand when someone hears elderly or an older person they may think slow, but experienced, seasoned, comfortable, weathered and stiff. Should the age of your exterminator lead you to preconceived expectations of their performance? This argument is always open to discussion but our job today is to convince you that age is just a number.
Our resident bed bug pro, James, is 27 years old. He is an active part of our bed bug team as well as manages our bed bug team. He has helped us add many new protocol and saved us money on our bed bug treatments. James has been exposed to this industry since he was in diapers. James is fast, gets to all of his accounts early, works late, and every single one of his customers are always satisfied. He can lift very heavy objects and is very flexible. He even gets some of the younger customers flirting with him. Occasionally well get a phone call at the office asking if James is new. Some of our customers want someone who they view as more experienced. When we ensure the clients that James is the best of the best and just to let him work his magic they apprehensivley agree. Then when their problems are gone they are always satisfied. Because of these expectations James sometimes is embarrassed to tell the clients his age. On the other hand some other customer love that James is in his late 20s. The younger audience absolutely loves him as he can related better with them.
Mike is our resident rodent pro. He has been in this industry to see many changes. Mike has seen many products become banned and has seen poor neighborhoods turn to affluent ones. Mike is 63 years old and has been in the industry for 42 of those 63 years. Mike tell us that when he shows up at an account customers are usually confident of his experience but he feels like they can be hesitant of his abilities. He gets people to offer to carry his case, help him bend and even have had people call him gramps on occasion. He may not be able to bend as much as a young buck but his work speaks for it self. His eye sight may be a little less then perfect but his experience makes up for it. Mike is very gung-ho about pest control and always solves every problem at every account he goes to. Sometimes he feels embarrassed when people ask him age. He doesn’t want to be judged by that number.
Both techs are great performers. They both have never called out sick, both have had 0 service complaints and they both are very honest and trust worthy. Dishonesty and bad work has no age so age shouldn’t been seen as anything but a number. Although they feel judged by their age, their work speaks for it self. Sometimes as a service man they can’t worry about what the customers think of them. Just do the quality work and let it represent you as a tech. While James can Manage 3 bed bug related jobs a day, Mike may be able to do only 1-2 quality rodent accounts. Slow and steady wins the race and there is no rushing our employees. The key to age is using it as a benefit to the company and to yourself. If the older gentleman tires out quicker its best to set him up with as much work as he feels comfortable with. James on the other hand can do much work and he needs the experience! You can never be too old, too experienced or too smart for this job. When you are a quality employee you use age to your benefit and do not let the stigma of the age expectations get to you. Use the benefits of your age to your positive and don’t let the negative get to you!
