Automated Communication: Messaging with Ease

Editor’s Note: Our theme for this month focuses on topics that make things easier for you when it comes to your pest control business. We chose to re-share this particular blog on ways to improve automating your business’s communications with customers because the resulting effects touch so many different aspects of your business in a positive way.

Two of the most important things you can do to ensure your pest control business is a success are communicating with your customers and automating your processes. 

According to this article from Entrepreneur.com, “Communication is at the heart of human interaction, and it can make or break a business. Being able to communicate effectively with customers can lead to increased sales, repeat business, and referrals. On the other hand, not being able to quickly leads to decreased sales, frustrated customers, and negative word-of-mouth advertising. So, one big question facing businesses in this ever-more-connected society of ours is: How can businesses improve their communications with customers in order to grow and thrive?” The answer is automated communication.

Whether you realize it or not, there are several areas where you are already communicating with your customers. From invoicing, to contracts, to responding to customer inquiries, or sending out appointment reminders, if you’re doing this manually, you’re likely wasting time, and your messaging is inconsistent. Pest control software can help make this easier. For example:

Invoicing

How are you contacting your customers when they’re 30-60-90 days past due? It’s not efficient to call every single customer. With pest control software, you can set configurations to automatically send customized emails, SMS texts, or voicemail messages based on a customer’s balance, or the number of days a customer is past due. Automated reminders will decrease late payments, so you get paid faster. With the click of a button, they can go to their personalized customer portal and submit their payment. 

Appointment Reminders

Appointment reminders can be automated to go out a certain number of days before an appointment or when the technician arrives. For example, you can set a phone reminder to go out a week before the appointment, an email reminder to go out a couple of days before the appointment, or SMS text reminders to go out on the day of the appointment. After the service is complete, your customers will receive a follow-up email. 

Contracts and Agreements

Automating your contracts and agreements makes it faster for your customers to sign, and it reduces unnecessary paper waste. Some regulations require an Electronic Consent Agreement (ECA) before pest control services can begin. You can create and send ECAs electronically for customers to sign, and a copy is sent to their email. 

Messaging

When COVID-19 first hit, how were you letting your customers know that pest control was essential? If you couldn’t automate your communications, then you likely saw a lot of cancellations. But your competitors who have already chosen to automate their messaging were able to send personalized emails, SMS texts, and voice messages educating their customers about the safety that pest management provides. 

Automation has changed the way we do business for the better. Automating your customer communications enables you to focus your efforts and energy on doing what you do best – making your customers happy.