Pest control companies can be a bit like a family recipe. They’re passed down from generation to generation, group chat to group chat, and shared between neighbors. When my family’s go-to pest guy sold his business and retired, I was devastated. Do you know how hard it is to find a pest guy who gets the job done, fast, and at a reasonable rate? If you have one, hold them near and dear. You’re very lucky. I, on the other hand, am on the hunt for a new pest service.
And where do I begin this hunt? A message to three of my group chats, because when it comes to home-based service businesses, word-of-mouth and a personal recommendation are golden.
And when I am unsuccessful, where do I go next? A Google search, of course. This is why your reputation matters…it could be the beginning of a long, beautiful relationship.
Part 1: Helping Your Customers Find Your Pest Control Business
I don’t care who you are, there will come a time at least once in your life when you have to call a pest control company. If you don’t have a personal recommendation, then you’re turning to Google and their Local Map Pack for a “best pest companies near me” or “affordable pest control in [insert town]” search.
Having a good star rating on your Google Business Profile, recent reviews, and a sufficient number of reviews are factors that are going to play into whether or not you’re going to be found and called by your next customer. All of these roll up into your overall reputation, and a strong reputation means that your local pest control business can actually be found in the sea of other businesses.
Because I know you’re really busy chasing mice and taking names, I’ll keep it quick and snappy about two things that you definitely want to have: 1) Google Business Profile, and 2) reviews for that profile.
A complete Google Business Profile should include:
- Your contact information
- Areas that you service
- Services that you provide and/or pests that you have a track record with (raccoons, mice, rats, bats, ants, bed bugs, fleas, more creepy crawly stuff I don’t want to think about)
- Hours of service
- Website (if you have one. If you don’t have a website, NiceJob actually has a pretty great Sites plan that builds and maintains a website specifically designed to convert more leads).
Once you have claimed your Google Business Profile and filled out all the basics, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re asking for reviews and ideally have a reviews and reputation strategy in place.
Here are some things to pay attention to when it comes to your reviews strategy:
- Average review rating: Asking satisfied customers for reviews after you’ve solved their problem helps give you a strong rating, and customers definitely want the 4.8-star company coming in rather than the 2.5-star company. A strong rating gives the customer confidence that you’ll get the job done.
- Review volume: The more reviews, the better. You seem more trustworthy and experienced, and the average of a lot of positive reviews helps balance out a couple of inevitable negative ones that come through.
- Recency of reviews: Recent reviews are often the most credible signal of service. Sometimes a pest company will have a lot of positive reviews, but they’re all older than three years and it leaves a customer wondering if they’re still in business. And on the flipside, sometimes a pest company has been sold and is under new ownership, or has grown, and with its growth, perhaps it has made some compromises on service quality. Recent reviews help you control that story.
- Responsiveness to reviews: Responding to reviews is an important part of customer service, it shows appreciation for someone taking time to write a review, and it’s a great opportunity to showcase empathy and professionalism if something doesn’t go exactly as planned.
- Detailed, keyword-rich reviews: Inevitably, you will start to build more relevant keyword-rich reviews simply through volume. People will talk about things like the way you effortlessly handled their mouse infestation, humanely removed a raccoon that moved into the attic, how you handled fumigation and follow-up inspections with professionalism, how you were responsive, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced, and most importantly how your service was worth every penny.
Call it what you want, but if you show up, get the job done, and I don’t have to deal with scary pests in my house, I will probably leave you a glowing review, and be a customer for life (but more on that later).
The best part of a strong review strategy though, is that its benefits compound over time. More volume, recency, positive customer sentiment, relevant keywords, and the credibility of 200+ reviews really helps to seal the deal. Plus with AI search on the rise, reviews are more important than ever before.
This brings us to the big question: how can I get more reviews for my pest control business?
The answer is simple. You just need to ask. You can use QR codes or direct links to your Google Business Profile on your invoice. You can send an email or text follow-up message. Or you can set an automated system, so that you don’t have to think about it. NiceJob has a pretty great reviews campaign system, loved by pest control companies for its simplicity. It’s literally a set it and forget it deal, where you mark a job as complete and then a customer will get a personalized email and SMS sequence to leave a review.
The best time to ask? Right after delivering the happy news that their home is no longer under threat of rodents and creepy crawlers. You might even get an invite to Sunday dinner after being the hero on that one.
Part 2: Finding The Customers Who Will Trust You For a Lifetime (And Tell All of Their Friends)
Pest control companies are one of those companies where you want repeat customers, but you also don’t (or at least not for the same issue so soon). A good pest control service means that you shouldn’t have to go back. But an excellent pest control service means you’re saved to contacts for the next time that there’s an issue, and you’re the number that they’re sharing when their friends need a recommendation.
Some people might be thinking, “no, no, no, why do you have crumbs in your house? The mice wouldn’t come back if you had a cleaner house”, but I’m sorry, my home was built in the 1920s. There is a crawlspace. I love it. It has character and soul, but I will be battling pests my entire life. I know it. My retired pest control bestie knew it. And you know it. Proactive pest control is kind of like maintenance that I will probably have done every few years.
This is the specific fit for repeat service reminders. While most homeowners might not necessarily need regular pest control services, there’s a niche of customers who will regularly want to be checked out and have their traps and mouse poisons reset and reloaded. A seasonal email or SMS blast or a repeat booking campaign can keep your business top of mind and keep your calendar full even in slower seasons. This is great for customers who have older homes, who might have semi-regular seasonal work completed. (NiceJob’s Pro plan has a great Broadcasts campaign feature for one off promotions or seasonal reminders, and a Repeats campaign for rebooking reminders for those specific customers who will become regulars).
But the thing is, you only get these lifetime clients if you provide exceptional service and make sure that they don’t forget about you.
Everything that you do is part of your pest control business’ reputation from the way you show up to the invoice being sent.
It feels obvious to say, but if you can’t resolve the pest issue, you’re probably not getting lifetime clients. If you can resolve the pest issue, but it took forever to schedule the service, customer communication was unclear, the team left a mess at the job site, you didn’t honor the warranty, payment was confusing or there were a lot of extra hidden fees… you’re probably also not getting a lifetime client.
So here’s the math. In either of those scenarios above, you might get one job out of the customer. Maybe it’s an $800 job. But they’re probably not going to feel great about your business and come back, let alone recommend you to their peers.
On the other hand, if you provide a solid, trustworthy, and reliable experience, you will get a Google Review, a lifetime customer who might have some work done every three to five years for the next 20 years, and they will probably tell all their friends about you. On average, a happy customer will tell about 9 more people. And a really happy customer will tell 15-20 more people. This compounds into a lot more jobs and a lot more money for your business, all without having to spend a dollar on traditional marketing and ads.
Final Thoughts
Reviews and a reputation strategy may not be the coolest play in the book. But they are one of the most powerful long term investments in your business from a marketing standpoint (especially when you can do it all on autopilot).
So I want you to grow your pest control company and get lots of great reviews. Mostly because it helps you grow and be successful and make more money. But selfishly, also because I am looking for a new pest control company to reach family recipe status, and I need to be able to actually find you on Google to even start that.
NiceJob offers a free trial (no credit card required) if you’re curious to see what a review automation campaign looks like in action (and how painless it is to operate). Try it out. Let me know how it goes.
