Industry trainer Mark Sheppard shares his advice on how pest managers can best equip themselves in the battle against pests.
It’s 2am. Commercial kitchen. Click. Light switch on. Eyes squint. And you see it. The scurry of little scavengers interrupted from feasting on whatever leftovers hasty cleaners had missed the night before. In a flash they’re gone. Hiding in the narrowest of spaces, never too far away. We know these guys well, their creepy hangouts and their disconcerting eating habits. (These are German cockroaches in case you didn’t guess.)
We have over 8,000 pesticides registered in Australia. Not all for the treatment of cockroaches, but plenty to choose from and certainly enough to put a sizeable dent in cockroach populations. Yet here they are, happily, instinctively gorging themselves on the residues and remnants of our culinary delights.
Clearly, pest control is not just about the product, otherwise the client would have dealt with the problem themselves. Successful pest management involves far more than just a spray here, a bit of gel there, which is why customers call you to solve their problems.
So how do we win the battle? Knowledge and communication are our greatest weapons.
Firstly, know your pests, products and labels. Not only is this essential to implementing a successful pest management plan, but your customers are expecting an expert. Read publications that are credible, informative and educational. Commit to your professional development by attending or participating in conferences, tradeshows, manufacturer product training and pest-specific training courses.
Secondly, communicate informatively with your client. Talking to your client builds relationships, demonstrates your expertise and is an important element of any successful treatment program. The benefits of good hygiene, proactive maintenance, and the way pests harbour and gain access to their properties is essential knowledge for the client, to achieve the best pest management outcomes.
Demonstrating your knowledge and having excellent communication skills is also good for sales. Focus on quality of service over quantity. Gaining a new customer can cost up to five times more than retaining an existing customer. You can have up to an 80% success rate of selling to a customer that already knows and trusts you. In comparison, the success rate of selling to a new customer can be as low as 5%. One of the more difficult things in life is change; the longer you provide a quality, honest and reliable service, the harder it is for your client to change to the unknown or another pest manager.
To keep our knowledge up to date and improve our communication skills, continuous training is the key.
When it comes to training, today’s learning environment is a partnership between the learner, employer and/or mentor and the training organisation. Partner with an organisation that puts learners’ needs above all else, works with you and integrates well with your workplace. Choose someone with qualifications and ‘hands-on’ experience in the industry who brings a balance of theoretical knowledge and practical industry experience into their training. Having been involved in pest management education for more than 20 years, we have found this to be the most successful training strategy at Pest Australia.
It is unlikely that German cockroaches will make the endangered species list anytime soon. I don’t think any of us would like to see that happen. After all, pests are not born pests and they play an important role in the ecosystem. If we communicate well with our clients, provide both non-chemical and chemical solutions, and in doing this, provide a quality service backed by a great training partnership, we can keep pests out of the spaces where they are considered pests. If you are doing this then I believe the pest manager is winning the battle that matters.
Pest Education Services and Training
Mark Sheppard is a fully licensed pest management technician and fumigator. He is a workplace trainer and assessor and lead auditor in Quality Management Systems. He has held the position of principal of Pest Education Services and Training since 2003.
Pest Education Services and Training is a registered training organisation that offers both competency-based and non-competency-based training. Examples of non-competency based training include pest-specific courses (bed bugs, rodents, feral pigeons), product stewardships on behalf of manufacturers, and training on the use of high risk chemicals such as alphachloralose.
The Pest Education Services and Training facility is located in East Perth, WA. Training can also be provided on site in any location that can be set up to provide an ideal learning and/or assessment experience.
