PestBossPro Blog — Tech App

Interior vs. Exterior Service Notes in the Pest Control Tech App

Most residential pest control has moved outside. Many quarterly plans are an exterior perimeter service with interior treatment on request. That makes two very different jobs at the same address, and the notes for each should be just as different. Mixing them together is how a technician ends up knocking on the door when the customer only wanted the outside, or skipping the inside when the customer was waiting for it.

Two Jobs at One Address

Reading the history is covered in Reading Past Service Notes in the Pest Control App Before You Get Out of the Truck. This article covers how to organize those notes so they are easy to read.

The PestBossPro tech app shows the notes on the address and the stop on the same card. There is no separate interior and exterior form; how you write the notes is an operator practice. The simple fix is a habit: start interior notes with “INT:” and exterior notes with “EXT:”. A technician glancing at the card at the curb can see at once which part applies today.

What Exterior Notes Should Cover

The exterior is where most of the work happens on a quarterly plan. Useful exterior notes cover:

• The perimeter. “EXT: full perimeter, including detached garage. Skip the vegetable beds on the west side.”
• Hot spots. “EXT: ant trail along the driveway edge to the front porch, treat the porch slab edge.”
• Eaves and entry points. “EXT: de-web eaves front and back, check wasp nests above the patio.”
• Sensitive areas. “EXT: koi pond in back yard, keep clear.”
• Gates and pets. These stay in the access notes so they show on every visit.

The exterior perimeter is also where property measurements come in. PestBossPro measures home square feet and perimeter linear feet from the satellite map on the property, so the area treated on the application record and the price on the estimate both start from the same numbers.

What Interior Notes Should Cover

Interior work is about the customer's home and their trust. Interior notes need to answer different questions:

• Is interior on this plan? “INT: on request only. Ask at the door.” or “INT: every visit, customer expects it.”
• When can you get in? “INT: customer home after 3pm only.”
• Where to treat. “INT: kitchen baseboards, under sink, master bath. Garage interior every visit.”
• What to avoid. “INT: no spray in the nursery. Baits only in kitchen.”
• House rules. “INT: shoes off, use booties. Cats inside, keep doors shut.”

When a customer asks for interior on a visit where it was not planned, the technician notes it on today's stop: “INT: done today at customer request, kitchen and bathrooms.” That keeps the record clear for the next visit and for billing if interior is extra.

Why It Matters for the Record

The application record for a completed treatment includes the site treated and the area treated. Interior and exterior are different sites, and different products or methods may be used for each, such as a perimeter spray outside and gel bait inside. Keeping notes split makes it easier for the technician to get the record right at completion.

What you need to record and how depends on your state and the product label. Check your state lead agency's rules for what an application record must include. The software helps you keep the records many states require; it does not decide which ones apply to you. Recording at completion is covered in Recording What Was Applied When the Pest Control Tech Completes a Treatment.

Interior Service and the Customer

Interior work only happens if the customer is home or has arranged access. That is where automatic texts help. A customer who chose the night-before alert knows the technician is coming tomorrow. The on-the-way text gives them a few minutes to get home or put the cats in a bedroom. The arrived text tells them the technician is at the door.

After the service, the automatic post-treatment instruction email can tell the customer what to expect, such as keeping kids and pets off treated areas until dry. Interior notes can remind the technician to say the same thing at the door.

Keeping the Split Clean

A few rules keep interior and exterior notes useful over time:

• Standing instructions go on the address. Today's observations go on the stop.
• Use the same prefixes on every account so any technician can read any card.
• When a customer changes their mind about interior service, update the address note the same day.
• Review long-time accounts once a year and delete notes that are no longer true.

Clean notes are a small thing that adds up across hundreds of accounts. To see how notes fit with the rest of the technician's phone, visit the PestBossPro pest control app page.