PestBossPro Blog — Tech App

iPhone or Android: Running the Pest Control App on the Phones Your Techs Already Carry

Walk out to the trucks on any morning and count the phones. One technician has the newest iPhone. Another has an Android with a cracked corner. The owner has whatever survived last summer. A tech app that only works well on one kind of phone means somebody is always left out, and that somebody ends up back on paper.

One App, Both Kinds of Phone

Signing in is covered in Company Login Plus a Personal PIN: How Technicians Sign In to the Pest Control App. This article is about the phone itself.

The PestBossPro tech app runs in the browser, so it works on iPhone and Android alike. A technician on an iPhone and a technician on an Android see the same stops, the same notes, the same Start, Skip and Complete buttons, and the same screens for recording what was applied. You do not maintain two sets of instructions, and nobody has to switch phones to work for you.

Both kinds of phone can install the app to the home screen from the browser, Safari on iPhone and Chrome on Android, so it opens with one tap like any other app.

Personal Phones or Company Phones

Small pest control companies usually start with technicians using their own phones. That works fine with a browser app, but it is worth deciding a few things up front:

• Data plan. The app uses mobile data for loading stops, uploading photos and sending customer texts. Many owners give a small monthly phone stipend so nobody feels they are paying to work.
• Leaving the company. When a technician leaves, you turn off their PIN. The app on their personal phone stops showing your accounts.
• Personal use. The app does not care what else is on the phone. A technician's photos for work are taken inside the app and saved with the stop, not mixed into their personal camera roll.

As you add trucks, some owners move to a company phone that stays in each truck. That is fine too. Each technician signs in with their own PIN, and their stops, records and hours stay attributed to them even on a shared phone.

Older Phones

A browser app is easy on older phones, but very old phones that no longer get browser updates can struggle with any modern website. If a technician's phone is so old that it cannot run a current browser, it is time for a new one regardless of the tech app. Banking apps and maps apps will stop working on it soon too.

For everything else, a mid-range phone from the last few years is plenty. What matters more on a pest control route is a good camera for entry-point photos, a battery that lasts the day, and a screen bright enough to read in the sun.

Keeping the Phone Alive on the Route

The tech app uses the screen, the camera, location and data all day. That is a lot to ask of a battery. Simple habits keep the route from ending at 2pm:

• A charger in every truck, plugged in between stops.
• A rugged case. Pest control phones get dropped in mulch beds, crawlspaces and garage floors.
• A phone mount on the dash so navigation is visible without holding the phone.
• Close apps that are not needed on the route, especially video and games.

Also keep the phone away from the sprayer and the tank. A phone in a shirt pocket while mixing or leaning over a backpack sprayer is a phone that ends up in the mix or covered in it. Gloves off, phone out, tap, gloves back on is slower by a few seconds and saves a phone.

Same Phone, Same Habits

The advantage of using the phone a technician already carries is that they already know it. They know where the camera button is, how to zoom a photo, how to make the screen brighter and how to open their maps app. The tech app adds a few screens on top of things they already do every day.

That matters more than any feature list. A technician who is comfortable with the phone will complete stops as they go. A technician fighting an unfamiliar device will save everything up for the end of the day, and the end of the day is where records go missing. Habits on the route are covered in For Pest Control Techs Who Hate Paperwork: Keeping Phone Work to a Few Taps.

Checking a New Phone Before the Route

When a technician brings in a new phone, do a quick check in the shop before they leave:

• Install to the home screen and sign in with the company login and PIN.
• Open a stop and tap the navigation button to make sure their maps app opens.
• Take a test photo so the camera permission is granted.
• Clock in so the time clock is working.

Five minutes in the shop saves a call from a driveway. For the rest of the technician's day on that phone, start with the PestBossPro pest control app overview.