PestBossPro Blog — Tech App

One-Tap Navigation: From the Pest Control App to the Next Driveway

Typing an address into a maps app takes maybe thirty seconds. Do that twenty times a day with gloves half on and a sprayer wand in the other hand, and the minutes add up, along with the typos that send a truck to the wrong Oak Street. A navigation button on every stop removes the typing entirely.

The Button on Every Card

The list the button lives on is covered in The Pest Control Technician's Day in Route Order: Working the Stop List Top to Bottom. Every stop on that list has a navigation button.

In the PestBossPro tech app, tapping navigation on a stop card opens directions to that address in the phone's maps app. The address comes from the client record, so it is spelled the same way every time, and the technician does not need to copy it from anywhere. When the stop is done, the technician goes back to the app, opens the next card and taps navigation again.

That is the whole feature. It is simple on purpose. The maps app on the phone already does turn-by-turn directions, traffic and lane guidance well. The tech app's job is to hand it the right address with one tap.

Good Addresses Make Good Navigation

Navigation is only as good as the address it is given. Most problems with “the GPS sent me to the wrong place” trace back to the client record. A few habits in the office prevent them:

• Full addresses. Street, city, state or province, and zip or postal code on every address.
• Unit numbers. Apartments and condos need the unit, or the technician ends up at the leasing office.
• One address per location. A client with a home and a rental property should have two addresses, not one address with a note that says “also the rental on Elm.”
• Check new imports. Addresses brought in by CSV import are placed on the map automatically. Glance at the map for any pin that landed somewhere strange.

Because PestBossPro lets one client have many addresses, a property manager with twelve buildings can have twelve addresses, each with its own pin, its own notes and its own navigation.

When the Map Pin Is Not the Front Door

Some stops are hard to find even with the right address. The technician gets to the address and still has to figure out where to go. That is where access notes on the address help:

• Commercial accounts. “Use the back service entrance off the alley, not the front door.”
• Apartment complexes. “Check in at the office in Building A first, maintenance has the keys.”
• Rural properties. “Long gravel drive, second gate on the left, house is behind the barn.”
• New subdivisions. “Street is new, maps may route you to the old entrance. Use the north gate.”

Those notes show on the same card as the navigation button, so the technician reads them at the curb. Access notes get their own guide next.

Dash Mounts and Safe Driving

One-tap navigation is meant to keep eyes on the road, not to give technicians something to do while driving. A few rules worth setting for every truck:

• Tap navigation before pulling out, not while moving.
• Mount the phone on the dash where the directions can be seen at a glance.
• Use voice directions so the technician does not need to look at the screen.
• If the route needs to change, pull over before texting the office.

A truck loaded with product and equipment is not the place for one-handed phone use. The few seconds saved are not worth it.

Navigation and Customer Texts

When a technician heads to the next stop, the customer can get an automatic on-the-way text, and later an arrived text. Customers choose which of those alerts they want. These texts work best when the technician moves through the list in order and taps the stops as they go, because the customer is told the truck is coming when it really is.

Technician GPS on the office map also lets the office see where each truck is. If a customer calls to ask when the technician will be there, the office can look at the map rather than calling the truck. That is covered in Technician GPS on the Office Map: Knowing Where Every Pest Control Truck Is.

Small Feature, Big Habit

Navigation is the most-used button in the tech app, which is why it sits on every card. Combined with route order, it turns the day into a simple loop: finish, open the next card, tap navigation, drive. To see how navigation fits with the rest of the technician's day, visit the PestBossPro pest control app page.