PestBossPro Blog — Tech App

Start, Skip, Complete: The Three Buttons That Run a Pest Control Route

A pest control route can be described with three words. The technician starts a stop, does the work, and either completes it or skips it. Everything else the office cares about, from the customer texts to the application record to the invoice, hangs off those three moments. That is why the tech app has three big buttons and not thirty small ones.

Three Buttons, Three Messages

Organizing notes at the stop is covered in Interior vs. Exterior Service Notes in the Pest Control Tech App. Once the technician has read the card, it is time to tap a button.

In the PestBossPro tech app, each button sends a clear message to the office:

• Start means “I am on this property and working.”
• Skip means “This stop is not getting done today, and here is why.”
• Complete means “The work is done, here is what was applied, and it is ready to bill.”

Because the office sees each tap as it happens, nobody has to call the truck to ask how the day is going.

Start

The technician taps Start when they begin work at the property. It is a small tap with a few results. The office sees the stop as underway. The start time is captured, which matters because the application record for a treatment includes a start and end time. And customers who chose the arrived alert are told the technician is there.

Make it a habit: park, read the card, tap Start, then get the equipment out. Tapping Start from the truck before reading the notes means the customer gets an arrived text while the technician is still finding the gate code.

Complete

Complete is the most important button of the day. When the technician taps it, the stop closes and several things happen:

• What was applied gets recorded. If the treatment used a tracked product, the technician records the mix and amount used, and the system keeps an application record for the stop.
• Photos and notes stay with the stop. Before-and-after photos and today's notes become part of the history.
• The invoice is created. With the line items from the job and sales tax.
• The card on file can be charged. If the customer has one and you charge at completion.
• The recurring account resets. A quarterly plan comes due again on the Waiting List based on its minimum days between visits.

Tap Complete at the stop, not at the end of the day. A stop completed at the curb has accurate times, a fresh memory of what was applied, and a customer who gets their invoice while the technician is still in sight.

Skip

Not every stop happens. Rain moves in, wind picks up past what the label allows for spraying, the gate code fails, or nobody is home for the interior. Skip takes the stop off today's list with a reason.

The reason is the important part. “Skipped” alone tells the office nothing. “Skipped, wind too high for mosquito barrier, try tomorrow morning” tells them exactly what to do. The account does not disappear. A recurring stop stays due on the Waiting List until it is completed, and the office can put it on another day. Skipping well is covered in Skipping a Pest Control Stop the Right Way: Rain, Wind, Locked Gates and No One Home.

What the Office Sees

On the office side, the dispatch board updates as technicians tap. Stops show as scheduled, started, completed or skipped. The office can see which trucks are ahead, which are behind, and which skips need a call to the customer.

For chemical records, the office has a safety net. The “need a chemical record” button on the schedule shows completed treatments still missing their record, so a stop completed in a hurry does not slip through. More on the office side in What the Office Sees When a Pest Control Tech Completes a Stop.

Common Mistakes With the Three Buttons

Most problems with a tech app come down to how the buttons are used, not the buttons themselves:

• Completing everything at 5pm. Times are wrong, records are written from memory, and invoices go out late.
• Skipping with no reason. The office has to call the technician to find out what happened.
• Completing a stop that was not finished. If the back yard was skipped, say so in the notes before tapping Complete.
• Forgetting Start. The customer never gets the arrived text and the start time is missing.

Fix these in the first week and the rest of the tech app takes care of itself.

Simple on Purpose

Three buttons are easy to teach, easy to remember and easy to tap with a glove half off. They also give the office everything it needs to run the day. To see how Start, Skip and Complete fit with the rest of the technician's phone, visit the PestBossPro pest control app page.