PestBossPro Blog — Pest Control Software

Texting and Customer Alerts in Pest Control Software

Most pest control customers would rather get a text than a phone call. They read it at work, they reply when they can, and they don't have to listen to a voicemail. For a small company, texting is also the cheapest way to make a route run smoothly: a customer who knows you're coming leaves the gate open.

Texts Around the Whole Job

Texting picks up where Pest Control Estimates With Online Approval: From Quote to Scheduled Job leaves off. Once a job is scheduled, texts carry the customer from the night before to the moment the tech pulls away.

PestBossPro has two kinds of texting: automatic alerts and reminders that go out on their own, and two-way texting between the office and the customer.

The Alerts Customers Choose

Customers pick which alerts they want:

• Night before — “Your pest control service is scheduled for tomorrow.” Time to open the gate or put a note out about the dog.
• When they're next — the tech is heading their way.
• When the tech arrives — someone from your company is on the property.

Letting the customer choose matters. A retired customer at home might want every alert. A customer who works days might want only the night-before reminder. Nobody gets texts they asked not to get.

On-the-Way and Arrived Texts From the Tech App

The tech never types these. As the tech works the route in the tech app, automatic “on the way” and “arrived” texts go out to the customers who chose them. The tech's personal number is never involved.

For interior treatments, termite inspections and bed bug visits, where someone needs to be home, those texts are the difference between a completed job and a skip. The customer app adds the live route view on top, covered in The Customer App in Pest Control Software: Live Route, Invoices and Service Requests.

Two-Way Texting With the Office

When a customer replies to a reminder — “gate code changed to 4471” or “can you come Thursday instead?” — the reply goes to the office. The office can answer, update the property notes and move the job if needed. Every message stays with the customer's account, so the next person in the office can see the history.

This keeps customer conversations off personal phones. When a tech leaves your company, the customer relationships stay with the business.

Text Allowance on Each Plan

Plans include a monthly text allowance counted in segments, sent and received: 500 segments on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. A short reminder is usually one segment. Long messages and some special characters can use more, so keep automated texts short and plain.

For most small companies, a few reminders per visit plus some back-and-forth fits easily in the allowance for their plan. If you run a lot of two-way conversations, keep an eye on it in your first month. Texting is available for customers in the US and Canada.

Writing Texts Customers Read

• Lead with your company name. Customers get a lot of texts; they should know it's you at a glance.
• Say what to do. “Please leave the side gate open” is more useful than “we're coming.”
• Keep it short. Shorter texts are easier to read and use fewer segments.
• Answer replies the same day. A customer who texts back expects a response like a conversation, not like an email.

Texting and Skips

The quietest benefit of good texting is fewer skips. A skip costs you the drive, the time and often a second trip. Most residential skips come from the same few causes: a locked gate, a dog in the yard, a car in the way of the garage, or nobody home for an interior service. Every one of those can be fixed by a customer who knows you are coming. The night-before alert gives them time to plan. The when-you're-next alert gives them a few minutes to open the gate. And when a skip still happens, a quick two-way text to the customer usually gets the new gate code or a better day, and the account goes back on a route without a phone call.

The Effect on a Route

Texts don't treat a single ant, but they change how the day goes. Fewer skips for locked gates, fewer “are you still coming?” calls, fewer techs waiting at a door. Combined with post-treatment emails, the customer hears from you before, during and after every visit without anyone typing a message.

For how texting fits with the Waiting List, records and billing, see the PestBossPro pest control software page.