6909 Glen Landing
Las Vegas, NV 89130
(702) 769 - 8588

Let's talk about what you, as a consumer, want. We think it is the same thing we want from other service businesses. We want a reasonable price, of course. We know better than to think the cheapest price will turn out well, at least very often, but we also know the most expensive price doesn't guarantee anything but the most expenditure. We don't mind spending a little more than we have to as long as what we buy is worth not only the difference, but the whole price. We want real good service for the money we spend. That is the bottom line. You want the same thing. A no-brainer. What does that mean in our business? Let's list some things.

1. When a service provider hits our property, we are a lot more comfortable with a professional appearance. Sharp uniforms, clean trucks and appearance, etc.
   
2. We feel comfortable when we know the company is no "fly-by-night", that is, they have all the licenses they're supposed to, all the insurance, some strong references, and roots in the community.
   
3. We think it's fine for service people to work quickly and efficiently, as long as they are really concentrating on our needs and meeting them. We know it takes a little time to be really thorough and we don't appreciate them cutting corners or rushing to get on to the next job.
   
4. We like it when service people work with us to find a convenient time to come to our house, convenient to us as well as them. We don't like it when they are more than a few minutes late and don't at least call. We really don't like it when they just don't show up.
   
5. We like it when they listen to our needs and take action to meet those needs. The bottom line is that they accomplish what we hire them to do.

You will find that it is hard to find, anywhere, but particularly in Las Vegas, people to deal with that understand the above things. We cover every single one of these things. Professional appearance and the licensing are easily provable. How we are going to perform is no better than a guess on your part, but the following points will give you a few hints about making that guess/judgment. (For this exact reason, we don't require contracts. If we don't perform like we brag, you have exactly nothing preventing you from asking us to take you off our customer list and then finding someone who will be more responsive to your needs. There is no advantage to you in dealing in service contracts.....the advantage is only for the pest control company, and believe it or not, we have heard that people have been threatened with being taken to court who got disgruntled and wanted to drop off service before the contract period was up. We're not entirely sure that's true, seems a little extreme, but that's what we heard.)

A MAJOR POINT:

Over the last two decades, I have thought about different aspects of the Pest Control business. I wondered why people I knew or worked for did things like they did. As I put my educational training on some of these things, a pattern emerged.....a lot of things were being done inefficiently, just wrong. So, I started going through the whole business, one thing at a time. This resulted in a few completely new concepts for our industry, and a lot of corrections or improvements. Here are some of the new ideas and changes/corrections in the same question and answer form I worked with in thinking about them:

Point One: Pest Control, just like any other service business, doesn't require native skills or super brains, but it does require that you have a motivated individual doing the work. A reasonable amount of training and a high motivation will make a great service tech.

Question: How do you motivate service people, or sales people, for that matter, to come to work every day, do a great job every day, and do it as a career?

• Answer: Money is vastly overrated as a motivator. So? The strongest motivator in the workplace I know is pride. Along with pride in yourself goes pride in ownership, pride in success, and pride in your "group" whatever that is, which is the basis for all team sports. The pride forces you to perform to the best of your abilities so you don't let your "team" down.

Question: How do you put this to work? Some have this in their character and some don't. How do you get everybody to have this pride?

• Answer: We find people with the drive to succeed, but don't have investment money or experience enough to open a new business. You offer them a chance to own a piece of the company, if they prove themselves, and give them a chance to see what they can do.

Question: How do we plan to make this possible for them?

• Answer: We have set the business up like a lot or, or most law firms. The new folks come in as an associate, learn their business, and when they become enough of an asset to the other partners, we offer them a partnership. If things go as projected, a partnership will be worth in the upper 5 figures annually, or even more. More importantly, a chunk of this business will be theirs.

Question: What does this mean for our customers?

• Answer: The guy you deal with on the phone or in person, the salesman and the guy you deal with at your house, just like the person who answers the phone and dispatches, just like the person who does the administrative work, all are either already partners or on the way to being a partner. Everybody. Everybody in the Company has it on the line to see your needs are met. Do you think you'll have any problem getting what you want? I don't.

Question: How important is appearance?

• Answer: Appearance is the first way you are judged in business. It's critical to make a good first impression....you may not get a chance to make any more impressions. We have sharp uniforms, not tee shirts or tank tops to wear out in the field. We have sharp vehicles we keep clean, lots of eye-catching decal work on them. So far, I have spent around $2000 on uniforms and vehicle decals, not to mention buying and insuring two new trucks. We do professional work...we intend to look professional.

Question: Besides still having bugs after a reasonable time working on them, what is the biggest irritation to customers?

• Answer: A lack of communication. Examples are not getting phone calls returned, not being able to reach someone, nobody letting you know if they are coming when they are late, etc. We handle this by having pagers and cell phones. Both of us do now, and as we add people, everybody will be instantly reachable.

Question: What about scheduling? It is a daily pain in the neck for service techs. On the other hand, a set schedule, as in 1st Tuesday, 3rd Wednesday is a pain for customers. That may not be a good day. Furthermore, it is easy to forget. What can be done?

• Answer: We work on a "loose schedule". We schedule by the week, not the day. We will agree on a regular week together, then we will call you just before that week starts. You know when you can be home, we'll work around that. Down the road, we plan to have someone besides the service tech scheduling and dispatching. The value of the cell phones will really show up then.

Question: Why has every company I've ever seen go through the monthly trauma of billing? What can be done?

• Answer: First, like a lot of service businesses, we bill off of service tickets, hopefully so our customer will pay the service techs on the spot. Second, we bill quarterly. As a homeowner, I hate writing monthly checks. As little as our service costs, writing one check a quarter doesn't seem unreasonable and it saves both of us headaches. Some businesses are set up monthly only, and we have to live with that, but residential work is quarterly. (At the risk of being perceived as hard to get along with, we feel that if writing a check for $75 (our minimum quarterly rate) is too big a strain, we respectfully submit that you ought to find a different job, one that pays better. Furthermore, the newspaper and the trash collection are billed quarterly. This is nothing new.

In getting Spectrum started, we looked at every aspect of the business, from our viewpoint and from a customer's viewpoint. We have done our best to make dealings with us "user friendly" and provide a good base for the expansion we hope to have in the future. These dreams will be realized, we think, if we do good work and plan ahead. We hope you see fit to join us as a valued customer.

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