Rose Pest Solutions was founded in 1860, making it likely to be the oldest continually operating pest control firm in the country. “We service everything from technical accounts down to the ma-and-pa restaurant types,” says Bill Welsh, vice president of sales and a 34-year industry veteran. “We cover all forms of pest management.”
As the Troy, Mich.-based firm has grown and evolved, Rose Pest has seen its share of high priority accounts. But about five years ago, things were getting out of hand, Welsh recalls. “When anyone would declare an emergency, they were calling our answering service and waking up our managers and our supervisors in the middle of the night,” Welsh recalls. “That was happening more frequently, and they were getting frustrated.”
With a partnership of more than 4 years, Rose Pest then called upon Slingshot to intercept the cases that were called in on the emergency line. “After we brought Slingshot on board, the emergency calls dropped significantly. They would take the calls and figure out what was really going on,” Welsh reports. “Slingshot also knew which accounts to push forward to us that needed immediate attention, versus those that could just be handled with the reassurance from a live operator that a Rose Pest professional would contact them first thing in the morning.”
“When we started with Slingshot, one of the core goals we wanted was to reduce the amount of calls that were ‘declared emergencies,’” Welsh adds. “We decided to not interrupt our people at home after hours, unless it was absolutely necessary.” For Rose Pest, declared emergencies are considered to be regulatory agencies, such as state lead agencies and federal agencies, as well as hospitals, police departments and nursing homes that experience a sudden influx of pests. With this definition from Rose Pest, Slingshot was able to determine which calls were truly emergencies.
As the partnership grew, Rose Pest saw a decline in the frequency of late-night emergencies, which resulted in fewer middle-of-the-night calls to managers and supervisors—and more scheduled-out appointments for those that were not true emergencies. Because of this, Welsh says, the business has seen an increase in its return on investment (ROI). It’s also been a newfound benefit to staff members.
Slingshot has allowed Rose Pest to focus on serving its customers better—treating real emergencies as priority—and helping staff by alleviating stressors that accompany such emergencies. Because staff is now able to better assist customers, Rose Pest has seen a positive shift, in both staff attitude and customer satisfaction. “The emergency response has been critical to our success,” Welsh concludes.
For more client stories with Slingshot, check out Pest Management Professional’s Magazine, September 2020 edition.
