Pest Control Text Messaging

Text messaging is the next tool your pest control business needs to increase your customer base, scheduled services, and overall revenue.

Here's how to use texting to get all three. This guide applies to both location and multi-location businesses, but we do have locations with 25 to 100 employees in mind.

“ Within one year, our customer service score (NPS) went from 59 to a 94 after we started using Text Request.”

Trey Powell, Franchise Owner

Mosquito Joe

5 Text Messaging Essentials Your Pest Control Team Needs First

1. A list of customer phone numbers to contact. 

Who are you going to text otherwise? You most likely already have a list of your customers’ phone numbers in a spreadsheet or CRM. Here’s how to take that list and prep it for upload into Text Request, so you’re ready to hit the ground running later.

Put your existing numbers into a new spreadsheet. Our support team can then clean any landline numbers from it, so you know which customers you still need to contact for their mobile numbers later. Then organize that same spreadsheet by: 

• Cell phone numbers in column A

• Client names in column B

Export the spreadsheet as a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file, and it’ll be ready to pop into Text Request with one drag and drop. This bit of prep and organization will help you have the most immediate success later.

2. A tech stack for tracking new customers and scheduling more services.

Text messaging is going to help your pest control business attract a brand new group of customers, so you need a solid tech stack in place to help you organize all of them. Here’s what we recommend: 

Angi: Get your business in front of potential customers, and trigger texts when you get matched to new leads

HubSpot: Everything you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service in one place

Quickbooks: Auto-tracks income and expenses to streamline accounting

Zapier: Creates automations based on a customer’s behavior, like when they schedule a service using an online form

We have integrations with each of these software and more, so your new text messaging capabilities can mix right in.

3. Defined communication roles and processes for your team to follow.

Your pest control business will have the most success with business text messaging when you know who will manage it. Text messaging is a communication channel that is best used for:

• Sharing service updates with customers

• Sending seasonal promotions and maintenance reminders

• Checking on service technicians in the field, or having them check in with you

• Announcing recruitment opportunities

Whoever currently does these things at your pest control business will be a natural candidate for managing your business text messaging too. You need defined processes for your text messaging the same way you do for your phone calls and emails to have the most success. 

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4. Online review platforms to gather feedback.

Online reviews are how customers decide which pest control technicians they do or don’t invite into their space. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business is not being present on review platforms and actively gathering feedback.

The more positive online reviews you have, the higher you rank in search results and increase your chances of beating out competitors. We recommend you get listed on Google Business to start, so you can connect your page to Text and Request later and start earning more online reviews through text. 

5. Reasons to reach out.

Just because a customer used your pest services once this season, that doesn’t mean they’ll come back. Regularly reaching out to them is key for staying top-of-mind, but it only works if you have valuable things to share valuable things like:

• Reminders for seasonal visits

• Educational information on maintenance 

• Promotions for annual treatment memberships

• Discounts and coupons for season check-ups

• Feedback on your customer service

• New add-ons or upgrades—crawl space services, wildlife control, etc.

All of these things keep customers consistently coming back to you, and not going to a competitor.

8 Ways to Implement Texting into Pest Control Management

1. Provide the ultimate customer service.

Cut the phone calls that slow down your services, so you can give people the fast-paced communication they’ve come to expect from the growing amount of pest control businesses that now text. 

Customers who know they can reach you instantly—especially when they’re suffering from pest-related problems—are more likely to choose and stick with your business over competitors. Having quick access to you through a text gives them peace of mind, which is exactly what they’re seeking from your services.

Set up autoresponders, so customers get instant replies even when you’re not in the office. Create templates for common communications and questions, so answers stay consistent and fast. 

Our mobile app additionally gives you and your pest techs the ability to handle text messages on the go, so you’re always available to help. All of this goes into the long-term retention of customers, drawing in new ones through word-of-mouth, and increasing revenue. 

2. Draw in more new customers and increase sales.

People find your pest control business in search results, and you've got to make sure that they choose your businesses—not a competitors’—when they do. This is where your business and text messaging comes in. 

Having calls-to-action (CTAs) on your website like “Text us now!” are going to help you capture attention and book significantly more services. Displaying SMS Chat on your website is a powerful way to spotlight that CTA while additionally giving customers the ability to text you directly from the web page. 

The rest of the conversion then continues on the lead’s cellphone, and their contact information is saved inside Text Request for future reach-outs. Follow up with leads and share calendar links to get services scheduled fast.

Even when it's after hours, you’ll have the option to respond from our mobile app, still using your office number instead of your cell number. You’ll start more new sales conversations, increase your contact list, and get more services booked!

3. Streamline your service scheduling process with texts.

Playing phone tag to schedule services wastes everyone’s time. Customers dread it, and you lose precious time sifting through voicemails. 

Manage multiple conversations at once, book more slots faster, and provide quality customer experiences that keep folks coming back for more with text messaging. 

Your scheduling process with text messaging could look like: 

1. A customer books a pest control service

2. A reminder text is scheduled to send the day before the customer is serviced 

3. A text is triggered when pest techs are dispatched to the customer’s house

Your pest techs will no longer have to worry about getting locked out or forgotten with SMS appointment confirmations and reminders. That means smoother transitions between services and no lost revenue!

4. Staff services and hire new techs faster.

Good techs are hard to find. Text messaging can help you recruit them before your competitors do. 

Upload your spreadsheet of applicants into Text Request, and text them throughout the hiring process. Just drop the CSV file into a mass text, and message all your applicants at once for things like: 

• Confirming you received their application

• Answering follow-up questions 

• Scheduling interviews and follow-up interviews

• Next steps, including paperwork files

Mass texts can also be used to reach your existing techs out in the field when you have new service requests or need to fill an open slot quickly. Staffing and hiring is always much faster when you can reach everyone one at once with a single text. 

5. Smoothen your payments process.

Your techs have more important things to do than chase customers down for payments. Our Payments features gives your pest control business one, secure place to:

1. Create payment requests

2. Track and process transactions

3. View and download payment request histories

4. Send payment reminders

Customers reply to your first SMS payment request with a confirmation code to pay. Then they just put their debit or credit card on file, and bang! They’re next payment is even smoother than the first because their card is on file.

This method beats out paper invoices and mailing every time, plus it provides an easy way to follow up with recurring customers whenever they have card declines or require updated info.

More and more customers are asking for payment reminders and bill pay options through SMS for these reasons. It eliminates any extra hassles for both of you, while keeping your revenue flowing. 

6. Share seasonal promotions and deals.

Text messaging is the perfect way to get discounts, new services, and upsells in front of people. Both existing and potential customers can easily opt in for regular promotions using keywords. 

A keyword is a word a customer can text to for more information on a topic related to that word. For example, customers could text CONTROL to receive:

• Rewards for purchasing on-going pest control services

• Discounts on speciality treatments

• Ongoing sales and promo codes 

• Educational guides on why pest treatments are important and when to schedule them

You’ll attract new customers, plus have a way to tap your existing ones on a regular basis for things like quarterly or seasonal based sales. 

Any solid text marketing strategy will require ongoing content, which is why we have a full list of SMS marketing ideas for you here.

7. Increase your online reviews and search rankings.

You won’t show up in potential customers’ search results without reviews. It’s that simple. Gathering reviews ongoing is an absolute must if you’re going to keep revenue flowing, and text messaging can help.

Here’s how:

1. Connect your Google Business page to Text Request

2. Insert custom reviews links into your texts asking customers for feedback

3. Monitor and respond to oncoming reviews from inside Text Request

There's a direct line between earning online reviews and improving your Google search results, which brings in new customers. Text messaging is the fastest way to reach customers for those reviews, and Text Request gives you one place to manage them.

8. Roll out business texting strategies to boost other pest control locations. 

Text messaging can bolster capabilities across all your locations, but only if you have the right rollout process in place. Here are some basic multi-location adoption steps for text messaging that we recommend:

• Try texting with your top locations first

• Document and share the tactics that work best 

• Host text messaging centered webinars

• Text reminders for all hands meetings

• Regularly share text messaging guides and resources

We also have a playbook specifically for growing your entire franchise with SMS.

Text messaging can help your entire pest control brand by breaking down communication barriers. Cut the noise, stay connected, and schedule more pest control services with text messaging.