It takes dedication to work a 14 hour day, especially if you’ve been doing it with a company for 30 years. Today was my first Technician ride-along, and I, thankfully, did not need to start the day with him at 5:00AM!
When you’ve been with Ehrlich for 30 years, I guess you know the ins-and-outs of the pest control business. Mike and I made stops that assisted restaurants, small retail shops, hair salons, large companies and six rooms in an apartment complex. Everything seemed natural to him while he was inspecting the locations: knee pads on, flashlight out, bucket full of pest control tools always at the ready. The constant downpour of rain didn’t stop him from doing his job either. At one point he had to go on a roof to spread corn for pigeons. I didn’t understand this, but he later explained it all to me…
The pigeons were starting to become a problem at this business and they wanted them gone. Ehrlich takes care of this problem by slowly conditioning the pigeons to eat in a certain area to later trap and remove them. It’s smart really, this conditioning concept, very smart.
Did I mention there was a constant downpour? I not only learned about the pest control business, but I exercised. Running…through the rain, jumping…over puddles. But it didn’t matter; the jobs had to be done!
Mike knew everyone by name at his locations. He had been on this local route for years and had gotten the chance to form relationships with the customers. At each location there was a story waiting for him about someone’s personal life. They trusted Mike like a friend, not only a pest control expert. I guess that’s the important part about what he does; he has never let his customers down. When there is a problem he can fix it, and if someone just needs to talk about their day, he will listen.
My day was long, but his was even longer. As the day wrapped up we talked about dinner plans. He was going home to chicken marsala…I was going home to hummus and wine. We were both starving by the time he dropped me off at my car. On my ride home I thought about what Mike said to me earlier while we walked around the basement of a local restaurant, “There are customers up there so I’m not going to spray or inspect, I’ll just do the basement, stairs and kitchen. I’m not going to interrupt their lunch. If they see me, they think there is a problem, but we are just making sure there isn’t a problem later.”
I guess that was always my mindset as well. Pest control? Bug problem. But I can see now that’s extremely inaccurate. Most of the places we inspected today had no problems at all; the owners were using the pest control service to prevent something from happening. Why wait until there’s a problem when you can prevent one? That is why Ehrlich offers a free inspection to let you know if there is a problem or could be a problem in the future. Again I say, very smart.
Leave a Reply