Smartphone technology has literally changed the way businesses do business. While some companies have published their own application for consumer or client use, other create their own for internal purposes. The smartphones themselves have become one of the most essential items in the office.
Bulwark Exterminating, based in Mesa, AZ, has harnessed the power smartphone technology and created a proprietary app that has become the new command center for all its technicians. Created in-house, Bulwark’s smartphone app allows the service technicians to receive their daily routes via email, instead of ever having to stop by the branch office to pick them up. And that is only the beginning of the paper savings involved.
When the technician is finished servicing a residence, each smartphone is synced with a home-office printer inside the service vehicle. After the technician fills out an electronic form within the app, he is able to print the customer’s receipt. This is helpful for two reasons. The receipt which is printed in the truck measures about one-third the size of a regular sheet of paper. Since their use of smartphones began, Bulwark is saving hundreds of reams of paper per month.
The customer also benefits from the native app because the technician can only choose among information that is preloaded in the app’s drop-down menus. This virtually clears up any and all miscommunications between the technician and the customer as to what kind of service they receieved on that day, which chemicals were used and with what amount.
All of the customer’s custom information is available at the click of a button. When the technician receives his routes in the morning, he is also able to view the customer’s information file. This is important to each technician because customers have various requests and circumstances at their home. One customer may keep their side gate locked, but the code will be available to the technician. Another customer may have a dog on the property, but the electronic notes may remind the technician to always close the gate when walking back and forth from the truck as to not let the dog on the loose.
Pest control can sometimes be a tricky business. It is one of the few services where a company is allowed inside a customer’s home to perform a job. It is also one of the even fewer services that succeeds when the customer does not visually see the benefit. A pest company is paid so the customer’s don’t see bugs. For these reasons, pest control companies often struggle to communicate and convey the correct information as it pertains to a monthly service. Bulwark’s smartphone app made an immediate impact on correcting these breakdowns and allows the technicians to focus solely on the task at hand.
Steve Bitter is a Marketing Manager with Bulwark Exterminating, based in Mesa, AZ. Bulwark Exterminating is an industry leader in providing high quality pest control service. Bulwark is fully operational in seven states, including eleven major cities. While Bulwark provides pest extermination for common insects such as ants, roaches, crickets and spiders, the company’s differentiating specialty is scorpion control. Bulwark uses the finest and most effective products in the world to solve common pest problems.