NPMA and NRDC – Marriage of Pest Control and Environmental Groups – Reviewed

Last year the National Pest Management Association created in industry defined green standards certification called QualityPro Green. This past spring of 2009, the NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) approached NPMA ( National Pest Management Association) with a request to conditionally join in the effort to create a better national green program. NPMA wisely found common ground with NRDC, listening and absorbing several of their concerns and designing a better green program under a newly marketed label – GreenPro. GreenPro will now have environmental advocates from outside the pest control industry sitting on its’ board of directors.

Will NRDC find that they have a true partner in NPMA? It’s an open question. Time will tell. By not requiring a front-end audit and an audit of a larger segment of multi-branch companies, they are taking a substantial risk with their own membership and with the potential for the process to be easily subverted. It will be incombant on NPMA and individual GreenPro certified companies to prove they are worthy of the trust extended by NRDC.

Please take the opportunity to review and discuss “A Suprise Marriage” published by Pest Management Professional Magazine in its’ September 2009 issue. In this article I review my own perspective and experience as an active pest control operator.

Feel free to post your replies. All comments are welcome.

Bad Economy Doesn’t Stop HeartsPM

The latest news is in: Hearts Pest Management will be opening doors to business in Los Angeles and San Francisco!

Hearts Pest Management’s “Focus on Organics” themed program “Green Thumb” with EcoWise Certification, is appealing to homeowners across the state. Hearts knows that this program will resonate well in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hearts Pest Management plans to have a full-time bed bug crew ready to enter the San Francisco market very soon. The bed bug problem is not getting any better. We only wish we were in Vancouver in time to treat bed bugs for the Olympics. But from a business perspective, I am sure some of those Olympics visitors will be getting a taste of the lower 48 in San Francisco. Bed bugs are sure to be in the luggage!

Why I Hire Pest Control Technicians in the Fall

I’ve often wondered as to my sanity after hiring in the fall. No doubt, it can cost more than a timely springtime hire, but I just hate to deal with any type of chaos during the spring season, when we need to be out in full force, meeting the needs of our customers for pest control service. It’s really hard to keep track of my technicians during the spring. I like to feel I have an adequate level of trust that they will do a good job, that they understand how Hearts operates and that the new team member and the team as a whole function well together.

Please enjoy this brief article I’ve written for PMP magazine’s on-line edition, Nine Reasons I Hire In The Fall.

Do let me know what you think of the article. This blog is to generate discussion, not for accolades, so tell me what you think, not what I or anyone else wants to hear.

Thanks,

Gerry

Will Barak Obama Support the NRA

President Barak Obama significantly improved his conservative credentials today, when he took swift action against an aerial attack on the White House.

Who knows, soon he may come out in favor of the NRA? Perhaps he may even turn on MSNBC and appear with Hannity on the Fox News Network.

No matter what his future political positions, based on Barak’s swift response today, I will be the first to offer him a job at Hearts Pest Management. With his manual pest control technique, he would make an excellent IPM professional.

Conversation with Chris Sullens of Marathon Data Systems

For the record, Marathon Data Systems has excellent customer service, from my standpoint.  Occasionally we go to Marathon Data Systems with questions or concerns about Pestpac.  That’s natural and does not indicate anything wrong.  Often, the support desk is simply helping us with understanding the functionality and how to use it effectively.

Today I did have a concern that has been troubling me for a while regarding voice integration.  (No other product in the industry offers this).  I was very happy to receive 1 hour from the time of a new president of Marathon Data Systems.  We were able to talk about the issue at hand and we had a great back and forth about potential systems that would help us.  I think this new executive, formerly from Service Master, is an excellent addition.  He understands the need for added-value in the marketing and executive decision making functions of the product and at least in this instance, did a great job of taking care of the customer.

I look forward to the introduction of the “Executive Dashboard” that will provide us with a data mining product to help us drill down and understand trend lines.

 

Best wishes to Chris Sullens in his new position working for industry leading Pestpac.

Driven by Love for People and Planet

Well, it’s here!  Our new tag line.

No one should be surprised that pests are not mentioned.  Yes, that is our business, but in order to get it right, I have always felt that we need to have an understanding of our employees and what it takes to mold them as professionals and as a team, directed to the goals of the corporation.  With a team of caring professionals, rather than a bunch of uneducated, thoughtless spray jockies, it is possible to actually act in a caring way toward the people we service.

Primary among those goals is to not do any harm to the environment and by advocating an enlightened way of managing the pest evaluation and treatment process, we are acting as agents for a better future, one that helps to sustain the planet.  Of course, it would have been easier if our laws allowed us to use the word environment, but the laws being what they are, we were creative in communicating a mood that says we care.

As far as being driven, well you’ll have to meet our team to see just how tremendously motivated we are!

Elder Care

We come in contact in our work, not only with bugs, but with many human situations.  Today, as we began pest control services for a nursing home, we also learned that the elder care industry is faced with extraordinary funding pressures due to a lack of state funding.  Our medical system is really a mess and we need to do something about it to keep it well funded in good times and bad.