Local business is a term that refers to businesses that are based in a specific geographic area. These businesses can be anything from restaurants and coffee shops to car repair shops and grocery stores. For the purpose of this article, we are referring to home service businesses that provide value through physical labor and or technical expertise on-site.
Do Local Service Business Have a Pricing Disadvantage with National Companies?
Local businesses know their consumer base, as they were created in a specific region to do a specific thing. Unlike retail businesses, service businesses do not have a pricing disadvantage over nationally run businesses because the labor must be locally available and salaries are set by the local market place for experienced laborers and technicians.
Do Nationally Run Pest Control Companies Have a Disadvantage?
This is a matter of customer perspective but many times the answer is yes. We believe National Companies that have to report to Wall Street are not as flexible as small and medium-sized companies. All these companies are run by professional managers that come from the same business schools, and optimizing customer service is only sometimes profitable.
Try calling a national company. They immediately want your credit card number. The person on the phone knows nothing about pest control; they are just putting your information into CRM software. The goal is to get you to a phone salesperson to get you on a monthly or quarterly program. If you have Carpenter Ants, your not going to get one of the good Carpenter Ant technicians. Instead, you're going to get whoever's route your address fits in on the day of your service.
When you call a family-owned company, you will likely get someone on the phone who knows pest control and can immediately answer your questions and troubleshoot your pest and put a technician on your job who is strong in that area. Additionally, the techs are usually more tenured and have better work abilities.
In New Jersey, many pest control providers have a national or regional presence. Local listings for pest control companies may seem numerous but often there is really an illusion of choice as many local providers are actually owned by 3 main companies.
The large pest control providers in NJ include the following brands noted in the links below. We want to note that all these companies do their best to employ good employees and abide by state licensing rules. But if your looking a customized service then you are more likely to find it in a local company
https://thedailypest.vikingpest.com/viking-pest-an-anticimex-company-and-our-sister-companies
Can These Public Companies Excell at Customer Service?
Maybe... they operate with a top-down approach to management. This is where a team or project manager makes decisions, filtering down through a hierarchical structure. Managers gather knowledge, analyze it, and draw actionable conclusions. They then develop processes communicated to and implemented by the rest of the team.
The main goal of virtually every publicly-owned company has always been to maximize shareholder value by generating as much profit as possible. In recent years many companies have begun to balance this primary objective with other social and environmental goals that help appease stakeholders and help produce those profits.
However, old-fashioned customer service isn't a priority. Call your insurance company or phone company and see how many layers of AI you will have to navigate before you talk to a human that is actually located in the US.
If you're looking for "old fashioned" customer service, call a locally owned and operated company that truly cares about the customer's needs.
Our company is affiliated with professional organizations and accreditations in the industry recognized in the state of New Jersey and the rest of the country:
