320 - Customer Service for Success; don’t ignore the phone

A mosquito control operation doesn’t always need full-time office staff to maintain good communication with clients and the public.  There are multiple tactics and resources that can help your agency keep its good reputation while avoiding overwhelming your staff to the brink of breaking.  Simple measures can be used to assist the calls coming in without burdening a small agency with hiring individuals that are not necessary by stretching an already thin budget. 

By devoting a few hours during a work week to these simple communication methods, we kept our residents happy, in addition to helping residents from neighboring communities.  By using as few as three individuals all working full-time in the field, we survived a summer explosion of mosquito populations, kept our clients happy, more than doubled our client base, and formed good relations with residents in adjacent communities, who were not being ‘heard’ by their District. 

Customer service is becoming undervalued in this sector, and it is to the detriment of small businesses and Districts.  Many public agencies think they are not in the business to take calls or respond to complaints verbally.  Keeping the public and your clients happy is imperative for a small business or public agency to survive and can be achieved simply by utilizing these good communication and technological skills.