The pest control industry in the US is extremely competitive; there are more than 20,000 providers across the country. In order to survive and grow, your business needs to utilize all of the potential advantages at its disposal. One of the biggest of these advantages is new leads. These leads can be like gold dust if you deal with them in the right way.
No business is likely to truly thrive by simply relying on a regular customer base, although retention is very important. You need to strike a balance between keeping your current customers happy and attracting new ones. This is why you should never neglect leads.
How to obtain new leads
There are several ways that you can obtain new leads for your pest control business.
• Use pest control marketing professionals to provide leads for you.
• Use social media to interact with potential customers.
• Encourage word of mouth recommendations by customers.
• Create a referral program which encourages existing customers to tell their family and friends.
• Create a regular newsletter and promote sign-up on your website.
• Encourage visitors to your website to sign-up to email correspondence.
• Add a live chat feature to your site; this will help customers to get the speedy response they desire.
• Check your follower list and look for anyone who is an influencer in the pest control industry. By reaching out to them you can connect with many potential new customers.
Cold calling is an option for pest control businesses but it’s not usually a successful means of building leads. It’s also important to note that there are laws surrounding cold calling which must be adhered to. No matter which lead building options you choose, if you invest time, money and effort in acquiring leads, it’s important to ensure that you do not waste them.
How to avoid wasting leads
You may have a very small window of opportunity to capture a lead, so it’s worth taking the time to make sure that this happens.
• Respond to leads in a timely manner. If someone leaves their contact details on your website and does not hear from you for a couple of days or more, they are probably going to look elsewhere.
• Maintain your social media pages. These pages provide a place for people to ask questions, or attempt to interact with you. If you leave comments and messages unattended to for more than twenty-four hours, you may find that you have lost out on that lead.
• Keep in touch with leads. If you do not hear back from a potential lead immediately, this does not mean you should not keep in touch. However, you should not bombard anyone with emails and you should always provide the chance for them to opt out of further communications.
• Segment your email lists so that you provide leads with information that is relevant to them. For instance, you may want to include a new customer offer in your first email that relates to products or services they are likely to be interested in.
• Get your customer service right. It’s no secret that modern society expects instant gratification. This means that anyone customer who responds to a lead expects a quick but courteous response. It is essential that you get your customer service response right. If you are not polite or wait too long to respond they will simply go elsewhere.
• Getting quality leads is always an issue for any business. In fact many firms choose to buy contact details and potential leads. If you’re going to do this then you need to check the reputation of the supplier of your leads. You won’t be wasting leads if the list is not good quality. But you will be wasting your time and money trying to turn poor leads into sales.
• Don’t forget to recognize need. Just because a potential customer does not want to use your service today does not mean they won’t use it in the future. You need to maintain contact with as many of your leads as possible in order to build a relationship and utilize the lead further down the line. Recognition of who you are and what you do through a regular newsletter will help potential customers to think of you first.
Leads in the pest control industry can be difficult to obtain. You need to make sure that you do not waste your lead generation efforts. Treat your leads as potential opportunities and do everything that you can to turn them into future customers.
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