Maybe it’s his propensity to continue to challenge himself. Perhaps it’s because his wife teasingly says he only has two things on his mind: pest control and search engine optimization (SEO). Whatever the reasons, Franklin Hernandez is enjoying success at the helm of NaturePest.
It wasn’t always easy. When he started in-home services, Hernandez worked at a company offering 99 percent lawn and ornamental services. He recalls his pest control epiphany at a then-Whitmire MicroGen Industrial integrated pest management (IPM) class. At the end of the continuing education unit (CEU) course, the instructor, Pest Management Professional Hall of Famer and columnist Dr. Austin Frishman, BCE-Emeritus (Class of 2002), said something profound.
“It was 2006, and Doc said, ‘The future of pest control is green,’” Hernandez reports. “Here I am, a tech guy doing lawn care sales and just here for the CEUs. But I looked around and a lot of the pest control guys were scoffing, saying ‘Maybe Doc is getting too old for this’ and thinking he was being unrealistic. To me, it was an a-ha moment: ‘This is something I can market, build and sell to stand out from the pack.’”
Meeting a green goal
Hernandez started NaturePest in 2009, offering traditional pest control in addition to eco-friendly services. At that time, the public seemingly wanted green pest control and lawn care strategies — but less than 4 percent were interested in paying for it, as Hernandez found when he canvassed his Homestead, Fla.-based market. “I knew I had to get at least 13 percent of my customers on board to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, which was to get rid of baseboard spraying altogether,” he explains.
As luck would have it, he learned about studies conducted in China using essential oils for pest control.
“We had about 100 clients at the time, so I said, ‘Let’s take 10 percent of the hardest problems we have and throw the natural products at them,’” Hernandez says. “After five years and several million gallons of products, we learned we could control about 95 percent of ornamental pests with natural products. We were also getting plant diseases under control because the essential oils have antiseptic properties.”
Offering the best option
Hernandez’s team still uses traditional products as needed, of course. But they strive to keep NaturePest a holistic company.
“For radical pesticide reduction, we had to become radical ourselves! We had to figure out how far to push the envelope,” he says.
When starting his company, Hernandez relied on his years of experience to create detailed pest control protocols for his team. He keeps it updated as products and trends evolve.
“The way we look at it is, if this were a hospital surgery room, how would we control ants?” Hernandez explains. “We bring that level of service to every account. We don’t offer a ‘good, better, best’ option. We have one: our best.”
By 2014 and ever since, NaturePest’s customer callback rate has been 0.5 percent. “We develop and tailor a program based on the individual account, whether it’s new construction or a house built in 1920. There’s no cookie-cutter approach, just a science-based one,” he says. “We’re going to use the best products for the situation.”
Among Hernandez’s goals in the coming months is to build a franchising program based on his team’s protocols and operations. Franchisees should have it easier, he says, thanks to the original office being in a location that has the only subtropical monsoon and tropical rainforest conditions in the country. “Our protocols allow for changing weather conditions, and our technicians are trained as specialists who know what to do when they set foot on the property,” he says.
As a result, Hernandez adds, “we’re not looking for customers; they’re looking for us.”
<p>The post Taking the road less traveled first appeared on Pest Management Professional.</p>
from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/taking-the-road-less-traveled/
Sacramento CA
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