Emily Thomas Kendrick is the President and CEO of Atlanta-based Arrow Exterminators. Family owned and operated by the Thomas Family since 1964, Arrow is the sixth largest pest control company in the United States and the 2nd largest privately held, ranked by revenue with revenues exceeding $225 Million. Emily is a member of the Thomas Family’s 3rd generation and has been in the business for more than 20 years. Her family and her team have…
Every business has a portfolio of products and services that it markets, promotes, and sells to customers. In fact, most businesses make their product and service portfolio information available through a variety of means, including published product literature and general marketing collateral, service guides, company catalogs or brochures, and various other types of printed matter. In addition, most of the product and service information is also typically accessible via the Internet through company and/or dealer…
Go ahead and call me cynical, but when it comes to service success, I’ve only ever cared about the numbers. Organizations can trot out whatever new, flashy technology they want, but if you can’t point to some sort of tangible improvement derived from its adoption (Preferably one that can be directly tied to money saved or money earned), I really can’t be bothered to care. Service organizations are no stranger to performance metrics, obviously. In…
For the next in our series of women in field service, I sat down with Deni Naumann, President of Copesan Services and Interim President of Terminix Commercial and Elizabeth Johnson, Director of Marketing for Copesan Services and Director of Marketing, National Accounts, at Terminix Commercial. Both Deni and Elizabeth have some history in the pest industry, and manufacturing before that – Deni has been with Copesan for over 12 years and was in manufacturing for…
Many manufacturing companies are stuck in the situation where they sell their product to other companies, which then re-sell the product to the end customer. In many cases, the aftersales service is performed by the re-seller, leaving the manufacturer with a limited potential for growth as they do not realize any of the service revenue. Manufacturing companies must make the right selection of partners and set up service agreements that allow them to create a…
If you’ve missed my earlier posts in this series on digital adoption, you can read here what we discussed about The Hierarchy of Digital Adoption, Building and Fortifying Your Digital Reputation, and How to Avoid Being Crippled by Choice. There is no doubt that, in the business world, not all software applications are created equal. Take for instance your transactional systems, email, accounting, etc. These applications are designed, configured (sometimes customized), implemented, and deployed. Notice that…
According to Karen Johnson, president of W. F. Hann and Sons, she found her voice later in life. Karen is quick to say she puts family first and she was out of the workforce for quite a while to stay home with her five children. When her youngest child went into high school, she began looking for part-time work – not realizing that a career in field service was going to land in her lap.…
When looking at how companies measure employee performance, it’s clear that there is wide variation across the industry in terms of incorporating customer satisfaction into the mix. In past years, we have observed that companies were generally doing a poor job in linking employee performance to customer satisfaction. While improvements in this area have been seen recently, many companies are still struggling to enhance their process for linking performance to satisfaction. In a recent study…
In honor of International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8th, I have set out this month to interview some amazing women in the service industries in an effort to learn more about their journeys and to get their take on what the future of field service holds for women. I started my interview series off with Maria Pallotta, Chief of Staff at Canopy Lawn Care. In her role, she is responsible for executing the overall…
Are you gearing up for a trip to Field Service Palm Springs next month? I am working on some cool things that Future of Field Service will be doing at the event, and it had me thinking about what I’m most excited to discuss while there. The thing I love about this event is that it enables me, and all of the other attendees, to connect with so many people at once – there’s really…
