I’ll never forget the day my CSR in Kansas City told me she wasn’t coming back. She was pregnant and wanted to stay home with the baby. I was freaking out.
She was handling everything. Scheduling. Routing. Phone calls. Billing. And now I had to replace her immediately or my pest control company was going to fall apart.
A buddy of mine said, “You should consider looking at a virtual assistant.”
I was like, “What the heck is a virtual assistant?”
He explained it to me, and I was skeptical. But I was desperate. So I gave it a shot.
I tried someone in Pakistan. Someone in India. Someone in Honduras. I worked with like eight different companies trying to find the right fit.
Then I found a company in Mexico. Our first virtual assistant was great. So I hired another one. Then another one.
And that’s when I had my aha moment. I now had three virtual assistants for the price of my one American CSR. And they were doing more work, better quality, with fewer mistakes.
That was the turning point. I ended up buying that staffing company with a buddy of mine. And now we help other pest control business owners like myself find and hire virtual assistants.
Let me show you everything I’ve learned about using VAs to scale pest control companies.
What Is a Virtual Assistant?
Let’s start with the basics. A VA is a virtual assistant. Someone who works for you remotely.
They can be here in the US working virtually. They can be in Mexico. They can be in the Philippines. Wherever.
The key is that they work virtually. They’re not in your office. They’re not in your truck. They’re doing everything remotely.
And here’s what’s amazing. A virtual assistant can do a multitude of tasks for you. Answering phones. Scheduling. Routing. Billing. Ordering chemicals from Veseris. Booking your plane tickets. Managing your email. You name it.
If it can be done on a computer or phone, a virtual assistant can do it.
What Roles Can VAs Take On in a Pest Control Company?
For me, my virtual assistants do almost everything virtually. And I mean almost everything.
When you’re first starting out, I recommend having a VA take on simple tasks. Checking your emails. Taking after hours phone calls that you’re missing.
Then you can move into deeper tasks. Having them answer your day to day phone calls. Doing your scheduling. Doing your routing.
Then you can get even further. Having them order chemicals from Veseris or Univar. Managing your CRM. Running reports.
The high level answer is that a VA can do virtually anything that doesn’t require them to physically be in the field.
Can VAs Do Sales?
Yes. They can do outbound sales and inbound sales.
I have all my virtual assistants calling all my leads right now. And the great thing about it is you can have them do multiple touches. They can call a lead five times. Ten times. Twenty times.
And their hourly rate is way less than an American CSR. So you can afford to have them make way more calls and do way more follow up.
We’ll get into the cost savings in a minute, but trust me. It’s massive.
How to Vet and Train Virtual Assistants Effectively
This is a really important question. The vetting process can be complex depending on what position you’re hiring for.
If it’s a simple task like answering inbound phone calls, they don’t need to be as highly skilled as someone in a managerial position. So you’re going to have fewer questions and a simpler process.
But for higher level positions, you need to vet them thoroughly.
Here’s what I do for my company. I put every VA through a three stage interview process.
Interview One: Background and Skills Assessment
The first interview is to get to know who they are and what their background is. We do a background check. We look at their skills and their weaknesses.
This is pretty straightforward. Just like you’d interview anyone else.
Interview Two: Skill Assessment Test
The second interview is where it gets real. We do a skill assessment test.
We take them through actual job tasks they’re going to be doing. We ask them real life questions they might get on a call. We put them in scenarios they’ll face in the role.
The reason we do this is we want to see if they can think on the spot in real time. Can they handle pressure? Can they solve problems? Can they communicate clearly?
This weeds out a lot of people who look good on paper but can’t actually execute.
Interview Three: Culture Fit
The third and final interview is another skill assessment combined with a review of why they actually want the position and if they’d be a good fit for our culture.
Some people think this three stage process is too intensive. But when you have a lot of candidates to choose from, you always want to pick the best one.
And trust me, there are a lot of great candidates out there. So take your time and hire the right person.
Should You Hire Overseas or Domestic?
This is the million dollar question. And I have a strong opinion on it.
My personal opinion is that the best places to hire VAs are Mexico and the Philippines.
I’ve tried India. I’ve tried Pakistan. I’ve tried Honduras. There are great people in every single spot. And there’s a time and place for different regions.
But for pest control specifically, the best places to hire are the Philippines or Mexico.
Why Mexico Is My Top Choice
I prefer Mexico if you’re going to have someone do lead calls, answer phones, do inbound and outbound sales.
They’re going to sound the most American on the phone. They speak Spanish too, which is fantastic for most parts of the country.
And here’s the huge advantage. They’re so close to us geographically, but the wage difference is massive.
You could find a CSR here in the US for $25 an hour. In Mexico, you’re paying $5 to $10 an hour. That’s it.
So you can get three virtual assistants in Mexico who are just as skilled as one person here in the US. For the same price.
Let that sink in.
Why the Philippines Is Also Great
The Philippines are great as well. The wages can be even lower. $3 to $8 an hour for really high quality people.
Filipinos are highly educated, speak great English, and have a strong work ethic. They’re fantastic for tasks like scheduling, routing, data entry, customer service, all of it.
What About Hiring Domestically?
The advantage of hiring domestically is that they know our culture. Background checks are easier. And for higher level positions, I’d definitely stick to the US.
Any manager roles. Large team management. Financial positions. I’d stick with Americans.
That’s pretty tough to do virtually with someone overseas. You want those higher level roles to be domestic.
The Pushback: "You're Just Trying to Get Cheap Labor"
I get this pushback sometimes. People say, “You’re only paying them $5 an hour. You’re taking advantage of them.”
Here’s what I tell them.
The wages in Mexico or the Philippines are much, much different than here. The standard of living is completely different.
If someone makes $20 an hour here in the US, they can have a decent lifestyle. They can survive.
Well, over in Mexico, if I pay them $8 an hour, that’s like essentially making $80,000 a year there in terms of purchasing power and quality of life.
So they’re actually living a better lifestyle even though the wage gap is so much different.
When I talk to people about this, I say, “If someone in Mexico right now is making $3 or $4 an hour and they’re living their life, paying their bills, whatever, and then I come in and say I’ll pay you $9 an hour, I sure don’t feel like I’m taking advantage of anyone when I’m paying them double what they were already getting paid.”
And when I get the Christmas card at the end of the year that says, “Thank you so much for this opportunity. You changed me and my family’s life,” that’s massive to me.
It makes a difference in their life. And it makes a difference in my business too.
How to Track VA Performance
This is a big question. You’re not in the same country. You might be in different time zones. How do you make sure they’re actually working?
I use a system called Hubstaff. It allows me to track what they’re doing on a minute by minute basis, hourly basis, whatever you want.
Now, some of you might think that’s micromanaging. But here’s the thing. When the cats are away, the mice will play. That’s just true even for virtual assistants.
No matter how good the interview is, no matter how great the assistant is, if you’re not managing them and staying on top of the work, people naturally fade down that rabbit hole of just letting stuff go by.
So I use Hubstaff to track what they’re actually doing. That way, if it’s 3 PM and they said they were working on scheduling, I can go in there, look at their screen, and see if they were working on scheduling or watching Netflix.
It’s not about not trusting them. It’s about accountability. And it works.
Tools to Ensure Smooth Communication and Task Flow
Communication is everything when working with virtual assistants. Here are the tools I use.
Slack
We use Slack for team communication. We have different channels for different topics. It keeps everything organized and easy to track.
Slack is a fantastic place to communicate with your team and your virtual assistants.
WhatsApp is super easy to use. It’s just like texting on an iPhone, but on a different app. You get notifications just like you would through a text.
WhatsApp and Slack are my go to tools for communicating with virtual assistants.
Real Success Stories from My Pest Control Companies
Let me tell you how this has worked for my own companies.
Like I said, I own a few pest control companies. When my Kansas City CSR left, I was forced to figure out the VA thing.
I tried eight different companies and countries before I found the right fit in Mexico. Once I did, I hired one VA. Then another. Then another.
By the time I had three VAs, I realized I was paying the same amount I was paying my one American CSR. But I was getting triple the output.
They were handling scheduling, routing, all the phone calls, billing, ordering, everything. And they were doing it better because they were specialists. Each one focused on specific tasks.
That’s when I realized this was the way to scale. I ended up buying the staffing company with a buddy of mine so I could help other business owners do the same thing.
Since then, we’ve helped hundreds of pest control companies find and hire virtual assistants who can execute on these tasks.
And because we’ve been through the gauntlet ourselves, we know exactly what to look for. We help people with the interview process, the hiring process, and setting up communication channels.
The Biggest Mistakes I See People Make
I’ve seen a lot of people try to hire VAs on their own. And I’ve seen a lot of them fail. Here are the biggest mistakes.
Mistake One: Poor Communication
Communication, communication, communication. People don’t communicate properly with their virtual assistants.
And a lot of it has to do with systems. If you don’t have standard operating procedures or SOPs in place, you can’t communicate effectively.
Here’s what happens. Someone comes to me and says, “I’m going to hire this person to take calls and help with scheduling.”
I say, “Awesome. What does your script look like so I can check it out?”
They say, “I don’t have a script.”
I say, “All right, so we’re going to need a script for your general pest, your mosquito, your termite, whatever it may be.”
Then I ask, “What do your CSRs usually say when people call in?”
They say, “I don’t know.”
That’s a huge problem. You can’t expect a virtual assistant to go through a day or two or even a week of training and know exactly what to do if you don’t have standard operating procedures in place.
Your VA will fail if you don’t have communication channels and SOPs and scripts in place. Period.
Mistake Two: No Clear Expectations
People bring on a VA and two weeks in they’re like, “Hey, they picked their kid up at 3 o’clock and never told me.”
Or, “I wanted them to do this task and this task and this task, and they just didn’t do it.”
But there was no communication beforehand about what the expectations were. No standards set.
You need to be crystal clear about expectations from day one.
Where to Find Virtual Assistants (If You Don't Go Through Us)
If you don’t go through our staffing company, that’s totally fine. There are some awesome places to look for VAs.
Upwork is a very common one a lot of people know. Great for finding VAs on a project basis.
Fiverr is another good one. Same idea.
Online.PH (Online Philippines) is all Philippines based. Great resource for finding Filipino VAs.
These are really good resources to find virtual assistants on a project basis.
Just make sure you do your due diligence on the vetting process. Make sure the virtual assistant can actually execute on the task and that they’re ready to do it for you.
And I cannot stress this enough. Make sure your communication standards are set in place. Communicate with them on everything you expect them to do.
Start Small and Scale Up
Look, I know hiring a virtual assistant can feel scary if you’ve never done it before. You’re trusting someone in another country to handle critical parts of your business.
But here’s what I learned. Start small.
Hire one VA to handle after hours calls. Or to check your emails. Or to do simple scheduling.
See how it goes. Refine your systems. Build out your SOPs. Get comfortable managing someone remotely.
Then add more VAs as you grow. Before you know it, you’ll have a team of virtual assistants handling all your back office work for a fraction of the cost of hiring locally.
That’s how you scale a pest control business without drowning in overhead.
If you want to learn more strategies for building a million dollar pest control business, join our free Facebook group, Pest Control Millionaires. We’ve got over 2,000 active members sharing what’s working every day. And if you want the complete playbook, grab a copy of our book, Zip Code Kings.
Now go hire your first virtual assistant and start scaling.
