I used to just throw new team members into their jobs and expect them to figure it out. I’d be like, “Here’s your truck. Here’s your route. Go service these houses.”
Then I’d get frustrated when they messed up. “Why didn’t they introduce themselves to the customer? Why didn’t they take pictures? Why didn’t they explain what they did?”
But here’s the brutal truth. It wasn’t their fault. It was mine. I didn’t train them.
My mentor told me a long time ago that you want to over train people. Train them to the point where a third grader could do it. And I’m not saying that in a demeaning way. It’s just how you want to set up all your training and standard operating procedures.
Could a third grader look at this SOP and execute on it? If not, you need to simplify it.
I own multiple pest control companies and I’m a fractional CMO for service based companies all over the country. And I can tell you that the number one thing that separates successful companies from struggling ones is training.
Let me show you exactly how to train new team members so they can actually do their job effectively from day one.
Why Training New Team Members Is So Important
This sounds basic, right? Of course you need to train people. But you’d be shocked how many companies don’t actually do it.
Training new team members is critical so they can do their job effectively. I see it all the time. People throw a new team member into a job position and just expect them to execute on it.
Then they get frustrated. “They’re not doing it right. They messed up here. They messed up there.”
But a lot of times, it has to do with how much training is actually happening. Or not happening.
If you want consistent results across your company, you need consistent training. Period.
The Ideal Onboarding Timeline
The onboarding timeline is different for every role. So let me break down the two most common positions in pest control. CSRs and technicians.
CSRs and Inside Sales Reps
For CSRs and inside sales reps, we’re hopping on Zoom calls with them every single day. We go over their call recordings. Every day.
And by the way, if you’re not recording all your calls, you should be. We record everything. And we listen to those recordings with new hires every single day.
We do this for at least two months. Then after that, we go to weekly. Then bi weekly. And then we always do monthly check ins even after they’re fully trained.
Our onboarding process is two to three weeks before they even get on the phones. During that time, they’re sitting with the CSRs and the sales team. They’re listening to past calls. They’re listening to new calls live.
They’re going through a lot of the handbook and the online training we have. Common questions and answers they need to know before they feel comfortable on the phone.
Then they’re going to sit with one of our CSRs or the office manager and answer phones live in front of them for a while. For a few weeks.
Only after all of that are they sent out on their own.
Technicians
For technicians, they’re going to do a ride along. They’re not going to be sent out right away. Even if they’ve been a tech for 15 years at another company, they still have to do the ride along with us.
The length of the ride along depends on their experience. If they just came from another pest control company and they’ve been doing this for years, maybe it’s shorter. But if they’re new to the industry, it’s longer.
We also want them to be able to navigate the city properly. So they need to learn the routes and the areas we service.
Usually we have ride alongs anywhere from three weeks to a month. That’s pretty typical.
Here’s what that looks like. For the first three to five days, they’re in the office. Training. Watching videos. Really hitting on the culture and getting them bought into it. Talking about the career path and what it’s going to look like.
They’re watching pre recorded trainings on our training platform. They have to take tests. Basic tests to make sure they understand the material.
If they don’t have their license or certification yet, depending on what state you’re in, we’ve got to get them certified and licensed and up to speed.
Then from there, they’re going to do ride alongs with the lead technician for a couple weeks. I think it’s two to three weeks, don’t quote me on the exact timeline, but it’s around there.
After that, they’re going to be off on their own. But then we’re going to have another manager ride along with them while they’re servicing just to check quality.
I think around the fifth week, we finally let them go off on their own. But then our branch manager is going to do spot checks for the first week.
After that first week of spot checks, they’re kind of on their own. But we’re always doing spot checks with technicians to make sure they’re doing a good job. Talking to their customers. Making sure they’re following the process.
We’re just trying to keep an eye on things and make sure quality stays high.
The Power of Pre Recorded Video Training
One thing Jonas mentioned that I forgot to bring up earlier is pre recorded videos. I find a lot of companies don’t have that.
We used to be that way too. And I highly suggest you create a library of training videos.
Here’s why this is so important. The further the service gets away from you as the owner, the worse it gets.
Let me explain what I mean. When I first started, I did all the jobs myself. I was the service tech. I was the sales guy. I was everything.
Then I trained a manager. That manager trained the next manager. But not everything got passed on exactly the same.
The first manager forgot a few things or didn’t teach the next person exactly the right way I did it. Then that person taught the next person. And the further and further away it got from me, the more diluted the training became.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d go do a ride along with a tech and I’d be like, “How did we get this far away from how I taught everyone to do this?”
So if I could go back a few years, I would have stayed a little bit closer to service a little bit longer. But more importantly, I would have created a video training platform way earlier.
Having the standard of how I service or how we should service documented on video means it’s consistent across the board. No matter where you go, every technician should be saying the same things, talking the same language, starting at the same spot in the house, servicing the exact same way.
Think of this like a franchise model. Like McDonald’s. You go from one McDonald’s to the next, all the recipes are the same. It’s quality control.
Or think about Chick fil A. Their training is superb. They’re all saying the same things. They’re using the same equipment. They’re using the same process. You just know what you’re going to get.
That’s what we want. No matter which technician goes out there and services a property, they should all be talking the same language. Wearing the same uniform. Following the same process.
Make sure you stay on top of that. The further service gets away from you, the worse it gets.
How to Train for Both Technical Skills and Company Culture
This is a fantastic question because most companies focus on one or the other. But you need both.
Training Technical Skills
The technical side is actually the easier part to learn in my opinion. They’re going to do a lot of deep diving in the books and learning the science behind pest control. Then they’re going to shadow the master technician or general manager for quite a while.
We’re not going to send them off on their own until they’ve mastered the basics. And mastering something takes time. It takes 10,000 hours to truly master a skill.
But if they’re around a good technician, they learn the skill pretty easily. At the end of the day, we’re all kind of doing the same thing. It’s not rocket science. It’s pest control.
There are obviously some nuances. And there are people out there who know way more about pest control than I’ll ever know. Entomologists who know way more about bugs than I ever will or ever want to.
But we have those people on retainer that we can reach out to at all times. We don’t have them work for us 40 hours a week, but we have them available when we need expert advice.
And here’s the key. We hire those experts to come in and teach our team. And we record everything they’re teaching us. Every servicing demonstration. Every explanation. Everything.
We put all of that into our training platform. That’s how we handle the technical side.
Building Company Culture
Company culture is taught, but it’s also built through actions and incentives.
It’s talking about culture all the time. Talking about your core values all the time. And I know that sounds cliche. It does. It feels overused.
But I missed the culture boat for a long time. Everyone was talking about culture, culture, culture, culture. And I was like, “Yeah, sounds cool.” But I didn’t really understand it until I understood it.
Now it’s to the point where I can walk into any one of my branches and I can tell if the culture is different or off. It’s like this feeling of energy that’s there. You can almost feel the tenseness. You’re like, “What’s going on here?” Without anyone even saying anything, you can just tell.
So how do you build culture? You talk about core values constantly. You do fun events with your team. You recognize that bonds aren’t made when everything’s good.
You’re going to have bad days. The bonds and the team are built on bad days and how you come together and work as a team. How you react to situations.
You have company meetings. Daily or weekly. With the technicians, we have morning huddles every single morning at each branch. Whether it’s sales or service, everyone knows what’s going on with the team. What’s going on for the day. What the routes look like.
One of my friends has all his trucks in one location. They have someone meet at the gate. That person checks everyone out as they leave. They go over the route. Make sure they have everything. Check the trucks.
All of these things play a big role in culture.
And then it’s like, what do you do outside of work? Do you have events? Do you hang out? Do you take them to places? Do you give them cool swag? Do you incentivize them? Do you post them on social media? Do you recognize them internally and externally?
We could talk about culture all day long, but these are the things that matter. It takes time to get someone bought into the culture. But once they’re bought in, and I’ve said this a thousand times, employees will not care until they know that you care.
Once they know that you care, they’ll run through a wall for you.
And you still have to take care of them. You have to keep showing that you care.
Start Culture Early
One thing I want to expand on. Start culture early. With your first hire, make sure your first hire is exactly the kind of person you want representing your company.
Hire people that are like you. People you’d want to hang out with outside of work.
Let’s be honest. This is our home away from home. We spend more time at work than we actually do at home.
So if you don’t like going to work because someone’s there, there’s a problem. And you own the company. You can fix the problem.
If you don’t like your company, you can fix it. If you don’t like something about the way it runs, only you can fix it. You don’t have to deal with it.
I think people forget this. You’re in charge. You built this business to serve you, not the other way around. So if you don’t like something in your company, fix it.
I had this conversation two weeks ago with a friend. He was complaining, or bitching, about something he didn’t like in his company.
And I said, “Man, well then fix it.”
He didn’t say anything for a second. Then he’s like, “Jonas, I’ve never actually heard that before.”
I said, “It’s that simple. If you don’t like something, fix it. You own the company.”
And he’s like, “I love that piece of advice.”
But you don’t know until you don’t know. So if you’re listening to this and you don’t like something in your company, go fix it.
What Systems Ensure Consistency Across Trainers and Regions?
We kind of just talked about this, but let me summarize.
Make sure you hire for culture right away. Hire someone you like. Someone who fits your values.
And make sure the training is all consistent across your platforms. Whether it’s Trainual or other training software, it doesn’t matter which one you use.
Just make sure everyone watches the same training. Gets the same info. Gets all the same systems, processes, and scripts. Everything dialed in exactly the same.
And make sure you’re training the trainers. Because they need to be on top of their game too.
Even all my executive team has coaches. If I have coaches, they need coaches. So I pay for every single one of them to have coaches too.
We all have to get better together.
The Biggest Mistakes People Make With Training
This is an easy one. The biggest mistake is simply not training enough. Or not training at all.
And I’m not sitting here saying that we’re perfect. There’s always room to get better.
If you think I’m sitting here running a big company and everything’s perfect and not messy, that’s not true. I constantly get reminded of things all the time that I know I should be doing that we’re not doing.
We’ve definitely gotten better in the training aspect, but I had to learn the hard way.
Circling back to what I said earlier. I walked into a couple offices and watched them service properties. And I’m like, “What about this? What about this? What about this?”
They’d say, “Well, we don’t do that here.”
I’m like, “Why not?”
“Well, we didn’t really even know that because no one showed us.”
The further the service got away from me, the more things fell through the cracks.
So here’s what I’m saying. If you’re an owner and you’re working really hard to get to a million dollars in revenue, and then you’re almost absent from your business, that’s cool. I get it. You want freedom.
But make sure you sit with the CSRs for a week. Sit with the marketing team for a week. Sit with the retention department for a week. Do ride alongs for a week with the technicians.
You’ll really see what’s going on and where you can improve.
The Importance of Standard Operating Procedures
One final piece I would add is making sure you have standard operating procedures written out and everyone knows them.
This is really important because I see a lot of companies, especially smaller ones, that don’t have any SOPs.
And just like anything else, it doesn’t get any easier as you get bigger. So do it when you’re small.
With ChatGPT these days, you can pretty much put your process in there and it’ll spit out an SOP for you. Use that to your advantage.
I hired a consultant company a few years ago that came in and created all our SOPs across the board. It was expensive. But I’m still to this day thankful that I did it. It was worth every penny.
But here’s the thing. Don’t overdo them. Don’t spend too much time on them. Because they constantly evolve.
What works at $300,000 in revenue won’t work the same at $800,000. What works at $800,000 won’t work at $2 million.
All the systems break as you grow, and you kind of have to redo them. So don’t make them perfect. Just make them good enough and keep improving them as you scale.
Start Training Your Team the Right Way
Look, training is one of those things that everyone knows they should do, but most people don’t actually do it well.
They throw people into jobs and expect them to figure it out. Then they get frustrated when things don’t go perfectly.
But the reality is, if you over train like you’re teaching a third grader, if you create video libraries and SOPs, if you build a strong culture, your team will perform at a completely different level.
And your business will grow faster and with less headaches.
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 build your training program and create a team that executes at the highest level.
