4 Hot Topics in the Pest Control Industry for 2022

You might not realize this, but the pest control industry is red hot right now! As a market segment that has not been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and has actually surged over the past couple of years, the future looks bright for owners of pest control businesses in 2022. Nevertheless, the problems facing a new pest control franchise are far from insurmountable, and you can absolutely plan for and overcome them with the support of Skedaddle’s team of humane pest control experts. 

With over 30 years of combined experience under its belt, Skedaddle’s team is in a unique position since the business is currently undergoing a significant expansion throughout North America. So, to give you a better idea of the challenges you can expect, here are the top four hot topics in the pest control industry.

1 – Rising costs throughout the supply chain and inflation concerns

At the time of this writing, inflation is a concern for every industry in North America. The reasons for rising prices are complex, and the jury is still out as to why everything is both harder to find and more expensive than it was a year ago. Either way, the price of nearly everything is going up – from the cost of fuel to the cost of essential materials and supplies – so what’s the solution?

Without a way to control rising costs by staying as efficient as possible, inflation can seriously cut into your bottom line or limit your financial resources when you have to make tough decisions on what to buy and what can wait. A pest control franchise has many advantages, but it’s not bulletproof from rising prices. Moving forward, this challenge will be priority number one across the humane wildlife control industry no matter where you decide to open up a Skedaddle pest control franchise.

2 – Worker shortages and employment

The pest control industry is no different from any other struggling to find and retain employees. The jobs are there; the problem is that people are choosing to go elsewhere with their labor or stay out of the workforce until the pandemic subsides. Once again, the reasons behind this phenomenon are complex, and frankly, they’re also beyond the scope of this particular post. Still, the takeaway for potential Skedaddle pest control Franchise Owners is that finding and retaining new employees will most likely be more challenging than usual for the foreseeable future.

So, what’s the best way to account for this temporary labor shortage? How do you plan for something that you can’t necessarily control? The answer for many businesses has been to increase wages and also make the job more rewarding, and we don’t mean financially satisfying. For example, there’s nothing wrong with building up a little friendly competition among your sales and marketing team. Things like this will be more common as franchises look for ways to attract and motivate workers, especially those responsible for sales and marketing.

3 – Growing the business

Along those lines, the next challenges facing the pest control industry relate to growing the business despite the economic headwinds we’ve discussed up to this point. In other words, you need a different approach to sales and marketing, and the solution is relatively easy to execute. Nowadays, consumers expect businesses to be more personable than just a faceless, nameless logo with no personality and passion. It all boils down to the people you rely on to grow the business, so that’s why door-to-door sales have been so successful.

Skedaddle Franchise Owners have a distinct advantage over their local competitors, thanks to the comprehensive marketing support they can rely on from our executive team. While independent pest control business owners in their market are forced to split their time between sourcing new business, scheduling appointments, and performing services for existing customers, they find that increasing their marketing strategy is next to impossible to add to their workload! Skedaddle’s corporate team is here to take the lead generation, appointment scheduling, and intensive marketing off of their Franchise Owners’ plates, allowing them to focus on growing their business.  

4 – Process automation and efficiency 

Lastly, we come to process automation and the challenges of increasing efficiency without raising costs at the same time. Usually, when you open a business for the first time, you start with no processes at all, so the easiest low-hanging fruit to grab is starting with manual processes and paperwork-based orders. But nowadays, there are many digital automation tools you can deploy to increase efficiency and thus increase the quality of the customer service you provide as well.

The catch is that when new entrepreneurs try to do this on their own they invariably drop the ball and either pay for software tools they don’t need or can’t use properly. For instance, you could use an automated phone system as your point of contact, but is this strategy going to increase sales? Or will it only add an unnecessary layer of technological complexity that doesn’t help grow the brand and ruin the customer experience?

At this point, here’s where a new approach to sales and marketing comes into the equation. Instead of doing everything yourself, you can work with Skedaddle’s team and take advantage of the process automation they have already created. There’s no need to start from scratch, and you can find plenty of quick wins during the first year of business as you get used to what your customers expect and demand.

No matter which direction the industry goes from here, 2022 will be an exciting time to open up a pest control franchise in your community, so you’ll have a leg up on the competition if you keep these topics in mind and work hard to find solutions.

Check out our franchise website to learn more details about the business opportunity with Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control.