PestBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Choosing Pest Control Scheduling Software: What to Check Before You Switch

There is no shortage of software that claims to schedule pest control. Some of it is generic field-service software with a pest control label. Some of it is one of the big pest-control platforms built for companies with a dozen dispatchers. For a company with one to a handful of trucks, the right choice is the one that fits how recurring pest work actually runs, at a price that makes sense.

Know What You Are Replacing

If you are coming from a spreadsheet, the move is covered in Moving Pest Control Scheduling Off Paper and Spreadsheets. Before you look at any software, write down what your current system does and what it gets wrong. That list is your test.

Be specific. “Quarterly customers slip to five months in summer” is a better test than “scheduling is hard.” “The second truck crosses town three times a day” is a better test than “routes are bad.” When you sit down with a trial, those specific problems tell you exactly what to try first, and whether the software fixes them.

Does It Understand Recurring Work?

Pest control is mostly recurring. Check:

• Plans by interval. Can you set quarterly, bi-monthly and monthly plans, and do accounts come due on their own after each completed visit?
• Interval from the last visit. If a visit slips, does the next one slip too, or does it stay on a fixed calendar date?
• Programs. Can you sell a multi-visit program, like a mosquito season?
• One-time jobs. Can wasp, ant, bed bug and termite inspection jobs sit next to recurring work?

A calendar with repeating appointments is not the same thing. You want software that tells you who is due, not one that asks you to remember.

Can You See Who Is Due on a Map?

This is the one feature that changes how scheduling feels. A list of due accounts tells you who. A map tells you who and where, which is what a route is made of. Check:

• Is there a live map of accounts that have come due?
• Can you tell at a glance which are due, which are coming up and which are overdue?
• Can you build a route straight from the map, like circling an area?

How Does Dispatch Work?

• A board by day. Can you see each day's jobs?
• A filter by truck. Can you look at one route at a time?
• Auto-routing. Can it put a day in order from the shop, and can you still set the order by hand?
• Saved views and printing. Can you save the views you use and print route sheets?
• Tech GPS. Can the office see where trucks are?

What Does the Tech See?

Scheduling only matters if the route reaches the truck. Check the tech app: Does it run on the phones your techs already have, without special devices? Does it show the day in route order, with navigation and notes? Can techs Start, Skip with a reason, and Complete? Can they record what was applied, so the chemical application record is kept? Does completing a job create the invoice and charge a card on file?

Have a tech try it during the trial. If they cannot learn it in a ride-along, it is the wrong tool.

What Does the Customer See?

• Automatic on-the-way and arrived texts.
• Alerts customers choose: night before, when they are next, when the tech arrives.
• A customer app showing their place on the route, with invoices, payment and service requests.
• Two-way texting with the office.

These save small offices more time than almost anything else, because they answer the “when are you coming?” calls before they happen. See You're Stop 12 of 20: Showing Customers Their Place on the Pest Control Route.

Price and Fit

Price matters for small companies. Look for simple monthly pricing that includes scheduling, the tech app and customer texts, not a stack of add-ons. Check how texting is counted. PestBossPro plans are $59, $89 and $199 per month for Start, Pro and Crew, with scheduling and the tech app on every plan, and a monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received.

Then try it with real data. A free trial with no credit card lets you import some customers, look at the Waiting List, build a route and have a tech run it. Ask the software to do what your current system gets wrong. If it does, you have your answer.

To see how PestBossPro handles each item on this checklist, visit the PestBossPro pest control scheduling software page.