FieldRoutes Puts Hollenbeck Pest Control at the Wheel for a Getaway

By Eddie Wooten

Who knew being a police officer serving the nation's largest city would be part of the journey toward owning a pest control company?

We'll come back to that.

And put aside, for a moment, how the additional functionalities of more modern technology fueled more success, including a significant revenue boost, for this company.

No, this change of software providers, to FieldRoutes in October 2021, offered something more.

"We went on vacation," says James Hollenbeck, co-owner of Hollenbeck Pest Control with Jennifer Concepcion in New Windsor, NY. 

That's a big change from most of the 16 previous years.

"We had to be here," Hollenbeck says. 

"This program," he adds regarding FieldRoutes, "has made our lives much easier and allowed us to go on more getaways."

The software change, beneficial as it has been, wasn’t the first important move Hollenbeck and Concepcion made.

Choosing to afford to live

Hollenbeck, who grew up in his family's roofing business and also worked in pest control, and Concepcion met at the New York City Police Academy. Hollenbeck emerged as an officer, but the 65-mile commute from New Windsor to New York City became only part of the challenge. 

"I just couldn't afford to live," he says of his $25,000 annual salary.

His seven years as a technician in the pest control industry, which he thought was in his past, gave him an option.

"I was doing pest control by day, working midnights as a police officer," Hollenbeck says. "I wasn't making enough money to pay my rent or eat. And then almost every year since, I've hired another technician, and it just kind of grew into what it is today."

Concepcion had sought a change more quickly than Hollenbeck, leaving the academy to return to school and then work as a unit clerk in a hospital.

"She didn't remember me," he says of their academy days. "I remembered her."

Concepcion, the company’s financial manager, admits the early days of the business, dating to 2008, weren't always easy. 

"Trying to raise kids, have a family, being a business, it can get to be a lot," she says.

At this point, no one knows what would have happened with careers in police work. But it appears owning a pest control company has paid off for both.

"I love working with my people and my staff," Hollenbeck says. "It's given us a lot of flexibility in our lives, and it's helped us accomplish other goals, like purchase a house and raise our children."

Making that possible are software enhancements minimizing travel and maximizing productivity, the implementation of new routes, and improved communications with customers. 

Scaling a business, hitting revenue goals

Hollenbeck Pest Control, empowered by FieldRoutes^® Operations Suite, serves residential and commercial customers—apartment complexes, restaurants, warehouses, breweries and wineries, hospitals, and power plants—in seven counties bordering the Hudson River north of New York City.

"FieldRoutes has made it a lot easier for us to set defined goals," Concepcion says. "They have also helped us scale our business, increase average daily production, and hit our revenue goals and then some."  

Among those measurements, two have been crucial for Hollenbeck Pest Control:

• A 25% increase in revenue since the switch to FieldRoutes. 

• A 12% reduction in travel costs during the past year. 

James Hollenbeck credits Concepcion for researching options to replace ServSuite with a more advanced platform. In a month’s time, he says, Concepcion met with sales representatives and sat for demos with 10 companies.

“She narrowed all these 10 programs down to (FieldRoutes),” he says.

Since then, the move to FieldRoutes has supported growth for Hollenbeck Pest Control in a handful of ways.

Intelligent routing and scheduling: "With the routing, what impressed me the most with FieldRoutes was how easy it is to navigate things," Concepcion says. "We're able to set up regions with FieldRoutes, something we've never done in the past. With visual grouping and intelligent routing, we're able to be a lot more efficient and keep techs in the same vicinity to increase production."

Communications with customers: “Technicians actually love it,” Concepcion says of the software, “because one of the cool features is they're able to also take video and images and upload them to the account.” 

FieldRoutes^® Mobile app: "Everything is in real time, and changes that are made are done quickly," Concepcion says. "So the communication also keeps everything on point, not only for us, but as well for the customer." Hollenbeck adds: "It's very easy to find directions. It's very easy to make updates. It's very easy to notify customers you're on the way."

Reporting: “We can find reports on just about anything and everything,” Hollenbeck says. “When we need things, want to create flyers and marketing campaigns, we can pull up reports to see who used this and didn't continue with us, or one-time customers. I use it more as a field tech—and the dashboard.”

No switch in software providers is easy—“change is always scary,” Concepcion says—but the move to FieldRoutes went better than expected for Hollenbeck Pest Control.

"All of the reps helping run the process and the integration were super-duper helpful," she says. "They made it that much easier."

'FieldRoutes would definitely help them'

Not only are Hollenbeck and Concepcion thriving in pest control, they continue to reach new goals and improve their customer service after their switch to FieldRoutes nearly three years ago.

When asked why a pest control company should consider switching to FieldRoutes software, Concepcion’s take comes from a financial viewpoint for the company.

"If they want to scale their business, know the ins and out of the business, know how their company is doing day-to-day, and want to know their numbers," Concepcion says, "FieldRoutes would definitely help them not only to scale but allow them to use more programs and be able to be more savvy and knowledgeable.

“It was the best decision we could have ever made.”

More about Hollenbeck Pest Control

Owners: Jennifer Concepcion and James Hollenbeck

Location: New Windsor, NY

Technicians: 10

Office Staff: 4

Years In Business: 16

Learn More: HollenbeckPestControl.com, 845.565.5566