10 Reasons — And More! — That General Environmental Services Loves FieldRoutes Software

By Eddie Wooten

Melanie Espinola, the operations manager of General Environmental Services, strolled through the exhibit hall at PestWorld in October 2022.

As she walked with her boss, Chief Operating Officer Peter Wonson Jr., the thought of shopping for a replacement for their software provider of 18 years was the furthest thing from her mind.

One team called for her to come over.

"No, no, no, no, no, no; I'm good," Espinola told the FieldRoutes staff, extending her arm and palm so that the hand also said "no."

"You can spin a wheel and win a prize," the team implored.

"I don't need a prize. I don't need a prize," she shot back.

But a large display screen at that booth in Boston, a little more than 10 miles from the business' location in Malden, MA, caught her eye.

"Somebody was playing with it in scheduling," she says. 

"That was it for me."

By March 2023, the pest control company founded at a kitchen table in the coastal Massachusetts town of Essex by Wonson’s father, Peter, and mother, Marybeth, had begun operating with FieldRoutes as its business partner.

"Why did we wait so long?" she says now. "We should have done this years ago."

In General Environmental Services’ first year with FieldRoutes, Espinola has found numerous ways that FieldRoutes, from PestWorld demo to today, has assisted in making operations more efficient and improving the bottom line. 

"I love it,” she says. “It's a fantastic software."

Among those reasons:

Cost

The pain point

Pest control software is sometimes seen as more expensive than valuable.

How FieldRoutes resolves it

General Environmental Services’ new partner costs "a lot less money” than its previous partner, which Espinola calls “very, very, very expensive.” FieldRoutes partners pay based on the number of active customers rather than by the user, and the latter way could be more expensive if a business incurs additional charges from its provider.

“They don't have as many features as you guys have,” she says. "Everything that they do, it's added-on money. You guys include a lot of it into that pricing. 

“So money is a big difference."

Switching providers

The pain point

Changing software providers isn’t easy.

How FieldRoutes can help

Requesting data and getting it migrated from one software provider to another can be nerve-wracking for a pest control company, particularly when the original provider is reluctant to let go.

"They waited so long to share the data with us, and it was always like, 'We're working on it. We're going to get to it,’” Espinola says. “And it really shouldn't have taken that long. They were just being a little tough. 

“But, once it happened, it was fine. I was stressed, but it was fine."

When it was time for the data transfer to FieldRoutes, Espinola got to work.

"I took two weeks off here, went home, bought myself a brand new laptop, and for two weeks straight, day and night, they transferred the data,” Espinola says. “I put in all our clients' Sentricons, our renewals, everything. I came back, it was ready to go, and then our office just worked with it.

"I was so determined to make it happen, because I could see the positive,” she says. "Now, it's amazing. It does everything on its own, and our staff works with it. It's great.”

Scheduling

The pain point

Technicians need to be put in position to serve the most customers. 

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

It’s pretty simple: When technicians can get to more customers, the company can be more profitable. Having a software that schedules technicians and places them on the tightest routes can be a game-changer.

"(FieldRoutes) pulls up a little box,” Espinola says, “and it helps you schedule. It tells you how far the next job is or a technician who's in the area. Or you put days in and when you want to schedule it. And then it helps you pop it in to where it needs to be.

"We were going to hire another dispatcher at the time, and I was wanting something that was more efficient, quicker, so when a customer calls, it's scheduled quickly, gets them scheduled properly, in the right spot.

"Your software will say it's a mile away, 2 miles away, 10 miles away. So, we can figure out where it fits best rather than just guessing. It was way more efficient."

Automation

The pain point

Manual tasks need to be automated to save time.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

Whether it's generating work for the team, communicating with customers, or setting up  renewals, Espinola is breathing easier these days.

Among the examples Espinola offers: what happens after a technician's service is complete.

"When a guy does a service and closes out on his phone, the customer gets an email automatically with the service, his picture, description, invoice," she says of FieldRoutes^® software, "instead of waiting for us to do it at the end of the day." 

That's a new development over the past year for General Environmental Services.

"At the end of the day, I had to go into that pool and release the work," she says. "Nobody got invoiced, nobody got reports until I released the work manually one by one."

Multiple aspects of FieldRoutes software, quite simply, have made Espinola’s work for the company easier.

"When I go home, my mind can close,” she says. “Now, it's so efficient in here that literally I can go home and (snapping her fingers) the next day start fresh. I don't have to keep working on stuff."

FieldRoutes Mobile

The pain point

Employees need access to information anywhere in the world.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

The FieldRoutes® Mobile app allows technicians to see their daily routes, check in and out of appointments, log the products used for the appointments, and update and charge customers' billing information.

"Our guys can (send an invoice) on their phones instantly,” Espinola explains. “Our money keeps rolling. They get billed faster, we get paid faster. For a small business, that's big. That's probably No. 1."

But the app offers significant benefits to company leaders, too. Wonson Jr., for example, can use the app regardless of his location to see how his team is performing, also taking advantage of functionalities of the FieldRoutes dashboard.

“He looks on his phone, and he can see how much money has already come in,” Espinola says. “He could see what a technician is going to produce the whole day, right on one screen.”

Lead generation

The pain point

Prospects need to be effectively converted into customers.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

Developing a relationship with an interested prospect and tracking them through the pipeline toward a sale has become simpler for General Environmental Services.

"If someone goes to our website and says, 'Hey, we're interested in your business,' it shoots up an alert and then it creates the person in our system,” Espinola says of FieldRoutes software capabilities.

That beats an email with a name and phone number, she says. 

“You had to call them back. But you didn't have the address, you didn't know what it was,” Espinola says of their previous system. “Yours creates it in the system. And then, we can either make them a customer, or if they're already in our system, we just merge two accounts and make it one and go from there."

Tasks

The pain point

Manually notifying customers ahead of their service is clunky.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

With its previous provider, General Environmental Services needed to keep track manually, including account numbers, to ensure clients received notification ahead of service. 

“We would miss a lot of clients, calling them, because you have it on a piece of paper,” Espinola says. “You can't remember what day, what person needs what.”

The Tasks function in FieldRoutes software brought automation and efficiency. 

"I create Tasks for all the dispatchers, for their accounts that need that two days prior to their service,” Espinola said. “They get alerted that morning, 'Hey, call Mrs. Jones. Her appointment is Friday.' When they call her, they'll schedule it, and they'll move the Task for the following month. It continues because she's monthly, So month to month it shows up again.

“Tasks allows me to dictate things on certain days, certain times, to get done, and then I can see on my end if they did it or not and what's going on with it. That's pretty big for us."

Service notes

The pain point

Customer care is difficult without complete information. 

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

Notes in FieldRoutes software enable technicians to get key information when they visit a customer.

“If you have a client that has to have her basement door locked at every service, I could do a red note and my technician could see it on his phone, on his app,” Espinola says. “Either he needs a key or a door needs to be locked, or she's sensitive to a certain chemical. 

“They see it instantly before they do the service. That's important."

Payments

The pain point

Making it easy for the customer means getting paid more quickly.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

Billing a customer and receiving the payment should be a snap in 2024. That’s the way it is now, almost literally, for Espinola and General Environmental Services. 

“Old school (with their previous provider), you mail the invoice out, it takes seven days to get to someone's house realistically,” Espinola explains. “They open it. They write a check out. Seven more days, it comes back. So you don't really see a payment until 30 days, 40 days, later. Now they get texts or an email, and (snapping her fingers) they pay instantly. They go to their portal.

"There's more money coming in daily. That helps us as a business tremendously. Winter is our downtime compared to the summer, and money comes in a lot quicker. That's huge for us.”

Reviews

The pain point

Online reputation can be difficult to manage.

How FieldRoutes software resolves it

General Environmental Services has experienced a significant improvement in its Google rating since partnering with FieldRoutes. When the company arrived at PestWorld in October 2022, their Google rating averaged 2.7.

Not anymore.

"When we got your software, when you email invoices, on the bottom it says, 'Please review us,’” Espinola says. “When it came back to us as a five-star, I would email the client our Google link, and eventually I added to the email, and they would go there. 

“Now, as of today, we have a 4.7. That's because of your software."

More From Melanie Espinola

That’s not all that General Environmental Services’ Melanie Espinola has to say about FieldRoutes software.

• "We don't print as much paper. We had to buy (their previous provider’s) invoices, because it had to fit in a certain box. Very expensive. I probably spent a thousand dollars every two weeks on their paper. So that's gone. That's saved us money.”

• "It's just easier. I don't know how to explain it better than that. It's just a lot easier."

• "I have to-do lists every day, and it's a lot quicker to come in and just get things done because it's just a lot faster. I can do tasks instead of writing lists down."

• "I just hired a dispatcher. I just tell them, 'Go to (FieldRoutes software’s) Knowledge Base, follow the Knowledge Base down. The first couple of days, pick up a phone, try it out, make a fake account in it for yourself, schedule yourself, work, play with it.' And then, within three days, she was scheduling, answering phones, and doing that all from the Knowledge Base. So it's easy for me to not have to spend so much time training one-on-one."

• "Every year, we've done better than the previous year. Even during COVID, we did really well. We like to grow every year and have more efficient technicians and just be happy and pay salaries and keep it rolling. My boss started this in 1979. I'm sure he wants his legacy to be for his kids and his grandkids. So if it keeps going the way that it's going, we'll do pretty good.”

Key Performance Improvements

• Increased the number of customers with recurring services by 15% in 2023, compared to 2022.

• Grew total revenue 5% for 2023, compared to 2022.

• Revenue grew despite a 2% decrease in the number of stops ("more money, less stops, more efficient").

GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Owners: Marybeth and Peter Wonson

Location: Malden, MA

Technicians: 10

Office Staff: 20

Sales Reps: 3

Years In Business: 45

Goals for 2024: Increase revenue 5%, provide more training and develop more productivity for employees, grow exterior and rodent control business, grow residential and recurring business.

Learn more: TeamGES.net, 781.531.9290