RichPro Pest Management

About The Company 

Since 1975, RichPro Pest Management has served the Greater Richmond and Central Virginia area with affordable residential and commercial pest control services with honesty, integrity, and reliability. They have one location, two office staff, and five field technicians who also share sales duties.

The Challenge 

After being laid off from his IT job, David Outhous decided to dive head-first into the world of pest control. In 2007, an out-of-the-blue question from his wife prompted him to eventually purchase RichPro— then known as Richmond Professional Termite— from its Owner, who was ready to retire. He quickly started educating himself by attending numerous industry events and connecting with his local pest management association. His hard work paid off, and he was able to successfully acquire the necessary knowledge to continue the company’s upward trajectory as one of the community’s most respected pest control services.

One of his first actions as the new Owner was to shift the operation away from pen and paper and introduce pest management software to make life easier for his new employees. Eventually, David began to grow increasingly frustrated with his then-current solution’s lack of innovation. “I wanted more mobile capability,” recalled David. “My current software just wasn’t able to keep pace with where I was looking for us to move toward,” David continued.

He was also becoming dissatisfied with the system’s needlessly confusing interface. As David put it: “Over the years, they developed like 10 different ways to do the same thing. It was confusing, and I didn’t like that.” Although he was initially hesitant to switch software, he knew that change was inevitable and necessary.

Since implementing FieldRoutes™ Operations Suite, RichPro has: 

• Experienced 16% year-overyear revenue growth 

• Increased stops-per-day by an estimated 40% in one year 

• Improved technician productivity by nearly 30% in one year 

• Successfully grown revenue and customer base with one less technician

The Solution

In 2015, David began his search for a new software partner that could help take his business to where he wanted it to go. In addition to innovation, one of his highest priorities was ease of use. After spending a considerable amount of time evaluating options, he narrowed it down to two contenders, FieldRoutes— then known as PestRoutes—and a competing solution.

“What really drew me to FieldRoutes was that it was so easy to use,” said David. “I was also impressed with the reporting capabilities. In my old software, the reporting was just so cumbersome. Another thing I liked about FieldRoutes is that I just had one fee, and pretty much everything was included.”

Initially, his background in information technology made him hesitant to take the plunge since he was well-aware of the potential pitfalls of the software implementation process. However, he knew something had to be done sooner rather than later, and in 2019, he officially became a FieldRoutes customer.

The Impact 

“FieldRoutes has impacted our business in so many ways,” recalled David. Thinking back on his initial experience with FieldRoutes, David notes: “The implementation process eased the pain of making that conversion. I mean, no conversion is easy, but FieldRoutes tried to make it as simple as possible. And the technical knowledge and skill of the team was good. They knew what they were doing.”

David and his team finally received the mobile capabilities they were looking for, adding tablets to their operation, helping them cut paper costs, and streamlining the process for field technicians. Billing was another critical area where the software proved beneficial. “In my old software, I had to be super careful about how I did the billing, making sure that everybody who was getting billed should be billed. And so going to FieldRoutes, that process went from hours to I’m done in minutes. It was just incredible, the amount of time that I’d saved there.”

“The other area of significant improvement has been in our communication with our customers,” David observed. By utilizing Trigger Rules—which can execute hands-free actions based on specific conditions—RichPro is now able to send automated appointment and payment reminders. This frees valuable time that allows them to maintain closer contact with their high-touch verbal confirmation-only (VCO) customers.

The Trigger Rules also helped solve a recurring issue where customers would schedule appointments but write down a different day and time. Customers would become frustrated with the miscommunication and the RichPro team was left scrambling to make things right. “And so, we created a trigger that automatically sends an email to the customer with the date and time of the appointment,” David continued. “I love that feature.” 

“One of the things that hugely impacted our business was the route optimization,” added David. With FieldRoutes Intelligent Routing, RichPro is able to create denser routes with less time between stops. This in turn has helped increase stops-per-day by an estimated 40% and technicians’ daily revenue production by nearly 30% in the past year. 

David and RichPro have come a long way since he first acquired the business all those years ago. He now serves as the President of Virginia Pest Management Association (VPMA), helping other pest control operators find their footing and grow their business. And the future of RichPro has never looked better.

“FieldRoutes has made such a significant impact on our business. This year, we’ve operated with one less technician than we did last year. And the primary reason that we’ve been able to do that is by optimizing routes in FieldRoutes.”

Dave Outhous Owner RichPro Pest Management 804.266.4608 www.richpropm.com