The problem
A rat or mouse treatment is a course of visits: you lay bait, then come back to check it and top it up. Customers forget the follow-ups, and you arrive to a locked door. Three wasted follow-up trips a week at an hour each, with your time worth $47£35€42A$67C$66 an hour, is about $599£450€536A$864C$846 a month gone.
What the AI does
ServiceM8 sends booking confirmations and booking reminders by text or email through its free Automation add-on. You book every visit of the treatment course when you start the job, and each one gets a reminder before you're due, so the customer knows to be in or to leave a key. Texts come out of your plan's SMS allowance.
A worked example
A two-van pest control firm in Sheffield does around 12 rodent treatments a week, each with two or three follow-up visits, on ServiceM8's Growing plan. They book all the visits at the first appointment and turn on booking reminders by text.
Before
About 3 follow-up visits a week where nobody is in
After
About 1 a week, as customers get a text before each visit
What it's worth
About $400£301€358A$578C$566 a month in time saved, against $78£59€70A$113C$111 for the Growing plan a firm this size needs. That is 2 fewer wasted hour-long trips a week, at an assumed $47£35€42A$67C$66 an hour, times 4.3.
How to set it up
- Set up ServiceM8 on a plan that covers your monthly jobs and texts: Starter is $33£25€30A$48C$47 a month (50 jobs, 100 texts), Growing $78£59€70A$113C$111 (150 jobs, 300 texts), excluding VAT.
- Turn on the Automation add-on, which ServiceM8's help center lists as free, and switch on booking confirmations and booking reminders.
- Write the reminder in your own words, including what the customer needs to do, such as being in, leaving a key or keeping pets away from bait areas.
- Book every follow-up visit when you start the treatment, so each one gets its own reminder.
- Check the reminder setting is applied to each new job, then count no-access trips for a month and compare.
What goes wrong
- ServiceM8's help center says reminders only go to jobs with the booking reminder badge applied. If a job is booked without it, no reminder goes out.
- Texts beyond your plan's allowance cost 5p each, so a busy month can add a few pounds.
- A reminder doesn't help if the customer's mobile number is wrong. Check it at the first visit.
- Each visit can count as a job against your plan's monthly limit, so check how follow-ups are set up before you outgrow Starter.