The following is a summary of the 2012 State of the Industry Report from Pest Management Professional (PMP) Magazine which was sponsored by Bell Laboratories and given out at the PMP Booth at the 2011 NPMA Pest World Convention & Expo in New Orleans, LA.
PMP’s NOT Slowing Down: Economy stalls in neutral, but industry confident traveling the road ahead
Optimism reigns in the pest management industry heading into next year, but it’s tempered with the reality that a full economic recovery for the nation won’t be accomplished anytime soon. How the economy affects business is top of mind for many pest management professionals (PMPs) surveyed in this year’s State of the Industry by pmp. Seventy percent of respondents to the survey say their biggest concern is a prolonged recession and almost half (47 percent) say it’s their biggest concern…
Even though a prolonged recession, higher taxes and fuel costs are keeping PMPs up at night, only 9 percent sat the state of the pest management service market in their region has slightly or significantly declined. Those who have an optimistic business outlook heading into the coming year increased 6 percent. Some are making sure their business outlook is rosy by employing tried-and-true business strategies, which include:
- ramping up advertising,
- increasing web presences,
- networking more,
- participating in home & garden shows,
- stressing to employees the importance of keeping customers happy, and
- working hard to keep those same employees happy with the company too.
- PMPs reported that Single-Family Residential Homes continue to be the area for the most growth (50%) for their companies, with Commercial/Industrial coming in at 28%, Multi-Family Structures/HOA (17%) and Government/Institutional/Other (3%) coming in significantly lower than previous SOI reports.
- Customer Retention Rate for 2011 = 82% of survey respondents say that they were able to keep between 76% and 100% of their current customers, up from 76% in 2010.
- Overall Business Outlook:
- 2011 – 27% very optimistic/46% somewhat optimistic/22% uncertain/5% somewhat pessimistic
- 2012 – 33% very optimistic/36% somewhat optimistic/27% uncertain/4% somewhat pessimistic