Massey Services: A Celebrated Past, an Exciting Future

Editor’s note: With this year’s NPMA PestWorld being held in Orlando, PCT decided to profile an Orlando-based firm that is one of the pest management industry’s true success stories: Massey Services. Founded in 1985 by Harvey L. Massey, Massey Services has grown from four service centers to 154. The company services more than 600,000 residential and commercial Pest Prevention, Termite Protection, Landscape Services and Irrigation Maintenance customers throughout Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and North Carolina while employing more than 2,100 team members. The following is a look at Massey’s celebrated past and a glimpse into how the company has positioned itself for future growth under the leadership of Harvey L. Massey, chairman and CEO, and Tony Massey, president.

While much has changed at Massey Services throughout its 33-year history, the one constant has been the company’s commitment to its customers and team members. Massey is committed to “total customer satisfaction” and provides beneficial services that protect health, food, property and the quality of our environment. This customer service legacy has grown under the leadership of Harvey L. Massey, a former Orkin and Terminix executive who purchased Walker Chemical and Exterminating Company in 1985 for $4.9 million and later renamed it Massey Services.

Massey Services’ bedrock is its mission statement — to be “a leader in providing an environmentally responsible and superior service and to be recognized as the best service company in our industry” — which was developed in 1991 by Harvey Massey. With this goal in mind, the company has remained focused on customer satisfaction and innovation with the services it provides and how they are delivered to customers. Valuing image, truth and integrity are core elements of their guiding philosophy. They conduct business with a corporate perspective while remaining flexible in order to take advantage of new opportunities that present themselves.

A well-known Massey Services phrase is “At Massey Services, Our People Make the Difference!” The focus at Massey Services has always been, and continues to be, centered on ongoing team member training, education and development.

PARADIGM SHIFT. Key to Massey Services’ success has been the company’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. As a leader in innovation, Massey Services is continually researching and testing better ways to provide effective services to customers, while at the same time protecting the environment. With that in mind, Massey has developed several innovative programs during the last 33 years. Here’s a look at a few:

Money-Back Guarantee. In the early 1990s, Harvey Massey took an unprecedented step and launched one of the industry’s first money-back guarantees. He reasoned, “If you tell someone you’re going to do something, you ought to do it and if you don’t do it to their complete satisfaction, they deserve their money back.” This commitment remains a cornerstone of the company’s guiding philosophy.

Pest Prevention. In 1990, Massey Services changed service and training protocols creating a shift from traditional pest control, which relies on the application of pesticides whether needed or not, to control or eliminate pests, to pest prevention. Pest Prevention is a customized environmental management program that eliminates the conditions, avenues and sources of pest infestation from in and around a structure.

Irrigation Maintenance Program. Massey Services provides environmentally beneficial landscape services that enhance the beauty of nature while improving the quality of the environment. Massey Services understands the importance of proper watering for landscape health while simultaneously protecting our precious water supply. Consequently, in 2006, Massey Services introduced an Irrigation Maintenance Program. Unfortunately, all too often, most of the water used to irrigate landscapes is wasted through inefficient landscape irrigation systems. Massey’s irrigation maintenance program helps customers water correctly which helps conserve water by reducing or eliminating waste. After all, a properly maintained and irrigated landscape is beneficial to our environment.

Bed Bug Heat Remediation. In 2007, Massey Services launched a bed bug heat remediation program. At the time, Massey was searching for a better way to eliminate bed bugs. So, Massey developed its own patented process that involves heating ambient air in a given space at temperatures lethal to arthropod pests, including bed bugs. Maintaining these temperatures for a set amount of time allows the heat energy to penetrate locations where bed bugs reside, many of which are typically inaccessible by traditional treatment methods. The benefits of this program include faster turnaround time and the elimination of bed bugs at all stages of life, from egg to adult.

Growth by M&A. Massey Services has grown not only organically, but via acquisitions as well. In December 2009, Massey Services made the largest acquisition in its history with the purchase of Sunair Services, parent company of Middleton Lawn & Pest Control. Middleton had been a prominent company in the state of Florida since 1952 with headquarters in Orlando, Fla. With this acquisition, Massey Services was propelled to 5th on the PCT Top 100 List, with estimated revenues of $130 million. Massey Services has continued to grow both organically and through acquisitions since that time. Today, Massey Services is the largest family-owned pest management company in the industry.

Harvey Massey also acquired Orlando- based public relations firm Persons & Brinati, in 1997. In 2016 they renamed the agency to Moxe, which is a full-service marketing and advertising company.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. Another example of Massey Services’ industry leadership is its commitment to environmental responsibility and stewardship. For example, Massey Services provides a termite treatment that saves millions of gallons of precious water resources annually. Environmentally responsible initiatives such as this have led to Massey Services being named a Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Champion by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

LOOKING AHEAD. Massey Services continues to innovate. In addition to Massey’s lake-friendly landscape approach, they have also proactively changed landscape protocol during summer months to comply with fertilizer ordinances in every market regardless of county regulation.

In February 2018, Massey announced an official partnership between BRIDG, an organization that unites ideas with industry to accelerate the manufacturing development of emerging technologies and spark tomorrow’s innovation. The partnership will provide Massey Services with the ability and opportunity to co-develop products utilizing BRIDG’s state-of-the-art microelectronics facility. It will continue to provide Massey Services the opportunity to leverage cutting-edge sensor technology that will benefit its customers and businesses. The company has been heavily involved with BRIDG since the beginning stages of its inception.

Perhaps the greatest testament to Massey Services’ commitment to customers and team members is the fact the company has experienced 33 consecutive years of profitable growth — and by all accounts — Massey Services shows no signs of slowing down.

The author is senior marketing and PR strategist for Moxe.