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McNeely Pest Control has found a way to connect with more people and grow its business organically.
For the last four years the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company has gained a growing following from local Hispanic residents by going bilingual. The company has done this through its Spanish-speaking employees and by enhancing its website to include a portion of the content in Spanish.
“We want to be in a position to reach out to that community,” said Scott McNeely, president of McNeely Pest Control. “Reaching out to Spanish-speaking residents that have pest service needs provides communication in a more comfortable way.”
McNeely said the company has about six technicians and two customer service representatives who are bilingual and can help customers that are more comfortable describing their pest-related problems in their native Spanish.
McNeely Pest Control has five locations throughout North Carolina and it also services parts of southwest Virginia. The firm services some areas that have a Hispanic population as large as 23 percent, including Asheboro, N.C., according to 2010 United States Census Bureau data.
The first conscious effort — the translated website — occurred about four years ago. Introductory videos were created in October 2015 and soon thereafter added to the website. The videos show employees explaining in Spanish the different types of services that McNeely Pest Control offers.
“It gives us an opportunity to reach out and it’s what our competition is not doing,” said McNeely. “We want to diversify our business to clients by selling additional services to multifamily housing or single family housing.”
Mildred Olivares, customer service representative for McNeely Pest Control, said she talks to Spanish-speaking customers on the phone anywhere from two to five times a day.
“People who don’t speak English still have pest control needs,” she said. “When they’re more comfortable speaking their native language, they feel relieved when we have that service.”
Just as pest control companies offer different methods and programs to solve a variety of pest-related problems, McNeely said companies need to search for new market opportunities based on specific demographic trends within their service areas.
The author is an editorial intern for PCT magazine. Email her at mfernandez@gie.net.
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