What does it really mean when we say ServiceTracker was built by pest controllers?

For ServiceTracker, it goes back to where we started. We have worked in pest control ourselves for many years, often “on the tools” and we also worked closely with a former president of the BPCA to shape the first version of the software. Those early conversations helped us focus on the realities of the job: the work happening on site, the information that needs to make it back to the office, and the records customers need when it’s time for an audit.

That experience gave us a starting point. It didn’t give us every answer.

As ServiceTracker grew, we met more and more pest control businesses and quickly realised how differently they could operate. A small team managing its own diary may have very different needs from a business coordinating many technicians, sites and contracts. Even within one company, the technician, scheduler, account manager and person preparing reports can each see a different part of the same problem.

We could have assumed that the way we knew was the way everyone worked.

Instead, we asked our customers to show us.

The details matter

Sometimes feedback starts with a big idea. A customer wants a better way to plan visits, follow up recommendations or give their clients access to reports. Other times, it starts with something small: a field that takes too long to complete, information that’s hard to find, or a step that has to be repeated every day.

Those details matter because a feature only helps if it works during a real working day. A technician needs to capture the right information while they’re on site. The office needs to see what happened and what needs doing next. Managers need a clear picture of work across the business. Customers need records they can understand and rely on.

Hearing how people actually use ServiceTracker helps us connect those needs. It also shows us where an idea that looks good on paper needs more thought before it becomes useful in practice.

We’re still learning

Customer feedback has shaped ServiceTracker into the product it is today. It has challenged our assumptions, helped us improve existing features and pointed us towards problems we might never have spotted on our own.

That process doesn’t end when a feature is released. Pest control businesses change. Teams grow, customer expectations shift, legislation changes and new challenges appear. We want to keep learning from the people dealing with those changes every day.

We’re good at writing the code: our team of developers have, between them, many years of software development on a wide range of software platforms across many industries. But some of the best ideas come from the our customers and pest controllers, people like you using the system: the people who can tell us exactly what slows them down and what would make their work easier.

serviceTracker: Shaped by the people who use it.

So if there’s something you’d love ServiceTracker to do, tell us. It might be a new feature, an improvement to something you already use, or a problem you haven’t found a good way to solve yet.

We’re listening. Get in touch and tell us what you’d like to see next.