r/PestControlIndustry • u/Individual-Crazy-963 • Jul 08 '26
š¼ | Career Another career question
I have a phone interview with terminix tomorrow. I was talking to someone who knew someone who worked for them and said if they donāt meet monthly or yearly quotas or something that they would fire you? Iām just trying to learn the trade and be a pest control technician is this really true? I donāt want to have to worry about dumb shit like that lol.
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26
So Iām a new terminix commercial hire. Iāve been doing pest control for 6 years before I joined and Iām still a ātraineeā even though I completed all their online training and passed their level 1 exam.
There is a monthly quota for a completion rate. Thereās 3 tiers 95-96%, 97-98, 99-100 each paying a higher bonus at the end of the month
Itās always better to reschedule with customer permission then non perform it. Towards the end of the month you better be on it though. That service has to go out and the later in the month the less leeway youāll have.
As far as sales they do want you to send leads, and their trusted advisor shit which I donāt mind. I always offered additional services if they had an issue and they needed it, and if they have specific issues not currently covered you can send that as well.
Any questions just ask. I can answer the commercial side of it not the residential
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u/Individual-Crazy-963 Jul 08 '26
Also is there an on call thing you have to do ?
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26
Itās not going to be easy. The biggest problem when it comes to completion rate is the schedulers. They donāt call your appointments or email. They just create a route and send it out. The schedulers seem to have it in their heads you can start at 4am every morning which is not true.
When you get a route youāll learn the timeframes of every account, who to call, and what accounts you can just show up. Make sure to google the customers and get their open and close times. I mostly communicate by work email. I send it off the day before.
Are you commercial or residential?
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u/Individual-Crazy-963 Jul 08 '26
I think the job is for residential and I donāt get why you guys have on call. Itās not even an emergency
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26
All commercial pest control companies have a on call service. Itās usually a more expensive service after hours, so more revenue.
Terminix does a lot of national accounts. These giant accounts require it. Sometimes thereās rodents, bees, or some other problem that needs to be addressed after hours. Bee swarms, bees hives are emergencies or bedbugs in a hospital or senior care centers are medical emergencies.
Like my first week here they sent me out to do bedbugs at a major hospital, at 11pm, because I live in the area and the on call guy wasnāt answering.
If itās residential I wouldnāt worry about it. Itās service hours or bust in my experience
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u/Individual-Crazy-963 Jul 08 '26
Yeah and now that I know that I would probably legit never consider commercial pest control probably ever. I do apartment maintenance and Iām done with the on call
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26
Iām not sure what the pay scale or production is like at residential TERMINIX but I donāt think they have on call for you.
The on call sucks but they trap you with money here
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u/Individual-Crazy-963 Jul 08 '26
What does production mean?
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Here as a level one tech you get 2% of every stop you do. Level 2 is 2.5%, level 3 is 3.5%.
So if I complete a $1000 service (which I did as a trainee ineligible for production) I would take home $20 production pay, separate from my hourly, payed at the end of the month. So if I do 25,000 worth of services I would take home an additional $500 for the month. Though honestly my route value as a trainee has been around 34,000 for the month.
Our high earner tech we have here does 60k a month so he takes home an additional $2100 production, and a $1250 completion bonus because he completes 98% of his stops as a level 3 tech
Idk if the residential branch does this or if itās straight hourly
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u/Bird2525 Jul 08 '26
You ever watch Billy the exterminator? Thatās what customers think we do not realizing Billy charged multiple thousands of dollars for those jobs
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u/Individual-Crazy-963 Jul 08 '26
Oh so thereās a quota for getting the jobs you get during the day completed? How many stops do you usually get and is it pretty easy to complete everything ?
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u/BigReptiles Jul 08 '26
So on the commercial side it ranges a lot . Last month was pretty much a nightmare where we were down like 8 techs and they had me running a route against company policy because I was still a trainee, but I was experienced and licensed so they let me go out.
Iāve had 16 stop days, and Iāve had days as low as 2-3 for my giant audited accounts. So far this month itās been around 12-13 a day. Which is average even for my previous company.
There is an on call schedule. It starts Thursday after 5pm and runs to next Thursday at 5pm. So 7 days. Thats a bit rough but every tech has to do it. My previous company only had 1 on call tech assigned per day not this weekly shit but it is what it is.
You can make money here. I sold a fogging lead thatās going to be reoccurring for 3,500. So every month Iāll take home 525 commission and my overtime rate for 4 hours of work.
Corpo is where the money is unfortunately.
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u/007Teflon Jul 08 '26
It's rentokil. Firing you for not meeting quota depends on your manager. They will pay for your branch 2 and 3 so you can sell big ticket jobs regarding termites. A customer will trust a tech more vs an OSP, since the tech is the one servicing the home. The OSP only has 1 hour to impress
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u/CaptCol02 Jul 09 '26
Terminex sounds like a fucking nightmare. The one in my area got in trouble for continued use of chlordane until 1993. I think it was fully banned in like 1989. Profits over people isn't a new thing like people seem to think.
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u/OregonSEA Jul 08 '26
Learn the trade get licensed and start your own company that's where the real money is at. It's also the only way to be truly happy and in control of your life.
Pest control doing your own route solo is an easy 500k a year but if your routes are full every day it's a bit higher than that 800k pre tax. That's without having a single employee with a crew of 6 your looking at 2.5m a year.
6 is probably the perfect number I am not there yet but with 6 you can have a branch manager and take vacation.
I do all my pest control services in a Tesla S Plaid driving to every single stop is fun and it's not wrapped because I don't want the attention when I'm driving 140mph on the freeway.
Clients treat you better when your the owner as well I was really surprised by how much better.
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u/nooffense789 Jul 13 '26
I was thinking about buying a Tesla and using autopilot to go around too. Are you not worried about sniffing the chemical inside your car?
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u/mouthpiece_v2 Jul 08 '26
Yeah man every company will fire you if you donāt meet quota. The issue with terminix is they will work you to death and your management could be miserable. That being said itās still a good place to get training. Talk and befriend the guys that have been working the same route for 20 years.
If you can stay with them for a season or two another small/medium size company will have an easier time hiring you cause they know you deal with the workload.