Game-Changer for Pest Control Admin!
Tonight's Episode
In this episode of Pest Perspectives Podcast, Jasmin Emmerson from Fotolec Technologies Ltd asks shaun muller about how Oakham Pest Control Ltd transformed their workflow — ditching paper reports and traditional diaries for the streamlined Powered Now digital system.
📲 This switch didn't just save time — it revolutionized how Oakham Pest Control operates. From improved reporting to better client communication, this upgrade is a must-hear for anyone in pest control or field service management.
💡 Discover why going digital with Powered Now is a game-changer for pest professionals.
👉 Listen to the full episode + more via our Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/pestperspectivespodcast
🔎 Tags: Pest Control, Field Service Software, Powered Now, Digital Reports, Business Efficiency, Oakham Pest Control, Paperless Office, Trades Tech, Small Business Tools, Fotolec Technologies
Fair. I mean back last year we were
all paper you see now we're on all our input, all our reports
as in treatment reports and so on, all digital.
We've gone digital completely with with commercial and we were
you say sorry. What was the reason for that?
Was that a time saving thing for you or was that trying to be
more kind of I guess planet friendly and reduce your paper?
Like what was your the driver for you to go digital?
My idea because my dad didn't want to go digital, it was all
about the paper diary and now we still use the paper diary as a
backup but breaks the system down.
I imagine if you bit company you could never get away with that
and then we won't pass tech in November.
Rather look around and my dad thought that I would.
Now system was the back that the one that we should go with.
They went with that and we played with it for a long time
until February where we basically told customers, you
we're going digital. You've basically if you want to
print it out and put in your folder, you still can do that,
but we won't be doing it. And to be fair, which surprised
my dad, most businesses weren't too fussed.
They were like, yeah, I like this.
Actually, I can see that They've got like a portal.
They can send you messages, they can you can put photographs in
there and everything. It's quite good.
But also my dad has realised that it's when you're doing a
treatment report, it's actually easier and faster than writing
it out in pen and paper because it on, on contracts.
Like you obviously go to the same things like that, but the
IT memorises a lot of words. So it will suggest on the tablet
suggest the words to you. I'm not saying every visit is
the same, because it's not, but it has.
It has helped a lot with it going digital.
You said you do it on a tablet. You don't.
Can you do it on your phone if you're sort of doing it quickly?
You can, but what I because I said to my dad, I said it ain't
it's difficult on the phone. It's not that it's.
Your screen. It's so I said, can't we get a
tablet? I'll just I'll see if I can get
it on. I won't show you, but it's much
easier. It's on the mobile it don't get
me wrong, but it's on the it's on the PC and the so where are
we? So just go to it.
So it's it's like that. You've got, it's difficult to
say, but it's it's easy. It's easier.
Yeah. So.
You can see what you're doing, it's not not like the screen.
We've fully, we've fully, we've fully embraced it and it's
something that I never thought we'd be doing digital.
It's made it, pushed it, but my dad's all on board.
We're digital now. So now we've got this digital
trial which I got involved with because, yeah, again, that was
my mouth on LinkedIn and I thought digital was rubbish and
incorrect. Well, we'll see, we'll see.
But I am liking it so far. Stefan said power of now
customer service is fantastic. I had a trial with them last
month but I am heavily invested in Service Mate and decided to
stay with him. That's fair.
It's each of the own because the problem is once you're on these
systems to move, you've got to move all that data over to
another system. And it's and it's not easy.
Once you're in, they know, yeah, they won't be bothered.
They won't be bothered with changing.
It's a lot to change in it. You've got to change everything.
And that's what I. Bet they don't talk to each
other either. So I bet it's not like, you
know, like when you get a new phone these days, you just you
just log in and it just remembers everything you had on
your old phone. It's really easy.
I bet when you're changing systems like from powered now to
service mate or vice versa, I'm sure they don't talk to one
another properly. So it's just probably in mind
field. I can understand where you'd
stay with where you're invested, but still good to try the
solutions and, and, and see what features you would like and
maybe feed that back to your existing supplier.
So like, you know, for example, Stephen said the powered now
customer service is fantastic. If there was something about
Powered Now he likes, he could go back to service mate and say,
I've seen this. Is there any way you can
integrate it? And then they might, you know,
take the feedback on board. One thing I will say about power
now is they do listen to you. I gave them a long list when I
joined. It's like this is all I want.
And to be fair, they have over time been introducing more and
more. They've actually got a feature
now where you can actually draw your own maps within the app.
You've got your own maps you can edit.
If you've got a map, you can edit it.
You can dot in where the boxes are.
I've got to play a bit more because they've had a load of
upgrades recently, but they do listen.
I'll give them that. They do listen.
They do. Which is good.
The technology is only going to change over time, isn't it?
So to know that they listen and you know, we'll take new ideas
on board, I think that gives you a more future proof option,
doesn't it? It's definitely good that is.
But yeah, I don't think I've got digital, but yeah, small
businesses can because I thought it was too, you know, you think
it's too expensive, but it's, I mean, if you want, but we don't
do it. But if you want to use their
system, you can just take payments straight through their
system. We don't do that, but you can do
that. What's stopping you from doing
that? Is that just personal choice?
Personal choice, that is. Yeah, Yeah.
That's personal choice. Yes, we have, we have our system
set up the way we run things and just just reports and we can't
send them if if a client's paying by backs details, we
can't send them an invoice and they can pay through the bank.
But obviously there is a system there.
But that's just personal choice.
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