In football it is the quarterback who gets all the glory. When he throws a touchdown pass to win a game the crowd cheers his name and the sports news gives him the acclaim as if he did this all by himself. Little or no mention ever goes to the linemen who kept him from being sacked, hardly a mention of the receiver who juked out his man to break free and when was the last time you saw an interview of the offensive coordinator sitting high in the stadium looking down on the action and calling the plays. Very few fans recognize these other elements in the good games but they all boo loudly when one or more of these players lets them down. So too is the pest control office.
It doesn’t matter if you are a huge mega pest control company with latest technology or a one man show answering the phone while driving your truck to the next stop. To the person on the other end of the phone you are the office of the business they are calling and how well that office is run will directly affect your relationship with that person.
A mega company might hand the caller off to a different department who in turns re-routes the call 3 times all in the name of efficiency while the single operator might scramble for a pen and have a child in the vehicle screaming ‘they don’t want to go to 
school.’ Both companies might do outstanding service but that hardly matters to the would be customer who at this point would just as soon call somebody else.
While phone etiquette is important it is only a small part in a successful company. The office is the hub of all activity like the center who hikes the ball to our hero quarter back. They are the first to initiate any action whether it be a complaint call, billing inquiry, scheduling conflict, filing or just about any activity you can think of. Whether it’s mega pest burying information in a computerized bureaucracy or one man army looking for receipts on the trucks floor board it all adds up to inefficiency and fewer wins.
Good office personnel are those who know the routes almost as well as the technicians. They remember the little things like reminder calls or making sure keys are attached to the route sheets. They have a good understanding of the service the company provides and can calm customers who call angry because they still have bugs. Files are always in order and names are spelled correctly, notes are made about biting dogs or cats that like to escape and in general anything that can make the day successful, they do it. They act as the first line of protection for the company by providing the professional image to new and current clients and give the service technician 
the best chance to throw the winning pass. But like the powerful lineman, they will quietly walk off the field at the end of the game battered and bruised only stopping briefly to hold the locker room door for excited reporters who want to congratulate the quarterback.
