While we were on vacation, the ants marched in. 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜

I don’t know where they came from. Outside? Some alternate dimension accessed in a gap between the floor and baseboard? Hell itself?

Our cat sitter texted me to let me know, and when the pet-safe ant baits Uncle Jeff* sent me didn’t kill them all within a day, I called a local exterminator.

My skin was crawling from 1,000 miles away, and I was ready to pay a professional whatever it took to spray them dead.

The pest control company I called has a great reputation. Strong word of mouth, well-marked vehicles all over the roads, scads of locations. It’s easy to find their phone number or send a message through their online form. Their social accounts are even consistently maintained (if lacking engagement).

I left a voicemail asking for a quote to nip this ant issue in the bud, sounding sufficiently grossed out and giving off “new homeowner” vibes.

And while we’re on the topic of bugs: I got crickets from them. No one called me back!

Thankfully, Uncle Jeff’s ant baits ended up working, and my little problem is gone. (For now. Shudder.)

But.

If I have pest control needs in the future, guess who I won’t be calling?

Dear reader, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is. If you don’t have an equally good sales process in place to take care of warm leads as they come in, you’re wasting money on your marketing.

You also risk pissing off prospective customers who will kvetch about your lack of courtesy and follow-through to their modest email list.

And you don’t want that, do you?

Paige

* Uncle Jeff is my loving nickname for Amazon, a site I regrettably can’t seem to quit.