#86 Servicing Grocery Stores and Green Gorilla’s Customer Service

Ever wonder how to service grocery stores? Steve and Bryan and chime in on the subject. In addition, Bryan shares his experience with Green Gorilla’s customer service and he also gives a shout out to the Bayer Pest Practices Team.

Steve’s Notes:

The one thing I hear and read is inspect, inspect, inspect…. I would argue the more powerful act is to ask, ask, ask. The employee is there more than us. 

Here’s what I check when servicing grocery stores:

1. Outside – check bait stations, don’t put them right next to the doors. Just because concrete surrounds the building, doesn’t mean you don’t have mice. Expansion joints, cracks, mice live in those areas. You want to inspect dumpster. Really important inspection, because that dumpster will always be up against the building.
2. Announce visit – I like to find location and go to them. They almost always have walkies. “What’s your location? Steve’s coming to see you”. Some accounts have sighting logs.
3. Sales floor – check under produce racks and shelves for fallen product – small fly issue. Check the open coolers – cheese, yogurts, packaged sandwich meats – Sometimes they’ll have drains in those areas. Pet food – hopefully you’ll have indian meal moth monitors/traps. Check under the gondolas for spillage. Pasta and bagged cereal.
4. Specialty departments like bakery, deli, meat, produce when you inspect the backrooms – checking drains, hopefully you’ll have fly lights, change out the glue traps each visit. I find the deli and bakery to have the bigger fly issue than meat. Always check the Donut case – If you have small flies in the donut case flying around the lights – you probably have a drain issue close by.
5. Backroom – tin cats on the left and right of all doors, always have one behind the cardboard compactor, near the dumpster, like to have one near the dry floor drains. Flies in receiving – I like seeing the big zappers in receiving near the bay doors.
6. Employee break rooms (sinks, behind refrigerators, often overlooked are the lockers – old drinks and soda cans, old lunches) and restrooms.