A website chatbot for pest control companies

Pest enquiries are urgent, embarrassing and highly specific. Someone has just seen something in the kitchen at half past eleven, they want to know whether you can come tomorrow and whether the treatment is safe for the cat, and they are not going to ring an office that is closed. An Allinaa assistant on your website answers those questions from information you have approved and collects the inspection request.

"What is it?" is the first question, and photos answer it

Nearly every conversation opens with a description: small brown insects in the bathroom, droppings behind the cooker, a wasp nest under the eaves, scratching in the loft at night. A description is often enough for your office to know what it is dealing with, and it is certainly enough to decide which service and which visit length to offer.

On Premium the visitor can send a photo, which for this trade is worth more than any amount of typing - a photo of the insect, the droppings or the nest usually settles the question before anyone travels. The assistant will describe what is clearly visible in the image and will not claim an identification your knowledge does not support; a confident wrong identification would send the wrong technician with the wrong treatment. See files customers send.

Your services, treatments and what each visit includes

Write each service into the knowledge the way you sell it: what the treatment is, how many visits it normally takes, how long the property needs to be empty afterwards, what preparation the customer has to do first, and what follow-up period you offer in your own exact words. The assistant will quote that and nothing beyond it - it will not promise that a problem will be gone after one visit, because that depends on the property.

Children, pets and food: the questions behind the question

Half of all pest enquiries carry an unspoken second question about safety. Answer it directly, from your own written policy: which treatments you use, how long people and animals need to be out, what to do with pet bowls and fish tanks, what to cover in a kitchen, and what you need to know in advance about anyone pregnant or asthmatic in the property. These are exactly the questions a competitor's website leaves unanswered, and the firm that answers them in plain words at midnight gets the booking.

What the assistant must not do is give medical or veterinary advice. If somebody has been bitten or stung and is asking about a reaction, or a pet has eaten bait, the only correct answer is your approved sentence pointing them to a doctor, a vet or an emergency number - never a reassurance. Write that sentence before you publish.

Protected species and the jobs you turn down

Bats, some birds and their nests are protected in most countries, and so is the way certain pests may be handled. If there is work you will not take, or work that needs a licence or a particular season, your knowledge should say so plainly, and the assistant will repeat it instead of booking a visit you would have to cancel. The same applies to properties you do not cover - commercial kitchens, food production, farms - if those need a different team or a different price.

What an inspection request should carry

The assistant asks up to three short questions, one at a time, and only the ones still missing: the address or postcode so your area can be confirmed, what has been seen and where, whether the property is a home, a rental or a business, and whether anybody in the property is pregnant, asthmatic or very young. Then it offers the inquiry form. The visitor confirms their own contact details and agrees to be contacted, your office gets an e-mail, and the request waits in your inbox with a status, private notes and CSV export.

Tenants are a special case worth writing down: in many properties the landlord or agent instructs and pays, and a tenant who books directly will be unhappy to learn it later. One sentence of your own policy saves that conversation. See property management and the launch checklist.