Public appeal issued in Terrebonne for elderly heat health
March 22, 2011"The Metal Children" (Baton Rouge)
March 24, 2011Hidden behind an international brand name and stashed inside a four-columned, two-storied tourist attraction of a home on West Main Street, Terminix Pest Control has become a mainstay in the Houma business community by keeping its principles consistent with the latter.
Fundamentally an industry that requires its staff to snoop through its clients’ homes – around the attic, beneath the beds and the front porch, behind the baseboards and above the doorframe – pest control requires an intimacy between company and client. It’s a relationship the company has emphasized.
“These guys that are going to everybody’s houses and stuff, those are the guys that are generating money. That’s our face with the customers, so if those guys and gals are happy, the customers are going to be happy,” said Dan Foster, general manager of the pest control company. “And we’re going to be happy, too, because we’re going to have a lot of business.”
Terminix of Houma has morphed into a family business since it opened its doors in 1972. Brothers Billy and Dan Foster own and manage the company, respectively, and according to Dan, they have pursued a family environment in everything they do, from the office building to the interoffice needling of friends and coworkers.
“We have a lot of fun,” Dan Foster said. “The only thing we really take seriously, and I mean real seriously, is taking care of our customer, number one. Number two is getting along with each other. If we would hire someone who didn’t get along with the other employees, they’d be gone because we believe in everybody pulling in the same direction. We like to have fun. If you don’t like joking and teasing, don’t come to work here.”
The idea of a homely, tightly knit staff may seem to clash with the stereotypes of an international brand name. But Foster said his company is largely independent from the Terminix name and often procures its pest control products from other sources.
“The most contact we have with them, we send them a franchise fee every month,” Foster said. “We really don’t use any products labeled Terminix. We use what we think is the most effective for our customers.”
Terminix of Houma opened its doors in 1972. Billy Foster joined the company in 1976, and Dan joined his brother 1990, when Billy bought out his two partners. Since then, the brothers have watched the revenue stream increase every year, whether it’s by 1 or 15 percent, Dan Foster said.
Billy Foster had just graduated from Nicholls with a degree in entomology; his three-year older sister graduated with him and Dan obtained a degree in accounting three years earlier. The three Foster siblings were born in New Orleans and graduated from Terrebonne High School after a two-year stay in California.
Dan Foster had a brief bayou hiatus when he moved to Houston to work at Texaco. He would later return and work as the comptroller for Patterson Truck Line. He said his heart was always in Houma, but in the pre-Martin Luther King Boulevard days, it was hard to find a job that paid to qualifications.
As Terminix of Houma has grown, so has the town it calls home.
“It has just grown tremendously,” Dan said. “I graduated from Nicholls in ’69, and Houma is just a completely different town than it was then. It was a small town. You knew everybody, but you didn’t have the same business opportunities.”
Today, the company boasts more than 10,000 customers in its Terrebonne-Lafourche-Grand Isle customer pool and 31 employees to service their needs. Foster said the employees are cross-trained to handle regular pest control duties in addition to termite inspections and essentially schedule their own stops with their own client list.
Dan said there is no secret to reaching the silver-and-gold business status. He sees it as common sense.
“It’s just surrounding yourself with the best people you could possibly hire and keeping them,” Dan said. “We have virtually no turnover. We pay better. We have more benefits than any other pest control company I know. We have an outstanding 401k plan. We match 75 cents on the dollar up to 10 percent of your pay.
“The guys that handle our retirement said nobody does that, but my brother’s philosophy is share the wealth. Share it with the people who helped us build this business.”
Dan said he agrees with the philosophy, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Dan has now worked 11 years for his six-year younger brother, a relationship both business and personal that has minimal contention.
“I know people think I’m exaggerating, but we’ve never had a serious argument or really much of a difference of opinion,” Dan Foster said. “We think alike when it comes to business and when it comes to the way we treat people and what we expect from our employees. My mother comes by here once a week, and if we would ever get out of line, she’d straighten us out.”
