Book pest-control visits without mixing kitchen and terrace
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a time, so a family house is never offered as a kitchen after close.
- A first visit and a contract slot are different bookings. Get that wrong and a taverna sits in a morning reserved for houses.
- Mosquito, cockroach or rodent first. Then occupied or vacant. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like a product, a dose, or “can we sleep here” stays a callback. The technician decides on site.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and who must be there with the key.
TL;DR
You are in a suit in a vacant shop. A caller who wants a time will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday dusk is free. An assistant can book those times if it reads the book first, treats a mosquito terrace as different from a kitchen after close, and asks occupied or vacant before it places anything. A recipe is not a visit type. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the time, the type, and who must open.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — first visit, contract slot, after-close kitchen, mosquito dusk.
- Mark island weeks and after-close nights in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing contract slot and on a first visit, separately, before you test a new house.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with who must be there for that type.
- If the book cannot be reached, the only answer is a callback.
- Check the first fifty bookings by hand. That is when you find the hour that was a kitchen put into a family morning.
When someone wants a time and you are in a suit
One of you is zipped in a vacant shop. The other is in a kitchen after close. The phone rings.
A terrace wants Thursday at dusk for mosquitoes. A family house wants an evening because the baby is home. A taverna wants after midnight. You cannot pick up. The suit is still on.
Those three callers are asking for a time. They are not asking for a recipe. If the assistant treats them as one free hour, the taverna lands in a family morning, and the baby is in the kitchen when you arrive with stations.
You put the assistant on the van number with a forward-on-no-answer rule. It reads the book you already use. It offers only times that are actually free for that type.
Types that cannot share a morning
First visit, occupied house. Someone is living there. Children or pets on the note. Evening often, because people work. Duration you actually use — write it in. The assistant does not shorten it to fit a gap.
Mosquito dusk. Terrace, garden, courtyard. August. Mark dusk slots. A noon visit in January is a note, not this type.
After-close kitchen. Food premises. Night. Access after the last covers. Not a hole between two houses at ten in the morning.
Contract slot. Already on the round. Moving Thursday to Friday is a change on that slot, not a new first visit. If they also have mosquitoes, that is a second type.
Vacant unit. Holiday house, shop. Key holder. Do not offer an occupied evening to a unit nobody can open until the neighbour returns on Saturday.
If you do not mark the types, the assistant will fill the week with whatever sounded like “a visit”. You will drive to a family house at one in the morning, or to a taverna at nine with the staff still on the pass.
Occupied or vacant before the diary
The diary is the second question. Occupied or vacant is the first, after the pest.
An occupied house with a baby is not a vacant shop. The assistant asks. If they do not know — “I think the tenants are away” — it still takes a name and a callback. It does not guess a time when nobody is there.
A key with a neighbour, a housekeeper, a building manager: write who opens on the confirmation. An empty first visit is usually a key, not a greeting problem.
If they ask “can we sleep here after you come?”, that is not a new visit type. It is a callback. The assistant books the visit they actually need, and flags the sleep question. It does not invent a re-entry hour to make the booking feel complete.
What it must not place in the book
A recipe. A supermarket product. A dose. “Come and tell me what to buy.” Those are not types. The visit is a first visit or a contract slot. The product stays off the line.
A certificate by Monday, if you did not mark how many days you need. The assistant takes the inspection date. It does not promise the paper.
A same-day dash into an island week you closed. August dates belong in the book before you let it offer anything in that month.
If the book cannot be reached — the connection is down, the calendar is open on a phone in the suit — the only honest sentence is a callback. A visit that exists only in the caller’s head is how you get a baby at the door and both of you still in a shop.
Moving a time without doubling it
“Move Thursday” is not enough. Thursday may hold a kitchen contract and a mosquito dusk for the same name.
The assistant asks which visit, then cancels, then books. If it books first, Thursday stays taken by their own visit and they are told the time is not free. That is how you lose an hour and keep the complaint.
Test this on a contract slot and on a first visit, separately, before you let it touch a new house. The first fifty bookings are where you find the kitchen that landed in a family morning.
Cancellations go back into the book the same way. A dusk freed on Wednesday afternoon can take a terrace that rang at nine. A cancellation you only hear when nobody opens is an hour gone.
Who must be there
The SMS is not a courtesy. It is how the key holder knows the hour.
For an occupied house: someone home, children or pets already on the note. For a vacant unit: who has the key, and a number that works that morning. For a kitchen after close: who stays after the last covers.
The assistant sends this in the language of the call — 70+ languages. A Greek confirmation to someone who booked in English is how a first visit misses the time and decides the crew cannot handle them.
Remind them again on the schedule you set. Neither text needs anyone in the van to type.
Island weeks, August, and the book you actually work from
Connect the book you already use. Do not keep a paper pad for islands and a phone calendar for the mainland. The assistant reads one week. If an island week is only in your head, it will offer Thursday in Athens while both of you are on a different coast.
Mark after-close nights. Mark dusk in August. Mark the week you refuse new houses. An assistant that can book is only useful if the closed days are in the same place as the open ones.
A quiet February Tuesday is useful for testing the greeting. It is not the test of whether a taverna can still land at ten in the morning. Check August. Check after close.
How CITT handles the booking
- Your number stays on the van. Forward on no-answer. A call you pick up never leaves the crew. See pricing.
- It asks pest, then occupied or vacant, then looks at the book. Not the other way around.
- It offers only types you marked, with the duration you wrote.
- It refuses a recipe and still books the visit they need.
- It writes the time into the same calendar the crew already uses, and texts who must open.
- If the book is unreachable, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
What you set first
Enter the types: first visit, contract slot, mosquito dusk, after-close kitchen, vacant unit. Real durations. Who must be there for each.
Write the sentence that forbids a product name. Write the same-day flags: child and bait, sleep tonight, inspection tomorrow, guests on Friday.
Mark August island weeks and nights you actually work. Test a move on a contract and on a first visit. Turn the SMS on at the moment of booking. Then check the first fifty by hand.
A booking the crew cannot keep is worse than a callback. Put that in the notes, in those words, if you have to.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the book before offering a time | Yes, the book the crew works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books dusks and after-close nights | Yes, if you marked them | No — already in a suit | Sometimes |
| Treats a first visit as different from a contract slot | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with mosquito, cockroach or rodent | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Books a recipe | Never — the technician decides on site | The technician does, after the rooms | Sometimes books “a spray chat” |
| Sends the confirmation and who must open | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty first visits costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two technicians. About 32 booked times a month for first visits, contract slots, and after-close kitchens.
- An empty first-visit hour is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked times arrive with nobody home, or the key holder does not show. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used hour, €85. Put your own figure in. A kitchen after close and a ten-minute contract stop are not the same.
- A reminder that names who must be there cuts empty times by a third. Challenge this first.
- 32 times × 10% = about 3 empty times a month.
- 3 × €85 = €255 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €85 a month.
- Over a 10-week mosquito season plus kitchens year-round — this example counts 10 months, 10 × €85.
Roughly €850 a year, from a text that names who opens, not only the time.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Can it book a first visit while I am in a suit?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the time before offering it. A dusk you have closed because you are already on a terrace, or because the other person is in a kitchen after close, is never offered as a first visit, if you marked it. Contract slots can still be offered that week if someone will be on the round. If the assistant cannot reach the book at that moment, it does not guess. It takes the request as a callback and says so. A visit the crew has no record of is worse than no visit. The client waits with a baby and nobody is free.
What about someone moving an existing time?
The assistant asks mosquito, cockroach or rodent first, then the name on the file, and treats the move as one change. Handled as cancel, then book, Thursday is still taken by their own visit, and they are told that time is not free. A client who has a kitchen contract and a mosquito dusk on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to tell me what to spray?
It will book a first visit, or a contract slot, if you allow those types. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself names a product. What to apply is a decision on site after the rooms. The technician decides — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book an after-close kitchen against any free hour?
After close is a night slot. Mark those hours. A morning between houses is not a hole for a taverna that can only be done at one in the morning. The assistant takes occupied or vacant, food premises or house, and offers only the kind of visit you marked. It does not promise a certificate by Monday.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including who must be there with the key. The reminder goes out ahead of the time on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone in the van to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on first visits after a false alarm. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a dusk that can go to a terrace that still has mosquitoes. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is an hour gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
