From Pests to Prestige with Taylor Bramwell of Kilauea Pest Control

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m still Attilio, and if you have any question, just give us a call at 7999596, or check us out online at Team lally.com

ATTILIO:

Well, alright, so we have a guest here, and I should read their guest intro. Yes, because you know, he’s from he’s a Kailua native who earned his bachelor degree in exercise and sports science from Brigham Young University of Hawaii, an avid outdoors enthusiast. He loves surfing, exploring new destinations and spending quality time with his wife.

ADRIENNE:

As the Marketing Director at Kilauea Pest Control, he was drawn to the company’s growth team connection and community focus, making an ideal place for him to apply his skills and make a difference. Please welcome back our guest, Taylor Bramwell, hello, Taylor.

TAYLOR:
Hey, thanks for having me today. Good to be here as always,

ATTILIO: 
yeah. Oh, you know, right off the bat, I want to give you guys two testimonials. You guys always do the Pest Control. Yeah, at my house, you come out, and every time you know, even if it’s a different person, I noticed that the courtesy and politeness is is common, because what they do, what I like, is they move my my doormats and away from the from the back door and the front door, and then then they spray, spray the pesticide. So that’s my first testimonial. And then my second one is I had you guys, I just painted my house. And did you know that there is a species of bird that likes to perch on your downspouts, of your rain gutters and all around your house, pooping all over your house. That species of bird is all of them, pigeons, pigeons, minor birds. I don’t know. I thought I saw Condor, because I was like, that poop look pretty big. Was that a condor? Anyway? You guys came out, did the bird abatement stuff with all the the little spiky things, and it was super professional, awesome. I

ADRIENNE:

have that on my house too. They helped me with and now, now the birds go to my neighbor’s home.

ATTILIO:

They fly over to go out, and then they fly away. Yeah, that’s right, he’s got the bird abatement stuff in place. So thank you for both of those experiences that I personally had with Kilauea.

TAYLOR: 
So I love to hear it, yep. Let me ask you, like, what makes it such a big deal for you? I kind of have a good input for you to have us move the slippers in the mat. So why do you

ATTILIO:
because then, you know, because we, especially in Hawaii, we take, I think in Hawaii culturally, we have a different perspective of the inside of our house, like we don’t wear shoes inside the house. And I like that, the that when I go to take my slippers off, and then, you know, we brush our feet off that. I’m not brushing it off on a on a floor, on a doormat. They got holes with the pesticide. But it’s just, it’s just there as a barrier, and I tell you, just all the way around the house. Oh, by the way. And you guys, I know here’s a testimony from there. We love going to Leo’s house because he don’t have piles and piles of junk all around the side of his house and his garage, you and your piles. And his garage is clear. We can actually see all three of the walls. But that’s why I like it. I think it’s like a, like, a, like, a, like, it’s a, this, a form of courtesy, you know, to not hose down this. And they move the slippers too. If there’s a pile of slippers, they move all the slippers in the doormat.

ADRIENNE:

It’s those little things. It’s those little touches. And I think that is probably one of the reasons why you guys just recently were named. You had some recognition. Let’s talk a little bit about that, about being the only Hawaii based company to qualify. Yeah, so Taylor, tell us about this award that you guys just recently were recognized for. Yes,

TAYLOR:
Oh, thanks. Thanks for setting that up. That little to meet to brag about ourselves a little bit. I guess it’s something I’m really proud of. But to throw it back at you, I think that’s what you guys are great at, too. It is those little things, right that make the difference. You know, there’s a ton of realtors and offices and brokerages, right that sell or list or sell, but it’s a little thing to make up the value and the difference between who you want to trust with that big expense or that big your biggest investment selling that so right back at you, is what I’m trying to say. And then, yeah, as far as the award, yeah, it’s something we were really proud of. There’s a This magazine is kind of the industry standard, leading magazine, the pest control technology or PCT magazine. They have an award every year. They have companies from all over the United States apply to qualify for the top 100 pest control companies. And there’s certain qualifications, but it’s based off of of revenue. And so we made, I think we were number 93 we’re the only company from Hawaii to be on the list. And so nice. It was great. We won that a few months ago. We got to officially, you know, we got John the owner and Kim the termite manager, flew to the mainland to accept the award at this big event, a conference, and we had some some news, press about it and stuff. And stuff, and you can find that online, but it’s something that we’re really proud of, and it’s good to represent Hawaii, you know, for 22 years now, we started 22 years ago as a small local company, husband, wife, combo, and now we’re in the top 100 in the entire nation as far as pest control

ADRIENNE: 
company. Yeah, you guys definitely have some very humble beginnings. Maybe you could share with our listeners a little bit about that, because I felt like it’s a very interesting story, and even including, like, with how John Speed came up with the name of the company. So

ATTILIO:

wait, I gotta cue the sound effects for the dream sequence, because you’re going back in time. Okay, go back to the beginning. That’s

TAYLOR: 
from Wayne’s World, right? I believe.

Yeah, it’s a. I’ve been part of the company for for many years now, but if I went all the way back, I was still a kid when he started it pretty young. But John started it with his wife in 2000 to John and Jenny speed, and they had a few little kids at the time. Yeah. And essentially, John was out in the field, talking getting new customers, but also treating homes himself and his wife, Jenny was was in the office, taking calls and managing the books and all of that. And then eventually they got their first technician. And in fact, the first technician years and years ago, Jimmy Fitzgerald. He worked for the company for a little bit, and then he went off and then he went off and got a couple master’s degrees in Hospitality Management. He worked in some hotels and different things like that. And now he’s actually for the last he came back on board about four or five years ago, five years now, I guess, as our commercial department manager for pest control. So that’s kind of cool to have a full circle thing there, and a lot of great people in my company. But yeah, so they started there, and now, since then, you know, we’re up to, you know, between 80 to 95 employees or so. We have the most trucks on the road. Yeah, we’re on all of Oahu. We’re now on now we Molokai, which is pretty fun. Here we’re able to bring on board a whole team that was over there, a previous company, the owners are moving on, and we’re able to bring them onto the Kilauea team, so we operate there too. And so lots of great things happening, but I would say the main thing is we’ve got such good people in the company, that’s really why it’s such a great place. And and with that said, hate just bragging, but it’s not even about me, so I don’t feel bad about it. But when he did, he went best places to work the last three years in a row for the for the business magazine, white business magazine. So just hire a company doing that kind of stuff. Taylor always hiring, yeah. So we love to have people come work with us. It’s a fun industry, growing industry. There’s always plenty of bugs at termites in Hawaii too. So it’s a very stable industry, too. So yeah, bring it on.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, it was noted too is for a new, new job. Yeah, as your business, as your big customer base, has grown, we’ve noticed a noticeable drop in the use of rubber slippers to kill roaches. So thank you to that from the rubber slipper industry and parents all across Oahu. And

ADRIENNE:

then Taylor, could you? Could you share with our listeners too, on how John came up with the name? Yeah,

ATTILIO:

the company name, yeah, oh yeah. It’s,

TAYLOR:
you know, some people love it. Some people think it’s so cheesy. It’s probably a little bit of both. It’s a town. It’s a very famous, important volcano on the Big Island, or Hawaii Island. But Kilauea Pest Control. Sounds great, but if you break it down phonetically or by syllables, right? Kill away a pest, there

ATTILIO: 
you go. Killing away the pest, right?

TAYLOR:
So you kill away a pest control, right? So that’s, that’s kind of it, that’s not much more than that, but besides the funny bad joke. So I

ATTILIO: 
know you guys spent hours in a room with sticky notes all over the walls, all kind of combinations, and then that’s what the last sticky note that was step up on the wall, killer whale.

TAYLOR:
So much polling, so much AB testing, you know, lots of research.

ATTILIO: 38:00
Okay,

ADRIENNE:

so as as the holidays are approaching, is there any kind of specials that are coming up with Kilauea Pest? Yeah,

TAYLOR:
yeah. You know, we haven’t even announced it yet, but I thought, let’s go ahead and talk about it here today with the Team Lally radio show and the listeners here, we’re gonna do so our we have three tiers of pest control plans. We have Express Essential Elite. They all come with kind of different benefits, depending on what your what kind of with your condo or like a larger home, or if you have pets, there’s the elite plan includes some things there pet preferred type stuff. But with those plans, whenever you sign up for one of those, you always have an initial service, which getting started. The first service is a little more robust. We spend more time with you getting it going. You got to do good flush out. And so that first service cost a little more usually. And then you kind of get into our monthly, like, basically, like a gym membership, kind of like, via monthly fee kind of thing to keep it going. We went ahead and just dropped it down to a $99 initial, which, if you called and got a one time service for that same flush out, it’d be $300 plus. Sorry, yeah. And so for holidays, we want to offer 99 bucks to sign up, which is, you know, easy to easy number to think about. Let’s get going $199 and then we can get that first treatment. And then we’ll go ahead and get you one of those plans. We’ll come back the next month, 30 days later, and we’ll get you on either we usually recommend it as every other month, or a bi monthly service, or either that or a quarterly plan. Yeah, and then you can have it all through the holidays. So when you have family, friends, aunties, uncles come visit for the holidays, Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year’s, you know there’s not any creepy crawlies around your toes, out the back, on your backyard or whatever. You

ATTILIO: 
don’t want to be that family with, with the potato salad with the almonds with the legs and wings in it.

TAYLOR: 
This personal experience, yeah,

ATTILIO: 
the mac salad, the Okay, and then so we got that going on. And then so Taylor, like

TAYLOR:
mentioned, Team Lally, right? Holiday Team Lally radio discount. Holiday discount, when if someone calls in, if someone wants to take advantage that call in, mention the Team Lally radio, or there’s a promo code section on our website if you sign up there. So just want to throw that out there so we know to give you that discount.

ATTILIO: 
I think they should. You guys should call it a cheeho special, like, soon as you listen, as soon as they pick up the phone, yell as loud as you can, and then you guys will know, oh, it’s the cheeho special from the Team Lally radio show.

TAYLOR: 
So if I see a web submission come into his special, I will honor it. Off the top right here, off the cut,

ADRIENNE:
all right. So Taylor with this, with these treatment plans, like, what exactly is being treated or prevented,

TAYLOR:
yeah, like a general pest control plan, from the very basic it’s it’s going to cover all your general pests, the the Hawaii cocktail of pests, you know, and brooch centipedes, millipedes, first floor was that kind of stuff. If you have to get a ladder, there’s maybe a little additional charge for that, but we usually discount it for customers. And then any other type of like normal type bugs, anything you think is kind of normal. And then we have essential and elite plans that will start adding on features depending on what you need and what your what your needs are. So essential plans will will cover things like de webbing. You know, we’ll go and we’ll de web any spiders and the eaves and things like that on the exterior. It’ll include rodent trapping, including, we can add some bait boxes if you have a larger yard. We can bait rodents from outside so that way they’re less likely to come inside. It’ll include, we can do some deep soil treatments, like granules, places like in the gravel, where centipedes love to be in gravel, and that granules can really help with that. Also the main thing, I think, the biggest benefit of essential plan, which is our middle plan, is German Roach flush. German roaches are probably the most difficult pest to get rid of in Hawaii. I think, relatively, I guess for like, if you think about your kitchen or bathrooms, once they’re kind of in there, they multiply so fast that it’s really hard to take care of. And once it’s kind of invested, you really need a really robust flush, which, you know, getting you need to be out of the house. You need to move things out of your cabinetry. And we’re going to go ahead and treat all the appliances and all the cracks and crevices throughout the home, and really flush them out and flex, usually starting at $250 just for that one service. But we go ahead and take that into our middle plan, there as needed anytime throughout the time you’re on our essential plan and then our elite plan, it’ll include things for it’s a little more premium people with specific needs, like it’ll include little fire ants, which is becoming a problem over the last decade or so in Hawaii, and more and more little fire ants are popping up. It’ll include a couple of vehicles, you know, some some families, it’s pretty common to have ants or roaches in the car. We’ll go ahead and treat that at any services. It also includes fleas and ticks, which, you know, with pets, we all of our pets, right? So knowing that you can have a your tick treatment anytime, where we’re there, and that while you’re on that plan is a good comfort to have, right? And then it’ll include car so

ADRIENNE:
Taylor the flea and tick treatment. You’ll do that on the interior of the home and on the exterior as well for the, you know, for the fleas and ticks.

TAYLOR:
Yeah, it’s really catered to what’s what’s happening, right? So generally, ticks could be outside, and really the main thing with that is, wherever it’s needed, will treat it, and the technicians are specialized in that have been trained and specialized in how to do that appropriately. But there’s a couple different products that are added to a flea and chick treatment called an IGR, which is not in a normal pest control and what that is, it’s a growth regulator, so it prevents the eggs at the next fleas or ticks, when they hatch, they’re not able to reproduce. So it’s a very specific treatment that you know, usually you’re paying a one time thing or additional premium fee for with any pest control company here in mainland or whatever. We just go ahead and throw that in our Elite Package, which is our pet preferred package, so people that can just know that, hey, if ever, if lesion takes around my pets, I’m good to go right and so. So

ADRIENNE:
anyone that worry about scheduling this effort, so anyone that has pets that are like going in, that are indoor, outdoor kind of pets like this would be the recommended package to go with to just help, you know, control those the fleas and

TAYLOR: 44:26
ticks, fleas, and ticks, yeah, definitely. Yep, yep.

ADRIENNE:
Okay. Now, like, I know that you guys, like, you mentioned some all these different pests, but like, you guys actually can help with all sorts of other pests. I think on your website, it has over 30 plus different types of situations that you guys can deal with.

ATTILIO:

What about teenagers who don’t do their chores? Oh,

ADRIENNE:

yeah, I need help with that, right? Yeah. Can you guys help me? I’ve got some dirty dishes on my thing. What

ATTILIO:

about neighbors who get like, nine cars parked on the street? What about that i.

TAYLOR:
You know, we need to create some different pest packages for those I think. What about

ATTILIO: 
that guy with a racing muffler who has to go to work at four in the morning? I think we should add to the list. No, Okay, nevermind.

ADRIENNE:

Maybe you can share with us an unusual pest story. Yeah, that was a success. Just, you know, an example. Maybe someone out there is listening and they think, oh, like, no one can help me with this issue, yeah. And then, yeah, yeah, give us. Give us the story.

TAYLOR:
Yeah, just this past month. And this isn’t like a super unique situation, but it might be something a lot of people can relate to. And probably you both, I know you manage quite a few. You’ve managed quite a few properties these years, right? 100 or Yes, quite a few. And so you’re dealing with people moving in and out of your rentals a lot, right? Have you ever had pest issues, people moving in and moving out your rentals that you manage? Yeah, I imagine. So, right. So in the last month or so, we had this customer call in, and they moved into a North Shore area. You’re familiar with, pupa K I’m sure, pretty wet, kind of a wet area, very humid. So as you know, it’s a very pest. There’s a lot of pest friendly area, like centipedes, roaches. It’s a little more country. The house they moved into had been sitting for about six months, and in the meantime, the owners had done a bunch of renovations, and the house looked pretty good as a nice home, right? And they moved in, and they like anyone that’s moved before, it’s it’s so exhausting, they were just tired after moving for a couple days, and they finally got in there, late at night, got everything over there, and they opened the dishwasher, and guess what they found inside?

ATTILIO: 
Imagine Willy Willy mongoose from the sugar plantation. No, that was a mascot for the plantation. Was Willy Willy mongoose.

ADRIENNE:
Was it a mongoose? Not as wild as a monkey. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 47:01
that would be a Bengal tiger.

TAYLOR:
So she opened the the dishwasher, and it was full of roaches. Roach droppings gathered all over it, you know, like, like the the utensil tray all over that and and they’re just crawling. Like, he opened it and it was just full of that. And just, like, that’s like, the worst thing. You’re all excited your new house, you’re moving to new place, and you open the dishwasher and just full of pests and roaches. And then, like, so that was, like, late at night. They called us the next morning, and we do offer same day pest control. He calls before noon. I don’t know any other company that does that. We do that. We’re just, we have enough text on the road that we can figure it out and make sure we get there if you have a test emergency. And so they called us, we’re able to get they signed up for that essential, that middle plan that we have that include the German Roach flush. And so before they even had to unpack their boxes, it’s, it’s kind of like a, not quite like a tenting fumigation, where you want to just keep everything out of the couch and stuff. Yeah, they left everything in the boxes. They left for a couple of for a couple hours that day, we had our technician, I believe, as our technician, Cesar, who’s awesome, very, very experienced in the industry, he went over there and he was able to get every nook and cranny of that kitchen and bathroom, and especially behind appliances, like the refrigerator, that compressor, behind roaches. Love that compressed area, yeah, kind of moist. It’s warm, it’s dark, it’s, you know, it’s hidden, secure, and

ATTILIO:
so, like a country club for roaches, exactly.

TAYLOR:
And so they will do that full Roach flush for them. And it worked miracles for them. It’s something that really does work, if you can get in there, and then they got on regular pest control, and they, just as they were there, they noticed they had ants, they had some brats in the attic, that the house had some dry water dropping. So this customer just had everything, right? But we were able to get in there and just go ahead and take care of all for them really quickly. And so not, like, not as crazy as mongooses in the dishwasher. Yeah, I think anyone who moves in the new house to be test free. We’re happy that we’re a one stop shop that can do that. Yeah, no, but

ATTILIO: 
this story was pretty gross. Yeah, you said Caesar the pet, the pest whisperer. His name was Caesar the technician. That’s what you guys call him from now on, he’s we soon as you see him next, Hey, what’s up? Pest whisperer?

TAYLOR: 
That’s the guy. Yeah,

ATTILIO:
I think you guys should make the work shirt and put past pest whisper on his shirt and give it to him for his birthday on his his work shirt. But Alrighty, well, well,

ADRIENNE:

we are a protein speaking of

ATTILIO:

German roaches, it’s now come. We got to end on time. Yes. Germans are very punctual.

ADRIENNE:

They are Yes. Taylor, is there anything that you want to share with our listeners before we let you go? Yeah, anything more that we missed? No,

TAYLOR:
just glad that you got your show, and we always like to support Team. Lally, you guys are great over there. Thank you so much. We love. Partnering with you all over these many, many years. So thanks for having us and and, yeah, we’re, I guess, if anyone has any questions, you don’t even need to buy anything. We have really friendly office staff. If you just need some advice, like, and you want to try yourself, you know, like, we can give a couple tips to try and get rid of whatever creepy crawly or pest got going on. And then if it’s too much take care of, we’re happy to step in there and help out. So I just call us 236, bugs. Easy to remember.

ATTILIO: 
Bugs ask for Caesar, the pet whisperer, and then tell him, you want the cheeho special.

TAYLOR:
All right. I gotta steal that one for sure.

ATTILIO:
Thank you, Taylor. Thanks, Taylor.

TAYLOR:
Thank you

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