Profile Jennifer Leggett of Lindsey Pest Services ..CONTINUED
Summer worker buys the company
By Ernie Neff 

Management philosophy: Use the golden rule

Always treat others the way you want to be treated, is Jennifer Leggett's key management philosophy. She says that applies to employees as well as customers. Because if I take care of them (employees), they're going to take care of the customers. (Leggett applies that same philosophy to life, volunteering at her Catholic church and its elementary school. Come fall and winter, she practices with a group that tap dances for nursing home audiences around Christmastime.)  Leggett says her employees are all pleasant and mannerly. Our customers just love us, she says, echoing the slogan painted on her vinyl bug-covered Volkswagen. We still hold contracts that go back to 1957. I've always wanted my staff to be able to run the company, she says. She has thought for a long time the company could run without her, but the employees weren't so sure. She says when both she and her mother had to be gone this spring when her mother had heart surgery, they proved to themselves they could do it. I've never been more proud of a group of people in my life. Like most modern pest professionals, she wants her employees looking sharp, being in uniform. And she has a little extra advice for her technicians: If you don't know an answer, don't make one up, because the customer's probably been on the Internet. She laughs and adds, I just love it when people tell me how I'm going to treat their house.

Read on.... Technicians seek, and get, more training in Duval