From Dashboards to Decision Intelligence: The Future of Pest Control
David Libesman, SVP & GM, AI & data analytics, WorkWave
Field service has always relied on data, but for too long we’ve been confined to building dashboards that tell us what happened yesterday, last month, or last year. While historical data is valuable, it is no longer sufficient for businesses focused on scalable growth and market consolidation.
The future of the pest control industry depends not on more data, but on better data that enables intelligent decisions and takes pest control operations (PCOs) from a sprawling landscape of disconnected reports to a centralized, actionable strategy. To explore this shift, we sat down with WorkWave’s analytics leader David Libesman to discuss the emergence of the intelligence hub, the power of scorecards, and how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way PCOs navigate business growth.
Q. We hear a lot about dashboard fatigue. Why is the industry moving away from traditional reporting methods?
A. The problem with the current state of analytics is sprawl. In a typical multibranch setup, an operator looks at a dashboard, sees a metric, and immediately has a follow-up question. To answer that question, they have to navigate to a different dashboard, filter, export, and try to stitch the story together manually. It’s not only reactive but time-consuming.
The idea of an intelligence hub eliminates the need to jump between disparate tools. Instead of isolated reports, we view the business through four critical lenses: sales, operations, finance, and customers. By centralizing these metrics, we provide visibility into the health of the entire organization in one place. It’s not just about seeing the numbers; it’s about understanding the narrative of your business without the friction of traditional reporting.
Q. How do scorecards differ from the reports we are used to?
A. If a dashboard is a status update, a scorecard is a performance assessment. It’s the difference between knowing how fast you’re going and actually knowing if you’re winning the race.
Scorecards allow us to establish a north star target, the overarching goal we are aiming for. Scorecards measure the gap between current performance and that north star, providing clear, branch-level insights.
We are even extending this concept to customer scorecards. By analyzing communication data, service history, and sentiment, we can determine a customer’s churn risk and maximize the lifetime value they represent. Scorecards allow you to take action to retain them in real-time—not when it’s already too late. What you measure is what gets improved when data works for you.
Q. What role does benchmarking play in this new era of decision intelligence?
A. Benchmarking is the context that internal data lacks. You might know how your branches are performing compared to their history, but do you know how they perform against the industry’s best?
Because of our vast data ecosystem, we can help businesses identify their strengths and their opportunities for growth with quantifiable accuracy. This is not about guessing where the industry line is; it is about knowing exactly where you stand in the percentile rankings. If you are lagging in a specific operational metric, that is a clear opportunity for revenue growth.
Q. How will AI—and WorkWave’s Ask WAIve—change how operators interact with their data?
A. This is the most exciting shift. We’re closing the gap between technical knowledge and business insight. Historically, if you had a complex question about your data, you needed an analyst to write SQL queries or build a custom report. That process could take days.
With the introduction of conversational AI tools like Ask WAIve, that friction disappears. You can simply ask, “How will implementing this route optimization tool impact my revenue per tech?” The AI acts as your analyst, generating the SQL, building the visualization, and delivering the answer in seconds.
Ultimately, we want to get to a point where you do not even have to ask. Imagine waking up, logging in, and having the system tell you, “Here are the five things you need to look at today to hit your goals.” That is the power of true decision intelligence—and that’s where we’re going.
