Local Competitive Recon Checklist

Operators guess competitor pricing from one neighbor's yard sign and a Facebook ad screenshot. Six months later sales undercuts a bundled program they never mapped. Competitive recon disciplines growth: who serves your ZIPs, what they promise, how they price initials vs recurring, whether they push commercial IPM, and where technicians complain in reviews about missed windows.

Recon is not corporate espionage. It is structured observation - public websites, published reviews, job ads, Census establishment counts, and limited mystery-shop inquiries using truthful homeowner or property-manager scenarios. Findings live in a shared doc per market so pricing committee and marketing align on facts.

This checklist is national methodology. It does not state competitor names, dollar prices observed in any market, or invented share percentages. Pair with using-census-and-bls-data for public layer context.

Legal caution. Recording phone calls without consent may violate state law - confirm local rules before recording mystery shops; notes often suffice.

Team access. Store recon docs where sales, ops, and ownership read same version - prevents warring narratives about "what Orkin charges."

Archive prior quarters. Keep dated recon PDFs for two years minimum - seasonal offer patterns only visible when year-over-year folders exist.

Pricing committee tie-in. Schedule a thirty-minute recon review before any price-book change - competitor screenshots without margin math should not move published tiers alone.

Independents watch list. Track owner-operators with strong review velocity separately from franchises - they often lead local price moves before national brands adjust marketing.

Hiring signal scan. Competitor job posts for route managers or commercial estimators often precede territory pushes - note posting dates alongside pricing screenshots in the recon folder.

Review response patterns. Track how quickly competitors reply to negative reviews - slow response often correlates with operational strain worth testing with mystery shops.

Offer calendar. Build a simple matrix of competitor seasonal promotions by month - helps sales and marketing anticipate discount pressure before it hits live calls.

Run full checklist per competitor cluster (top three to five brands plus two independents) in each target zone quarterly. Assign one owner; time-box mystery shops to avoid endless browsing. Link findings to pricing models and service menu planning updates within two weeks - recon without action is entertainment.

Combine public data pull (CBP, OES) on same calendar invite so establishment counts and field notes share vintage date.

County Business Patterns pull. Document NAICS 561710 establishment count for service county with table ID and year - note suppressed cells honestly.

BLS OES snapshot. Save pest control worker employment estimate for metro - context for hiring competition.

Franchise vs independent map. List national franchise branches, regional chains, and independents with websites in zone - no revenue guesses.

Service area claims. Capture stated coverage maps or ZIP lists from websites - compare overlap with your density plan.

Commercial presence signals. Separate residential-only competitors from those advertising IPM, food service, or property management logos.

M&A and rebrands. Note recent acquisitions or name changes - customer confusion creates opportunity short term.

New entrant alerts. Google Alerts or local permit lists may surface startups - add to recon when confirmed operating.

Website service menu. Screenshot covered pests, frequencies, guarantee language, and specialty silos (termite, mosquito, wildlife).

Review themes. Tag last fifty reviews per major competitor for price, punctuality, callback quality, and sales pressure - not star average alone.

Ad libraries. Check search and social ad transparency where available for offer hooks (free initial, bundle discounts) - observe, do not copy without margin math.

SEO footprint. Note which cities and pests they target in title tags - gap analysis for your content plan, not plagiarism.

Mystery shop calls. Two scenarios: standard ant recurring quote and commercial small restaurant inquiry - record promised price components, contract length, and start date promises ethically.

Online booking. Test checkout friction and prep instructions - UX hints for your residential sales process.

Job postings. Indeed listings reveal wage bands, commission language, and growth urgency - BLS context helps interpret.

Vehicle and yard visibility. Count branded trucks in target subdivisions during peak service hours - directional density signal, not precise share.

Positioning matrix. Plot competitors on axes you care about - price transparency, IPM depth, same-day promise, commercial focus - without numeric market share.

Gap selection. Choose one or two differentiable promises aligned with your operations truth - avoid winning on callbacks you cannot staff.

Pricing implications. Feed observed initial/recurring components into pricing models as competitor context, not automatic match targets.

Sales training. Update objection handlers when competitor guarantee terms differ - residential sales process handoff includes recon summary link.

Marketing spend. Shift zone budget toward areas where recon shows weak digital presence but strong housing data from Census pull.

Quarterly diff. Compare this quarter checklist to prior - note new entrants, price changes, and review sentiment shifts.

Stop rules. Do not infinite-scroll reviews - time-box protects owner sanity.

Documentation storage. Single shared folder with date-stamped PDF exports per competitor cluster.

Privacy. Do not publish competitor employee names or private pricing sheets obtained improperly - keep internal ops use.

Refresh trigger. Major competitor acquisition or new franchise opening triggers ad-hoc recon outside quarterly schedule.

Share-back discipline. Recon owner presents three actionable findings in ops meeting within fourteen days - prevents checklist completion without pricing, hiring, or marketing follow-through that justified the research time.

Complete per competitor cluster in target zone; attach Census/BLS pull from same period.