ServiceMaster Receives Spirit of Success Award from Advertising Company

ServiceMaster is a huge company — and yet transparent behind several well-known brands.

For its steady growth, service integrity and civic efforts, the company recently received AT&T

Advertising & Publishing’s prestigious Spirit of Success Award. AT&T Advertising & Publishing prints and distributes the AT&T Real Yellow Pages.

“We are honored to receive this award,” says Roy Beatty, vice president of the ServiceMaster Yellow Pages Marketing Group. “We work every day to be there for our customers and communities, and this award recognizes our effort to be responsive to customers and the model corporate citizen.”

AT&T Advertising & Publishing selected ServiceMaster and just four other customers out of 750,000 across its regions to receive the Spirit of Success Award this year. Begun in 1998, the honor salutes winners for their industry and community leadership.

“This is our highest customer award, and we are delighted to present it to ServiceMaster,” says Janet Disbrow, vice president-National Sales for AT&T Advertising & Publishing. “The company is a true American success story and a backbone in cities of all sizes. We’re very glad we’ve been able to partner with ServiceMaster along the way.”

Marion Wade founded the company in 1929 in Wheaton, Ill., as a moth-proofing service. Soon came carpet-cleaning, other home services and steady expansion. Today, the company has a network of more than 5,500 company-owned locations and franchised licensees and employs about 40,000 people. Its headquarters is in Memphis.

ServiceMaster serves residential and commercial customers, and core services feature lawn care, landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, home warranties, disaster response and reconstruction, cleaning and disaster restoration, housecleaning, furniture repair and home inspection. Company brands include: TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, Terminix, American Home Shield, InStar Services Group, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec.

“We have no retail storefronts,” says Roy Beatty. “We’re 100 percent dependent on our phones to ring. When they’re down for any reason, we come to a screeching halt.”

Instead of actual retail outlets, ServiceMaster growth hinges on A-plus customer service and an evolving product line. Steady improvements the past seven decades have resulted in better options for customers, Beatty says.

“Technology and applications keep getting better,” he says. “And they all work toward customer retention. We want to keep the customer base we’ve worked so hard to build. New products will help customers, and because we’re in so many homes, we talk to people personally to get the best possible feedback.”

Beatty says ServiceMaster relies heavily on AT&T Yellow Pages advertising and direct mail to promote its services and products. “That’s even more so with the enactment of the Do Not Call registry,” he says.

ServiceMaster’s core business philosophy is to treat all people — customers and employees — fairly and not compromise on beliefs.

“When you do, you lose what you’ve built, and too often, ethics are dropped,” Beatty says.

One longtime ServiceMaster employee, Tom Balk, director of administration in Memphis, says that when he joined the company in 1979, the company CEO told him early on that there were just three “don’ts” — things that are unsafe, illegal or immoral.

“Other than that, I was told to run my operation as if it were my own,” he says. That freedom helped him climb the company ranks with increased responsibility and earn ServiceMaster’s highest honor — the Marion E. Wade Award — as a young, motivated manager.

“I was allowed to set up my facilities the way I thought best, even if it meant making a few mistakes,” Balk says. “The company realized that it also was benefiting from my freedom to try new things.”

Many of ServiceMaster’s brands and franchised licensees support both local causes and national charitable organizations.

The company is well-positioned for the future as our aging population wants to do less and less bug-spraying, lawn-conditioning and housecleaning.

“We’re prepared for these demographics,” Beatty says. “We’re constantly looking for good, hard-working people to keep up with demand.”