Case Study
A mosquito upsell campaign that had to be shut off — because it worked too well.
BRD Pest Solutions · ~35,000 customers · 7 offices
The Challenge
The company had offered mosquito control for years — a seasonal add-on treating yards monthly from April through October. But adoption was low. Most of their 35,000 residential customers were on general pest plans and had never signed up for mosquito service.
Traditional outreach wasn't working. Bulk emails got ignored. Phone campaigns couldn't cover the full customer base. Sales peaked early in the year and dropped off by summer, even though that was when demand should have been highest.
They needed a way to reach all 35,000 customers with something more personal than a blast email — and do it without hiring a call center.
Cumulative Mosquito Appointments by Year
2023 and 2024 flatlined by mid-year. In 2025, the Plaibook campaign launched in July and drove sustained growth through Q3 and beyond.
The Approach
In July 2025, the company loaded 30,000 customers into Plaibook — their full base minus the ~5,000 already on mosquito plans or in the process of canceling. The goal was described in plain English: contact existing pest customers and upsell them on mosquito control, offering discounts where the company could add them to existing routes.
Plaibook handled the rest — starting conversations, answering questions, remembering prior context, and either closing deals directly over text or booking sales calls for more complex discussions.
Campaign Tunability
One of Plaibook's differentiators: the same campaign can be tuned along a spectrum from aggressive to gentle, trading off close rate against customer sentiment.
Aggressive
15.5%
close / call rate
17% negative sentiment. Higher conversions, but more customers felt pushed.
Balanced
7.6%
close / call rate
10% negative sentiment. The company chose this — prioritizing relationships over maximum sales.
Gentle
5.2%
close / call rate
6.3% negative sentiment. Most of that was pre-existing — customers who were already unhappy.
Real Conversations
These are anonymized exchanges from the campaign. Names and company details have been changed, but the conversation flow is real.
Handling a Budget Objection
Customer said money was tight. Plaibook worked with his timeline.
Turning Frustration into a Close
Customer started annoyed. Plaibook stayed patient, followed up days later, and closed.
Both conversations adapted to the customer's situation — no scripts, no rigid flows. The budget-conscious customer got a deferred payment option. The frustrated customer got space and a follow-up days later. Both closed.
Results
August 2025 — Weekly Mosquito Appointments
The week of Aug 11 was a 17.5x increase over the prior week. The drop-off after that was intentional — the campaign was paused.
Year-over-Year Comparison
2024 Total
3,596
2025 Total
10,614
Increase
195%
What Went Wrong
The campaign had to be paused. The company ran out of mosquito chemicals and equipment. They couldn't hire or train technicians fast enough to service the accounts they'd already sold. Cross-referencing closed deals against their CRM was messy, and some appointments had to be delayed or canceled.
This wasn't a product failure — it was an operations lesson. The demand was real, but the supply chain and staffing weren't scaled to match. The company needed roughly 10x their normal supply levels and didn't have them. For future campaigns, Plaibook now shares sales volume projections upfront so customers can prepare their operations before turning on outreach.