Employee Spotlight: Julie Heincelman
Let's Get to Know Julie…
Position: Territory Manager
Community Served: MA, ME, RI, CT, Southeast NH
Julie is an iconic member of the JP Pest Services team: She is always on the move, and works with her head before her hands. She takes on every new challenge with a smirk, seeing it as an opportunity to expand her knowledge and exercise her ability to think outside the box. She was the obvious choice as JP Pest Services’ employee of the year in 2018.
Julie has gone through several transitions since she first started as a service professional (previously termed “technician”) in 2008. For seven years she grew in that role, until a brand new position within the company opened up in 2015, for which she was an obvious candidate: Julie became JP Pest Services first ever Food & Pharmaceutical Support Specialist. In this role, she took on the responsibility of assuring that all priority accounts were well taken care of, which included large food processing and drug manufacturing companies (not places you ever want to find pests). Since then she has moved on to even greater responsibilities, given her own team of service professionals to manage in April 2019, and finally a team of area managers to supervise in January 2020. With the most recent promotion to Territory Manager, she now assists the Southern Regional Manager, Brian Leahy, in ensuring superb service to customers throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, and the southeast corner of New Hampshire.
Julie is not someone who is only recognized at JP Pest Services, either. In March 2020, she was officially awarded National Pest Management Association’s annual Women of Excellence Award. This prestigious award has one recipient each year, chosen from members of over 30,000 pest control companies across the United States. According to the NPMA website, It is used to recognize women who “advance the pest management industry every day, in every way.”
Julie has achieved all that she has for one simple reason: She never became complacent with herself. She pushes every single day to be better than the day before, always seeking new challenges. Best of all, she prioritizes sharing her knowledge with others, and will personally invest her time and resources in order to help other team members grow in their own abilities. We are so proud to have her as part of the JP Pest Services team.
Now Let’s Hear from Julie!
What is your most memorable experience on the job since starting with JP Pest Services?
Being awarded JP Pest Services’ employee of the year in 2018. I was flattered and honored to be chosen when there were so many other great employees at this company.
I will also never be able to forget the honor of being awarded 2019 Women of Excellence – that was huge!
What is your favorite part about being on the JP Pest Services team?
You never know what each day is going to bring. Between the challenges and the successes, you can “plan” each day, week, or month, but you never really know what is actually going to happen.
I also love the team that works closest to me. The commercial services team does an amazing job and we couldn’t do what we do in the field without their support and help. I love knowing that multiple people ‘have my back’ and we all pull together in times of need and do what it takes to get the job done right!
Tell us about your greatest success story since starting at JP Pest Services.
Last year I had the opportunity to do a cockroach service with one of our recently-hired staff members. We were able to get control relatively quickly, but what was most rewarding was being able to take part in training this new person on what to look for, how to do the job, etc. Once I stepped back, it quickly became evident that the training was understood and that this person could be relied on to be able to do this service on their own next time. We achieved success with the pests and with the training!
What is the coolest pest you’ve seen on the job?
A couple years ago, there was a stored product moth that was present at one of the bakeries that we service. The moth had been brought overseas in some equipment, so it was not something we had ever seen before; but since we understood the biology we knew how to treat for them. Getting to use a certain product for the first time and being able to see how it literally attracted moths ‘out of the woodwork’ was pretty amazing! With the use of the strong pheromone and some cleaning, we have since been able to keep this problem under control.
