Arrow Exterminating Co., Inc. also fosters the concept of "quality circles" in which employees are divided into groups. "Some are service people who work in the same areas. Some are specialists. Some are termite technicians and some are people working in the office," Stegman says. "Each quality circle has a supervisor whose job it is to listen and help solve various problems. His role is to serve as a friend and advisor, not a boss.

"With this system, we find there is usually an easy flow of communication and it expedites assistance to the technician and, therefore, to the customer. In 51 years of business, we've learned that the quality of the people who work here determines the quality of the company."