Rest Easy Pest Control has been recognized as Marketing Innovator of the Year in the Home Services Sector for developing a proprietary customer relationship management system that fundamentally reshapes how marketing integrates with business operations in the pest management industry.
Lidiya Shuppert-Rizvi, Marketing Director for the company, built the system herself despite having no formal technical training. What began as a fifteen-tab spreadsheet evolved into the operational backbone of the company, now managing lead tracking, employee performance metrics, contract storage, and ROI measurement across multiple locations serving New York City, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania.
“The moment I realized my spreadsheet system wasn’t going to cut it anymore was when my owner asked me to create yet another complicated version of it,” Shuppert-Rizvi said. “I sat there staring at this massive fifteen-tab spreadsheet that I had spent weeks perfecting, and it hit me: the more work I put into it, the further behind we were falling as a company.”
After months of watching teams waste time with manual data updates, Shuppert-Rizvi researched existing CRM platforms but found none that could handle the integrated tracking her company needed. She taught herself to code rather than compromise. “I didn’t have formal training or a tech background,” she explained. “I just knew what our company needed, and I refused to keep patching something that was never meant to scale.”
This owner-first philosophy led her to reallocate budget from Google Ads to Google Business Profile optimization, resulting in a 250% increase in organic visibility and significantly lower cost per lead. The residential and commercial pest management company now ranks in top positions across dozens of high-intent local keywords.
The custom CRM revealed problems that traditional marketing metrics miss entirely. “What surprised me most was realizing that most of our problems weren’t marketing problems at all,” Shuppert-Rizvi said. “They were communication problems.” The system exposed leads dying in handoff gaps, calls going unlogged, and follow-ups being missed.
Shuppert-Rizvi’s background as founder of Hello Shutter, a photography company, informs her systems development approach. “When I’m behind a camera, I’m studying light, balance, and emotion,” she said. “Building a CRM feels the same way. You’re composing structure, balance, and usability.”
A proud graduate of what she calls “YouTube University,” Shuppert-Rizvi learned SEO, PPC, automation, front-end coding, and analytics on her own after leaving college while working full-time. One night, she crashed her system with a single keystroke and stayed up until 3 a.m. rebuilding it—an experience she says defined her resilience.
The company’s emphasis on technology extends throughout its operations. By combining trusted industry expertise with customized service and modern internal systems, pest control solutions are delivered with complete accountability across every property. The company offers general pest management, termite inspections, bed bug remediation, wildlife removal, rodent control, mosquito and tick services, and commercial sanitation support.
“Marketing isn’t just about bringing people to the door,” Shuppert-Rizvi said. “It’s about what happens once they walk through it.” She began coaching teams, refining handoffs, and aligning marketing, sales, and service into one ecosystem. The approach has resulted in strong customer retention rates, with a growing percentage of business coming from referrals and repeat customers.
Every treatment provided by the company prioritizes family- and pet-safe products, integrated pest management practices, and environmentally responsible methods. Technicians receive ongoing training, licensing, and certifications in IPM, bed bug treatment, rodent exclusion, wildlife removal, and commercial compliance standards. The company has secured long-term contracts with property management firms, hospitality groups, restaurants, warehouses, and construction companies.
Shuppert-Rizvi believes the marketing industry is approaching a critical divide. “The next five years will separate campaign managers from ecosystem builders,” she said. Future leaders will need to understand systems, automation, data, behavior—and above all, empathy. The company continues to invest in its proprietary CRM while maintaining its commitment to safe pest treatment, exceptional customer service, and operational accountability across all service areas.