Back to the beginning

Sam is a wife and the mother of two young children. She and her husband both have pest control experience; he sold door-to-door and she worked in a pest control office doing customer service. Once they got married, they moved to Alabama where Sam’s husband began selling for another pest control company, and they made great connections. Among those connections was Sam’s soon-to-be business partner, Kenzie. Kenzie initially approached Sam’s husband, asking if he wanted to join the company to help with web design. However, Sam said she should be the one to do it because her husband was working full time and she was getting her business management degree and currently enrolled in a web design class. That’s how she got involved, and then quickly became a partner in the business.

Building a business during a pandemic

Magic City Pest Control launched in January of 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenzie had a full-time job at the beginning, so Sam got the business registered with the state and took care of the backend necessities. Soon, they started running Facebook ads and quickly realized that because of the pandemic, they couldn’t just go knocking door-to-door. They made it through the first year, but Sam says they are looking forward to a summer season without a lockdown. Sam said that even when customers were weary of having people enter their homes, the service was still strong, “Our ultimate goal is to treat homes well enough on the outside, so bugs don’t even get on the inside. If we couldn’t meet customers face-to-face because of COVID, we could still provide an excellent service.”

The importance of customer connections

Magic City pest Control is in an area of Alabama with severe bug and rodent issues. Sam and Kenzie mostly interact with customers through phone calls and text messages. They currently run the show, with Jon, who is their awesome technician that started in April of this year. Sam loves talking with current customers and learning about their lives, Kenzie enjoys spending much of his time chatting with new customers and Jon builds relationships with customers when he’s out at their homes. “Building relationships with our customers is definitely important to us. You can still make these connections, even in a very uncertain and crazy world.”

Sam told us, “In our area, there are a lot of pest control companies and one thing that is important to us is not only building relationships with our customers, but also building relationships with other companies that we admire and support.” Magic City Pest Control doesn’t specialize in termites or bed bugs so when our customers come to them needing those services, they send them to local companies they trust. In return, other local pest control companies do the same thing for them. Sam told us that they are great with wasps and roaches so if another company has a customer with those issues, they send them to Magic City Pest Control. “It’s a blessing to have a network of smaller pest control companies in our area,” said Sam.

The story behind the name

‘Magic City’ is a nickname for Birmingham because of the major industrial growth that happened in the early 1900s. Everything grew really fast, so there’s a big sign in downtown Birmingham that says “Magic City.” Sam said that she and Kenzie felt like that reflected what they wanted to create in their name. They knew they wanted a local feel and something that people would remember.

“We are real people with a true desire to help the people in our community.”

Pest control is not a one-size fits all or one product to rule them all. It’s all tailored to fit specific needs, and customers can count on Sam and Kenzie to really take time with their customers to make sure problems are being solved and that they are creating long term success, instead of just masking the pest control issues.

“We want to do things differently. We want to be the reliable company that you can trust.” -Sam.

Magic City Pest Control proudly serves the Birmingham, AL area and prides themselves on customer care. You can find out more about their business on their Facebook page or website!