Nov 4, 2011 – Show Me The Body
QUESTION:
From time to time I attempt to catch gophers from a customer's property and go through the process of trying to open the lateral and follow it to the runway in order to set my traps. It can be very difficult to do sometimes, due to the type of soil, moisture, landscaping features, etc. I position the trap in the most likely spot, cover the hole, then check back the next day, and often for several days to reposition the trap or do more digging. Many times I have gone for several days with no activity at the location. Even though I didn't catch the rascal he's still GONE. No more gopher on the property. What is your opinion about whether to charge the customer for the time spent and the fact that no gopher is present after so many days, or charging only if a gopher WAS caught. I have always kinda had mixed thoughts and can make a case in my own mind either way. What do you think?
ANSWER:
Well, that opens an interesting discussion on whether or not a carcass of the pest must be presented to the customer for your work to be considered successful. My knee-jerk response is that no, of course you do not need to present the dead gopher for you to have dealt with it so that it no longer bothers the customer. Now that I've stated my position let me try to justify it with some other comparisons.
First, killing gophers or other mammals is not always the goal of the management program. Many homeowners may opt for things such as repellents or exclusion, and these certainly do not kill the gopher but only cause it to go somewhere else and cause misery. What YOUR customer has contracted with you to do is to remove this gopher in some manner so that it no longer is causing damage on their property. What means you choose is up to you, and since the result you find here is that the gopher no longer seems to be on the property of your customer I would say you successfully completed your end of the contract. Just because it is not in the trap does not also mean that it was not killed in some way. Perhaps it was captured but managed to remove itself only to die somewhere else in the burrow system. Perhaps your activity in its secretive burrow frightened it so that it moved away from the area.
If the customer tries to make the case that "well, it could come back again" the same could be said for any other gophers living around that property. When you remove one gopher it opens up that property so that others may move onto it without competing with the previous resident gopher. Your elimination of one gopher could not possibly be a guarantee that no more will bother this client. Another comparison could be gopher control with the use of bait or fumigant, where you rarely would see dead gophers laying around, but assume success and control based on the fact that their activity has ended on the property. And, since the end of that activity coincided with your efforts I would connect the dots and suggest that you were responsible for it, and should absolutely be paid for the time you have spent there.
This is a paradigm shift our industry has attempted for awhile now, educating the homeowner or other customer that they are paying you for relief from pest problems, and NOT paying you to "spray" something. Pesticide applications may well be needed as a part of the overall program of pest management, but that program also involves inspecting, monitoring, exclusion, etc., and all of this requires your valuable time. I guarantee that nearly every other service industry charges for their time spent on the property, not just for the time spent changing a part. There can be a great satisfaction from a trapping program for gophers if you actually catch the gopher, but I don't think you should have any internal ethical argument with yourself about charging for your work if the desired result was achieved.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
From time to time I attempt to catch gophers from a customer's property and go through the process of trying to open the lateral and follow it to the runway in order to set my traps. It can be very difficult to do sometimes, due to the type of soil, moisture, landscaping features, etc. I position the trap in the most likely spot, cover the hole, then check back the next day, and often for several days to reposition the trap or do more digging. Many times I have gone for several days with no activity at the location. Even though I didn't catch the rascal he's still GONE. No more gopher on the property. What is your opinion about whether to charge the customer for the time spent and the fact that no gopher is present after so many days, or charging only if a gopher WAS caught. I have always kinda had mixed thoughts and can make a case in my own mind either way. What do you think?
ANSWER:
Well, that opens an interesting discussion on whether or not a carcass of the pest must be presented to the customer for your work to be considered successful. My knee-jerk response is that no, of course you do not need to present the dead gopher for you to have dealt with it so that it no longer bothers the customer. Now that I've stated my position let me try to justify it with some other comparisons.
First, killing gophers or other mammals is not always the goal of the management program. Many homeowners may opt for things such as repellents or exclusion, and these certainly do not kill the gopher but only cause it to go somewhere else and cause misery. What YOUR customer has contracted with you to do is to remove this gopher in some manner so that it no longer is causing damage on their property. What means you choose is up to you, and since the result you find here is that the gopher no longer seems to be on the property of your customer I would say you successfully completed your end of the contract. Just because it is not in the trap does not also mean that it was not killed in some way. Perhaps it was captured but managed to remove itself only to die somewhere else in the burrow system. Perhaps your activity in its secretive burrow frightened it so that it moved away from the area.
If the customer tries to make the case that "well, it could come back again" the same could be said for any other gophers living around that property. When you remove one gopher it opens up that property so that others may move onto it without competing with the previous resident gopher. Your elimination of one gopher could not possibly be a guarantee that no more will bother this client. Another comparison could be gopher control with the use of bait or fumigant, where you rarely would see dead gophers laying around, but assume success and control based on the fact that their activity has ended on the property. And, since the end of that activity coincided with your efforts I would connect the dots and suggest that you were responsible for it, and should absolutely be paid for the time you have spent there.
This is a paradigm shift our industry has attempted for awhile now, educating the homeowner or other customer that they are paying you for relief from pest problems, and NOT paying you to "spray" something. Pesticide applications may well be needed as a part of the overall program of pest management, but that program also involves inspecting, monitoring, exclusion, etc., and all of this requires your valuable time. I guarantee that nearly every other service industry charges for their time spent on the property, not just for the time spent changing a part. There can be a great satisfaction from a trapping program for gophers if you actually catch the gopher, but I don't think you should have any internal ethical argument with yourself about charging for your work if the desired result was achieved.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
