The Price Is Right

It’s true that the specific demands of bird control make it a service that is unique unto itself. But what bird control does share with other types of pest control is that successful, profitable management is largely dependent upon the knowledge and decision-making abilities of PCOs.

PCOs must use their knowledge of pest birds and bird control practices when determining how to price services. Like most pricing decisions, PCOs need to set rates that are low enough to attract customers and at the same time high enough to turn a profit. But unlike other pricing decisions, in most instances, a nice, neat formula will not work when pricing bird jobs; instead, a case-by-case analysis is most often the best pricing method.

DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY. It would be easy to price bird jobs if every structure was built the same, if there were only one species of pest birds and if customer expectations were all the same. However, bird jobs vary in degree of difficulty and in customer expectations.

"Jobs are all over the board in this business," said Jack Wagner, vice president of Bird Barrier, Alexandria, Va. "There is no exact system that can be used because bird control is abstract, even to PCOs. It is work that is site- and species-specific."

Bird control jobs can be as simple as deterring pest birds from a 15-foot section of a gutter or as complex as installing barriers around the entire perimeter of a 30-story building. Bird jobs range from those that cost hundreds of dollars to those that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There are some bird control jobs (e.g., gel applications on a ledge) that are "straight forward" and a basic math pricing formula may work; however, most bird jobs need to be evaluated individually in order to determine a price that will be fair and profit-generating.

"We start out with a basic labor rate, then we decide what types of supplies and equipment we’ll need for a particular site," said Brad Litzenberg, vice president of service, Varment Guard Environmental Services, Columbus, Ohio.

Product knowledge is one of the most critical elements of pricing bird jobs. PCOs need to know what products will work on specific bird species. For instance, spikes work on certain birds (e.g., pigeons and gulls), but they do not work on others, including sparrows and starlings.

PCOs also need to determine if the products they are considering will accommodate the architectural demands of a structure. A structure’s surface, layout and accessibility must be taken into consideration.

Product knowledge can also help PCOs keep their costs down, and thus, the prices of their services lower. For instance, Litzenberg said he or a coworker will evaluate a site and may find an opportunity to cut costs that a competitor may not have seen. They may know of a procedure or product that will work as well or better to control the pest birds, but that is more cost effective.

"For example, if you have a job installing netting under a covered canopy, instead of using stainless steel, you can use a galvanized material," he said. "It works just as well and saves the customer money. It won’t cost us any more money because it takes the same amount of labor time to put up the galvanized material."

TIME IS MONEY. Because of the architectural and species-specific challenges that bird control entails, it is time-consuming work. In most bird control cases, labor rates will account for most of the expenses.

"The biggest thing with bird jobs is you have to give yourself extra time," said Matt Nixon, bird control specialist, American Pest Management, Takoma Park, Md. "When you can’t make money doing bird control it is usually because you didn’t contract for enough hours. There is always something that can go wrong. The lift or materials might not be on time or (equipment) might not be working properly."

Mike Gelder, owner of Nation Wide Bird Control, San Francisco, entered the bird control market after owning a high-rise window cleaning service. Despite already having the knowledge of what types of lifts and suspended equipment to use, figuring out how many hours bird control jobs took was a matter of trial and error for him.

"After we did the first few jobs we began to get a feel for how much you can accomplish in one day, but it was probably our biggest challenge," he said.

That challenge becomes even greater when access is difficult. Oftentimes with commercial buildings — or in the case of many accounts handled by American Pest Management, government facilities — access has been made difficult due to security systems. Nixon said he worked on a government building in which 30 to 45 minutes per day were spent waiting to access certain areas due to the different levels of security. "You have to call and make arrangements and even then you will probably end up waiting," Nixon said. "One thing we’ve learned is that if they aren’t ready for you, you wait for them. So you have to budget extra time for the job or charge an extra labor fee."

Time is also a factor when it comes to installation. For instance, it may take twice as long to drill into steel or certain types of masonry walls. Wagner said PCOs who are just entering the bird control market might be better served selling their contracts in hourly rates.

Wagner said that PCOs must shift their focus away from monthly contracts because in bird control the focus has to be, "here’s the problem and here’s how much it will cost you per hour of work."

FIND THE ANSWERS. Before pricing a specific bird job, PCOs need to consider the customer’s needs. Although PCOs have the equipment and the know-how to remove pigeons from the perimeter of a building, a customer may want to keep them away from just a 15-foot section over his or her garage. It stands to reason that just excluding birds from certain areas and not the entire structure can considerably decrease the job’s price.

Customers must also understand what type of pest bird they are dealing with. Many types of pest birds are stubborn; they may find a ledge they like and return, despite the presence of a barrier.

Since every bird control job varies to some degree, drafting up customized cover letters explaining the services that were provided is a good idea, Wagner said. "PCOs should write a letter using common-sense terms that explains to customers the services they are providing and that they are using the best products and doing their best to depopulate the site from birds, but it will be an ongoing process," he said.

PREPARATION IS KEY. In bird control, the one constant is that there really are no constants. Each bird control situation will be different. Certain jobs will require more labor, equipment, materials and time. Because bird jobs vary from site to site and species to species, PCOs may be best served setting their prices based on the work they will have to perform.

Although the challenges of each site and each bird are the primary determining factors in pricing bird jobs, a PCO educated in product usage, bird biology and service procedures has the ability to set rates that will allow him or her to make bird work profitable.

Customers want a fair rate, but they also want work to be performed by competent professionals skilled in their craft. "Everyone out there has the same accessibility to products that we have and that’s why knowledge of procedures, knowledge of application and performance history are so important," Litzenberg said.

The author is associate editor of PCT magazine. He can be reached vie e-mail at bharbison@pctonline.com.

When determining how much to charge for a bird control job, PCOs must consider what type of work they will be doing. As PCOs know, there is more than one way to package your services.

For instance, a ledge where a PCO will be installing a bird barrier may have bird droppings and nests. The removal and subsequent clean-up of the ledge will take time and money. PCOs may want to include this cost of the clean-up in their agreement or offer it as an add-on service.

PCOs may also want to offer follow-up maintenance as part of their agreement or give the customer the option of contracting for periodical maintenance work.

"A yearly or biyearly maintenance program is almost a necessity, especially when the netting is in loading dock areas," said Brad Litzenberg of Varment Guard Environmental Services, Columbus, Ohio. "They constantly have forklifts coming in and out every day and something’s going to happen. The netting will get torn or sometimes a bulb will burn out underneath the netting and instead of taking apart the netting, (dock workers) will cut it."

In fact, Mike Gelder, owner of Nation Wide Bird Control, San Francisco, said repairing and/or replacing damaged control devices accounts for 25 to 30 percent of his business. He said customers who opt for a new system will receive a warranty on the work.