I have been telling potential clients I offer guaranteed service.

Now, I am thinking what do I mean? If I trap a beaver site and remove all the beavers at that location other beavers may move in. How can I guarantee that service?

Yes, the quarantee is only as good as the person offering it.

Can I guarantee beaver removal? I could pull my traps and the next day another beaver move in.


Should it be satisfaction guarantee? Then some client may expect the beavers never to come back.


Thanks

Coondog, I'm sure folks will comment a variety of ways.

I'd make sure you think through, as you are doing now, what kind or type of guarantee.

It is common to warranty exclusion work on structures. It is also common to give a 30 or 60 day
depending on species and part of country warranty on mole/gopher service.

As you state correctly, you don't know if another critter is just up the draw so this is where
I'll throw the other folks in who I know will have plenty to say in this regard. Most folks
have trapping programs be it 5 day, 14 day or 30 day depending on species and cost. Some of
those have stipulations and they are based on the experiences of the contractor.

I'm betting you'll see some good stuff.

I offered a 90 day on pocket gopher and only had to go back to one place, but again, depends
on species and population and so forth as you know. Now I offer 30 days on p. gopher and
it works fine for me where I am.

The best part about your post is that you show you are thinking through how this may effect
your business, your bottom line and your reputation with future clients. Smart man!

Justin

You have to know your animals. Since beaver usually move to establish new colonies once a year you can base any warranties on that. But even that can be a crap shoot due to the smaller areas and high densities most of us deal with in or near town so I can not and will not offer any type of blanket warranty on beaver work. If I arrive and find that the client has beaver swamps both up and downstream and I can only trap what is on his property then ZERO warranty past our agreed upon time of service and that will be fully explained to them and they will be offered a quarterly type of service instead.
If on the other hand I arrive to find a new mated pair some distance from other beaver swamps and it is mid summer I would feel more comfortable giving a warranty but never any longer than I would expect it to take for a new pair of beaver to move in, basically never more than ninety days. Again this would be fully explained to the client, specifically why I can not offer a longer term since beaver exclusion is almost always a non starter. If they want I can always offer a maintenance program.

The same applies to other species as well though for dillers and moles I only go fourteen days. Canines never, if they are that concerned they purchase a quarterly service.

Hey....a thinker! Good idea to spell it out. If I were a customer, I would think it was money back guarentee...if I see another beaver after you pull traps!

Give it some thought....

BTW, any warranty offered is written into the paperwork for that site only. Only my exclusion contracts are printed up with a one year warranty and even then they have specific language covering only the areas repaired as long as maintained in an as installed condition. I've also been known to X through that warranty entirely and deny warranty on properties obviously in poor shape and that appear will not be maintained. In those cases I make a clearly explained offer to repair what I can on the clear understanding that the prexisting conditions preclude any type of warranty.

Absolutely. Any warranty offered means I return and catch the animal that I missed or just moved in no money back anything with me.
It's all in how you explain it to the client.

I had a friend call me today from Duluth on this topic. He asked if I guarantee I will catch the critter to my clients. I told him I can't. What if the squirrel got hit on the road, or the breeding coon doesn't come back. To many factors in the natural world to make human promises. I do guarantee the work I do on exclusion

Guarenteeing your exclusion work is a funny thing. What if you miss a spot?

Spell check, Dave, spell check. I think you missed a spot.

I think there is a difference between a Guarantee and a Warranty. I have a set up fee for moles and live trapping. I was thinking of having a guarantee that I will catch at least one mole or you do not have to pay the set up fee. Because the question always come up, what if I do not catch any moles. JMO

Don't give away the shop! Unless you are absolutely sure you can catch a mole at every job, no matter what, you'll just hurt yourself. Better to offer more services until a catch is made, as I do. Had to make good on that once - in the beastly heat/drought of 2012.

Sorry about my spelling....caught me in a lazy moment.

I don't guarantee anything except that I'll do my best.

There are way to many variables when dealing with wildlife. I don't do repairs or exclusions so that's not an issue for me.

Yep that happens. I guarantee the work performed.

Regarding animal work not relating to interiors of homes/structures, it's not feasible to offer guarantees against returns. It's normal to offer guarantees on exclusion programs and exclusion work for bats, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, opossums, and others that are living in structures or under porches, etc, providing you perform the necessary exclusion work/barriers. It still depends on structure design, deterioration factors, etc as far as lenght of guarantee.

Animals like muskrats, beavers, moles, chipmunks, etc that are there because the habitat is attractive WILL return.... it's part of natural dispersion. The only guarantee I would tell someone regarding those type of animals is a guarantee they WILL eventually have more and experience the same problem. Annual contracts should be used for those people who want continuous monitoring/control. It may be 2 weeks, or 2 years, but unless drastic habitat modification is made it's going to be an ongoing problem. No different than fur trapping where you catch 25 muskrats every year from the same pond.... there will always be more.

Trying to offer a guarantee on such animals will put your company in the red real fast!

Then you fix it for free, entire exclusion process included. Guarantees on bat work is what seperates fly-by-night companies and established ones. Companies that try taking short-cuts with bat work will go broke in a year, unless of course they never return to honor their guarantee.... then they simply fade out of existence due to reputation.

There's not a person on the planet who doesn't get a call-back once in a while on bat work, no matter how experienced. Taking care of those call-backs will be what keeps you in business and keeps your business growing. Ignoring a call-back or trying to blame the owner for something you missed seals your fate. Make sure your guarantee is plainly worded regarding storm damage, maintenance issues (or lack of), etc.

ahhh, great. So you are guaranteeing your work and omissions.

Dave and I go back and correct anything I made a mistake on. FREE. I go back to one on saturday. Metal roof and flyers are entering a drip edge where I screwed up. I take care of my clients. Thats why we are so busy.

As you should!

I agree. The guarantee is what seperates the professional from the Non-professional. In my 20 years in this business I have had call backs and because I did fix them (my cost) I am still here and doing well. I have also seen many operators who don't back up their work come and go. There are a lot out there that don't like my guarantee and say I make it hard for them to compete. Thats the idea, either do it right or get out. I deal almost 100% with beaver and exclusion is a different animal and to much to describe here. I guarantee we will solve your problem or you pay us nothing. Will more move in? Of course and the client understands that up front. What is needed is an on going maintainance program. I don't guarantee that I will catch all the beavers in the area, I will end your problem. Damming a spillway? We trap until the damming stops. Can there still be beaver there? Sure and we fence the spillway and maintain it for a year at the installation cost. After that they need to pay an annual fee and if beaver comeback and over-come the system, we trap at our cost. We have been doing this long enough to know if this will work at a site or not and if not we trap them all. The rule of thumb is if there is no activity for a month we did our job. As I said the client understands that if the area is good habitat then they will have a problem again. The best plan is WE check it several times a year and take care of new problems as they arise and thats what they pay us annualy for. A one time a year fee and if nothing shows up, we still get the same money and if we have to trap a couple new young ones, we get the same fee. It has worked very well for us and our work is scheduled and not crisis managment with frantic client calls.
Any operator that will not backup their work,or don't have insurance should not be in business.
So how do you make any money with call backs?? Charge a proper fee in the first place or don't take the job.
Low ballers always die off and those that charge what they are worth survive and thrive.
So as I have said many times before.
"We are not trappers, we are business men(and women)who use trapping as one of our tools."
Think business first and trapper second. Charge for your time as well as by the animal and back up what you offer and FINISH THE JOB...To many times I get calls because someone quit because it got to hard and they were losing money. If you can't do it..Don't start it.
Don LaFountain