I'm beginning to see the makings for another column here. You guys that are sole proprietors or maybe have one guy helping you, can

do a decent job on flat rate because you care enough about the customer and your reputation. Now take a half a dozen guys that get

paid whether they catch the animal or not and I don't think things will go so well. If getting paid for catching the animal is how

they make their living, I think a lot more thought and care would be given to the initial set-up. I believe that the story

travellintrapper gave kind of proves my point. Our pest control is all flat rate because we haven't developed a foolproof way for

counting ants, mice, and flying insects yet.

I think per animal could lead to catching things that dont need to be caught.

And how would that happen any more than flat rate? We don't get paid for any non-targets unless specified.

same with paul on the non targets. you are always going to get them but never get paid for them. for me its either coon or feral cats which make up most of my non targets.

paul its none of my business how you pay your guys but I am curious. Do you go by hourly or % of gross production, etc? With a sales background im very familiar with the concept of commissions and being about ready to add another guy who is not family im trying to figure out what would work best for both of us. it is always interesting how to figure out what best motivates an employee for the most and best production.

Most of my factory life was incentive and I loved it. The company figures out what it needs to pay the bills and make a profit and

then it turns you loose. There is no limit to what you can make and as long as you do a reasonable job, everyone is happy, including

the customer. We do the same thing in our business. We pay a percentage of everything you bring in and there is no cap as to how much

you can make. The only thing I regret is that someone didn't offer me this job when I was young.

P.S. We supply vehicles, gas, hats, shirts, 70% of health premiums, and matching funds. You do need to buy your own pants, shoes, and

underwear.

Cars really help us with head counts around here, had one last week , set the traps on Monday, dead on the road on Tuesday...
Usually make positive sets, but this one was not possible, Buick got'em

Yeah, those Buicks always leave a specific tread mark.

When i was back in misery...i had a commission status that did well on moles and new sales....the mole commission was an extra $45 on each paycheck for every 10 moles caught that week prior...so if 30 moles then $135 extra on top of their hourly pay which was $15 an hour....any new sales made and they got 18% of the set up fee which averaged $125

I guess an example Paul would be the job I am on now. She is paying me to fix a problem of skunks,under her deck. I am going to seal it,off and put a one way door, money in my pocket and no animal handling. With per animal I would,imagine it may cross the techs mind to trap every skunk,coon and possum coming to her deck.

I have customers that expect me to catch every skunk, coon, possum, homeless person, etc. on their property. So amount of animals and

size of the bill is not an issue. Right off hand, I can't think of a single customer that would be happy with closing their deck and

not catching the skunk. The next time their dog got sprayed or they smelled skunk, believe me, I would hear about it!

TB, I would target the animals that are there, THEN offer the service of closing the deck. 1) Customer will be happy the skunks are gone. 2) They will be happy that no more can get under the deck. If done right, you will only target the skunks. Meaning, no bait.

Am I the one one that charges an hourly rate, door to door?
Hourly rate includes common incidental supplies. Everything else is an extra charge.

Mike, the only reason that I charge a service call ( Set-up fee ) and a per animal charge is so that when my customers talk to each

other ( And they do ) everything is fair. Customer A pays $250 because he had 2 raccoons. Customer B pays $500 because he had 7

raccoons. Now if it took me six trips to catch the 2 raccoons and only two trips to catch the 7, it's still fair. If I lost money on

the first job and made out great on the second job, that's on me and has nothing to do with the customers. Becoming more proficient

is not something you hope to achieve. It is something you have to achieve to succeed.

I sort of see it paul, I just cant bring myself to do it.

I did however, find a scenario where I could abuse MY system, where you could not. I thought my system had less room for it than yours.

The scenario: A sick skunk in the back yard.

I showed up and prodded it into a cage, charged a service fee. I COULD have, in pretty good conscience, due to risk, set a trap and came back the next day and charged her for the full block of trapping and as per the contract ended early with full payment. You would have just charged service and 1 animal

I see where both systems work and have flaws, and fixes for the flaws. so far though, it seems beneficial to me to charge flat rate. I am finding a lot of 1 animal problems and customers who are happy to pay my high price rather than gamble ( and a few who grumble at my high price).

How do you handle phantom animals Paul?
Like when a customer wants you to trap something just not there.

Okay, first the sick skunk. Let's say I charge $149 for the service call and $49 for the skunk. You charge $199 flat fee and

everybody is happy. Now we just had the phantom animal. ( Funny you should ask ) We set up cameras and got lots of pictures of her

feet. There is absolutely nothing there and she is going to report us to the Police Chief, the Mayor, the Governor, and Obama, in

that order. Since there is no such thing as bad publicity ( especially from a lunatic ) we are expecting a lot of business from just

this one phantom animal call.

I thought you guys always kept a couple of baby possums in your jacket to put in your cage trap so you can get away from the nutty people ??

The reason, this topic comes up every few months is simple. Neither is the answer.

True enough. Flexibility is important.