This past weekend at the beach once again we were faced with a pigeon problem. The pigeons used to be our neighbor’s problem, but they have migrated over to our place over the last year. It isn’t pleasant, they make a stinky mess. Why are pigeons at the beach anyway? Don’t they belong in Trafalgar Square in London?
A few years ago we watched our neighbors battle the roosting pigeons and laughed. Their house has (ummm, had) a lot of little nooks and crannies under eaves that were perfect perches for a pigeon or two and their little nest. Our place didn’t have the amenities that they provided. Slowly but surely the neighbors had carpentry work done to deter their feathered squatters. They also acquired a couple of little dogs that like to bark at intruders. I’m sure that helped expedite the move.
Now, the pigeons are roosting at our house. Last year we put up bird netting to block the holes they used. They’ve managed to wiggle past that. This year, we moved on to aluminum screening. We’ll see. I hope we don’t have to resort to carpentry. I suspect we might, but we keep trying to fix the problem as cheaply and as quickly as possible. I’m getting sick of the mess on my deck.
There are a lot of “pigeon problems” in business.
- Competitors… just like neighbors, they can turn a pigeon problem into your problem. A well timed release can make the press or your customers poop all over your product. Sometimes a media darling can make your life very difficult as you’re always asked when you’ll be able to match their features.
- Customers… sometimes they ARE the pigeon problem. There are customers that you want to hold on to, and there are customers that you want to fire. You know the ones – they cost 10 times as much as a comparable firm in support and maintenance costs. They keep coming back for more. Over the long term you keep having to make concessions (repairs) to keep them happy.
- Employees…if they are doing a half-assed job. I hope this isn’t a reflection on our pigeon wrangling techniques, but fix it once, and fix it well. Don’t just cobble it together or the pigeons will come back – in software pigeons can be bugs and they can be performance problems.
