In 2010, two friends founded the company that would become Meridian Bird Removal.
David Brugh and Brian Burke took their passion for the outdoors and wildlife and turned a hobby into a business.
They soon realized customers were having especially difficult times with birds and saw a specific need.
They threw themselves into developing the live bird capture system Meridian still uses to this day (with improvements).
Thirteen years later, Meridian has Technicians from coast to coast and in Puerto Rico. The company serves every U.S. state and territory—a long journey from a part-time business that served only a few states.
Our story and growth is the embodiment of our core values. These values are not manufactured in a board room—they’re in our DNA. They guide our hiring, training, and service. It’s our promise to every customer to do our utmost.
Meridian’s core values are:
- Eagerly Optimistic
- Humbly Confident
- Adapt and Overcome
- Commitment to Capture
- Be Above the Bar
- Help First
Most of these are self-evident. We embrace the adventure of our work with eagerness and optimism. We approach our customers and the birds with confidence tempered with the humility of knowing the unexpected happens.
When it does, we adapt and persist, never stopping until we have our birds. Even then, we go the extra mile, keeping in mind our service to others.
It’s that last point—that Meridian’s people are in this business and on this earth to serve others—that is the source of the other core values. We serve our customers, of course, but we also serve our customer’s customers.
We serve our employees and their families.
And we serve our community. (More on how we do that in November.)
We’re accountable for showing up and living these values every day. We’d love your feedback on how we’re doing, and how we can do better. If you have compliments, suggestions or criticisms, we’d love for you to share them with us via e-mail at nobirds@meridianbirdremoval.com.
Chris Dempsey, Meridian’s Culture and Employee Engagement Specialist, also acts as corporate chaplain. The holder of an M.Div. from Asbury University, Chris worked for a number of nonprofits, including the Boy Scouts of America (now Scouts BSA), before joining Meridian.
According to Chris, Meridian’s Core Values have always been there, but putting them into words has helped build the company culture. “Meridian has always lived by these core values,” Chris says, “but we wanted to describe who we are to our customers.”
Another benefit of the core values is they guide Meridian’s team building. This has proven crucial in its growth.
Chris explains: “As we expanded and brought on more people, whether they’re Bird Removal Technicians or support staff, we found the core values helped us select people who have the mindset of serving others. That’s vital to distinguishing yourself as a company.”
As a result, Meridian’s hiring process is very deliberate and methodical. “In so many companies, they just want to fill a seat,” expounds Chris. “But what you may get is someone who goes against what the company stands for. We knew if Meridian was going to be different in its ‘service over self’ personality, every employee needed to embody that. So we’re brutally honest in the hiring process to make sure we get the right fit.”
Like other values-driven companies, Meridian receives numerous compliments from customers who can sense the difference in their approach. “I do hear from customers how amazing our people are,” Chris smiles. “We get amazing feedback all the time. This is what we aim for, rather than an institutional mindset of just ‘getting stuff done.’ When a Technician goes onto a job site and builds a relationship with core values, the customer understands we’re about Helping First and not just making money.”
How do the core values play out? In many cases, the effects are prosaic and easy to miss. For example, birds can be unpredictable. Adapting and Overcoming empowers Technicians to use creativity, and a Commitment to Capture ensures long hours and frustrating circumstances won’t stand in the way of a completed job. And Helping First sometimes results in Meridian Technicians giving directions to store customers or reporting broken fixtures to the facilities manager.
Often, customers ask questions about how we capture the birds in detail. In those cases, an eager and optimistic attitude can create a positive public perception of how Meridian manages pests.
Meridian Technicians are well-trained in explaining the process and showing store customers how birds are not hurt by the Bird-N-Free® system.
There’s another way Meridian’s core values express themselves, and that’s in the help we render to our community.
Next month, we will explore how, with a heart of stewardship and gratitude, we bring food to the hungry and water to the thirsty for those in need.
In the meantime, to learn more about our story, visit meridianbirdremoval.com/about/history.