Promo Power

A clever ad campaign, a nifty logo and tracking effective marketing drive a diverse and profitable business for Sweet Pea Sewer & Septic

A creative approach to all aspects of a small business — from developing an image that customers will remember to finding novel ways to encourage employee retention — helps Sweet Pea Sewer & Septic build on potential as big as Montana’s skies.

Susan and Chuck Bashor, owners of the Missoula, Mont., pumping and portables business, thrive on customer education and have a lot of fun doing a job that many consider down and dirty.

In 14 years, the Bashors have grown the business to include an inventory of 1,000 portable restrooms and a diversified service menu offering everything from traditional septic pumping to providing portable sanitation for forest firefighters.

When the Bashors moved to Montana to take over an existing septic and drain-cleaning business, Susan was determined to have fun promoting the business — and count on an entertained and educated public to ring their phone.

“We try to approach the business from the lighter side,” she says. Bashor has endeared customers throughout the Bitterroot Valley in southwestern Montana with a periodic “The Scoop on Poop” column published as advertising in a local newspaper. She thinks a lighter touch helps effectively educate customers about all things septic, from the do’s and don’ts of flushing to crust layers and cleaning effluent filters.

Not too shabby for someone with no marketing degree or experience — just an imaginative flair and a healthy dose of confidence.

“Somehow, it just comes naturally to me,” Bashor says of promoting a service that most folks don’t want to talk about much. “When we were looking to buy this business, I told Chuck, ‘If this is what you want to do and it’s what we can do to run our own business, then I can sell it.’ ”

That was evident from the start. Right away, Susan Bashor lobbied to paint the company van gold and add the Sweet Pea logo: a green pea-person nattily outfitted with a top hat, a cane and a broad smile. Think Mr. Peanut without the monocle and spats, and you get the picture.

“All the competitors’ service vans were white,” she says. “I wanted something that would turn heads. And because of the color, people notice it more. It creates the impression that we’re everywhere.”

SEX APPEAL AND SEPTIC TANKS

In 2001, Bashor decided to push the marketing envelope a bit further when she noticed how real estate agents used “glamour” shots of themselves in newspaper ads.

“It made me wonder if a little sex appeal would sell,” she says. “So I wrote a ‘The Scoop on Poop’ column for the local paper and included a photo of myself; you have to keep in mind that I modeled for 1 1/2 minutes when I was 16 years old. Man, did that take off. A little glamour combined with waste gets peoples’ attention.”

Over the years, Bashor has penned more than two dozen of the columns.” They’re not cheap — about $500 a pop to publish — but they provide priceless promotional power, she says. (To read the columns, visit the Sweet Pea Web site at www.sweetpea-site.com.) To help promote the column as an advertising vehicle, customers who mention it get a 10 percent discount on septic pumping.

“When people open the phone book and look for our services, they remember everything we’ve put out there (in terms of advertising),” Bashor says. “Our dispatcher keeps track of where customers heard about us, and the columns have more than paid for themselves.

“I believe that people appreciate honesty and any education you can provide to help them prevent emergencies,” she adds. “The more you can teach your customers, the better off you are. That way, they don’t think you’re just taking their money and driving off.”

BUILDING BUSINESS MIX

Sweet Pea entered the portable restroom business in 2000, spurred largely by the United States Forest Service’s need to supply restrooms for crews that fight forest fires.

“If we were going to get USFS forest-fire action, we realized we’d need portable restrooms,” Bashor says. “With all three businesses, it’s much easier for us to stay busy year-round.”

During “fire years” (the fire season typically runs from June to October), Sweet Pea uses the windfall profits to pay off equipment loans and invest in new equipment.

“Forest fires are a reality,” Bashor says. “Someone has to provide food and showers and sanitation for the firefighters. The trick is you still have to take care of your regular customers. I’ve seen companies go for the fire money and their customers end up coming to us.”

Sweet Pea owns more than 1,000 restrooms, mostly made by Satellite Industries Inc., PolyJohn Enterprises Corp. and PolyPortables Inc. The company continually replenishes its restroom inventory, so even its oldest units are never more than a few years old. That way, they’re easier to sell as used units because they’re not as beat up, Bashor says.

She’s convinced their restrooms, which employees and customers refer to as “Sweet Peas,” also stand up to wear better because they’re thoroughly cleaned. Users tend to vandalize restrooms more if they’re dirty, Bashor says.

“No one is ever afraid to enter a Sweet Pea restroom,” she says.

To obtain the best price possible, the company orders its restrooms unassembled, Bashor says. Then the crew gathers for restroom construction parties.

EQUIPPED FOR SUCCESS

Sweet Pea operates eight restroom service trucks: a 1996 Ford F-350 4 x 4 with a locally fabricated 500-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater steel tank, equipped with a Masport M1 pump; a 1999 Ford LN7000, built out by Erickson Tank & Pump with a 500-gallon waste/250-gallon freshwater stainless steel tank and Masport M2 pump; a 1999 Ford F-450 4 x 4 with a 500-gallon waste/250-gallon steel tank built by Satellite Industries; a 1999 Ford F-350 4 x 4 outfitted by Best Enterprises Inc. with a 300-gallon waste/100-gallon freshwater stainless steel tank and a Conde pump from Westmoor Ltd.; a 1999 Ford F-450 4 x 4 built by Erickson with a 300-gallon waste/100-gallon freshwater slide-in tank and a Masport M2 pump; a 2000 Ford F-350 4 x 4 with a locally fabricated, 500-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater steel tank and Conde Super 6 pump; a 2001 Freightliner flatbed delivery truck outfitted by Erickson with a 400-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater tank and Masport M2 pump; and a 2007 Dodge 4 x 4 (outfitted by Chuck Bashor) with a 570-gallon waste/100-gallon freshwater tank and Masport M2 pump. The company also relies on a 1992 Dodge flatbed truck to haul a 1998 Bobcat 743 skid-steer loader with backhoe attachment. It’s used for digging small sewer lines and excavating septic tanks.

On the septic pumping side, the company depends on seven trucks: a 1991 International built out by Erickson with a 2,300-gallon tank and a Masport 75 pump; a 1994 Ford Econoline drain-cleaning van equipped with an onboard, 220-gallon water tank with a Valley Industries jetter; a 1995 Ford box van, equipped with a 250-gallon, onboard water tank and a jetter made by General Pipe Cleaners; a 1996 Dodge sewer- and drain-cleaning van equipped with an onboard, 150-gallon water tank and a Gorlitz jetter, made by Gorlitz Sewer & Drain Inc.; a 1998 International that can carry 1,500 gallons of wastewater, 250 gallons of freshwater and 250 gallons of chemical water and equipped with a Masport HXL 75 pump (custom built by Chuck Bashor); a 2002 Sterling built by Imperial Industries Inc. with a 2,300-gallon tank and a Masport 400 pump; and a 2002 Sterling, also built by Imperial, with a 2,500-gallon aluminum tank and a Masport HXL 15 pump.

EMPLOYEE RETENTION

One of Sweet Pea’s biggest challenges is attracting and retaining employees.

“People aren’t beating down the door to work in waste disposal,” Bashor says. “Our biggest challenge is finding workers who do want to work in waste disposal, and then stay with it.”

Worse yet, regional unemployment is low, which reduces even further the pool of potential employees.

But the company makes a concerted effort to retain employees, including competitive pay, bonuses, paid holidays, attending industry conventions and holding employee celebrations. Bashor points out that Sweet Pea took its drivers to a Portable Sanitation Association International convention in Tacoma, Wash., to drive home the point that they’re in a profession with quality standards.

“I think it legitimized the profession in their minds,” she says.

On the personal side, the company has done things like treat employees and their families to a company-paid whitewater rafting trip and cookout. The company also sponsors Christmas parties, which are more extravagant during good financial years.

“We feel strongly about making our employees feel appreciated in any way we can,” Bashor says. “One year, we held a formal dinner at a lodge and everyone got to stay overnight in their own cabins. We try to have fun … break up the monotony as best we can.”

On “barbecue days” in summer, dispatcher Sherry Wills makes cheeseburgers for the drivers. And during winter, Bashor brings in a crock-pot and makes soups and stews.

LAND APPLICATION A PLUS

Due to a scarcity of treatment facilities, Sweet Pea land-applies most of its septage at two ranches, one near Missoula and one near Hamilton. It costs about $35 per truckload — or about $60,000 a year — to land-apply roughly 1.5 million gallons of septage. That’s considerably cheaper than the $75 a truckload charged by a treatment facility in Missoula, which Sweet Pea uses occasionally when bad weather prevents trucks from driving up to the ranches.

To increase efficiency and reduce fuel and disposal costs, route drivers dump septage into either a 1,500-gallon holding tank or a 1,000-gallon holding tank for temporary storage until a full truckload is collected.

DRIVER TRACKING

Sweet Pea employs cutting-edge technology to track drivers and improve route efficiency. A good example is a cell phone service called Field Force Manager, a dispatch program that shows things such as where each driver is, how fast they’re driving and how long it takes them at each stop. Dispatchers log on to a Field Force Manager Web site to track the drivers, Bashor says.

“The drivers log on every day with a company-issued cell phone, and log off during breaks,” she explains. “It holds them more accountable to keep moving and not mess around — time is money.”

Route drivers make about 40 stops a day and might drive up to 800 miles a week. Making more stops per day isn’t realistic because of the long distances between customers, Chuck Bashor says.

Overall, Susan Bashor says top-notch customer service is one of the company’s most important assets.

“If we lose a customer because some new guy decides to offer lower prices in order to get some business, we stay on the high road and continue our level of service,” she says. “Eventually, they come back … because they soon realize that a company that offers the most reliable service means more than saving $10 a month.”

It’s an optimistic and professional outlook they believe will serve them well for many years in Big Sky Country.



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