Maintenance contracts are becoming more and more a part of everyday life for pumping contractors. Some pumpers use them to help flatten out the peaks and valleys of their workload by getting customers into a pumping schedule that can be anticipated when planning crew schedules. Others use them only for commercial accounts, because those customers also enjoy the ability to plan cash flow around a consistent schedule. Still others see the potential payoff in getting themselves certified by the increasing number of municipalities whose tightening environmental ordinances require service contracts for new or alternative systems installed.
Whatever the reason, it’s an option to consider when maximizing revenue and providing optimal customer service to increasingly sophisticated septic service consumers.
Brian’s Waste Recycling Inc.
Tommy Lamb, operations manager for Brian’s Waste Recycling Inc. in Lumberton, N.C., keeps his pumping crews busy using maintenance contracts with residential and commercial customers. “About 85 percent of our commercial accounts are on an agreement, and more than 90 percent of our residential customers use one,” he says. “It’s not a hard sell.” Brian’s pumps septic tanks, grease traps and sludge pits for residential, municipal and industrial clients.
Brian’s has success signing customers to maintenance contracts because the company builds the option right into its initial new business pitch. Lamb says it’s company policy to do as much face-to-face selling as possible, because the ability to look into a customer’s eyes and give the pitch is important to closing the sale.
“Once we come out and show them we’ll take care of them,” he says, “we get their business.” So, what magic words do the Brian’s customers find so compelling?
“Emergency service is the biggest point,” Lamb explains. “We lean pretty hard on pitching our ability to be more responsive to customers with a contract versus someone who’s on a call-by-call service plan. Commercial accounts value the idea that we can guarantee them little or no downtime because we usually respond within an hour of a call from a contract customer. Speedy response to a backed-up residential system is also appreciated.
“We try to appeal to our business customers’ sense of being a good corporate citizen, too,” says Lamb. The company services food manufacturers and rendering plants. “We explain that with a contract, it’s much smoother and less hassle to keep your lift stations clean, making the company a better community member.”
Brian’s offers its customers monthly and quarterly service contracts, based on the real needs of each business or residence. “You have to make sure the customer understands the value to them (of the contract), and doesn’t just think you’re trying to create more business.”
Carl Holley Plumbing Inc.
Carl Holley Plumbing Inc. serves only commercial customers, about a dozen businesses involved in manufacturing, processing and medical services in rural Siloam Springs, Ark., just over the border from Oklahoma in the far northwest corner of the state. Pumping, drain cleaning and handling emergency backups are business mainstays for Holley.
“All of our customers are on service contracts,” Holley says. “It’s good for the customer, because their lines stay open with regular maintenance. They suffer no downtime, and they like that. No lost business. It’s good for us, because we know we’ll get paid, and it makes for a dependable cash flow.
“That’s how we sell our services, as contract-only. When you tell commercial customers that being on a regular maintenance schedule through a contract will just about eliminate emergency calls, they’re pretty happy to sign up.”
Holley’s customers have varied service intervals.
“Everybody needs something different,” says Holley, “depending on what they do. But they’re all happy to have their work done in a way that pretty much makes it automatic for them, and invisible to their processes. It only takes one big shutdown for a plant manager to realize how important it is to keep up with their waste system. You talk about that going in, and you’ve just about guaranteed yourself a sale.”
