Military generals aren’t the only ones who don’t like to think about collateral damage. Everyone wants to believe they and their field technicians are as careful as possible, but let’s face it; in a service business, there are simply times when you can’t avoid incidental property damage, even if it’s not your fault. The fact is, if you’re dealing with other people’s things — even if those things are tank lids and fences and landscaping around your digging spot — there will be unintentional damage from time to time. And your customers are going to call you on it.

So how do you smooth over these unfortunate situations? Three contractors reveal their strategies for making things right with customers.

After 20 years in business, Paul Davis of Rosano Davis Sanitary Pumping knows about incidental damage.

“If the item damaged was at its life expectancy anyway,” he says, “we bring that to the customer’s attention. We say, ‘Hey, this has been in the ground now for 20 years. If the damage wasn’t a byproduct of our technician being there, it would have been something else. The item was at its expected service life.’ I try to get them to see that it would have needed to be replaced anyway.”

But there are legitimate claims of damage as well. Davis has run into situations where technicians have damaged pump chambers, pumps or floats. In those situations, he pays for the damage to keep the customer happy. “Unfortunately,” he admits, “it’s just part of doing business.”

He has a number of different responses, depending on what seems appropriate. “In situations where our technician was pumping tanks and did damage they weren’t aware of it until alarms arose later, and the customer called another (emergency) contractor to come out and fix it, we’ve paid that contractor’s bill. In other situations, we send our own technicians to make the repair.”

Davis advises strongly against trying to shirk responsibility for damage your company caused. “We’ve been in business for a long time, and most of our customers are repeat customers. You don’t try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. If something happened, it happened.”

The drawback to stepping up is the cost of repair, both direct and indirect. Davis rarely tries to recoup damage repair costs by making an insurance claim, even though he carries proper insurance.

“Generally, the deductibles aren’t worth it. Usually if we can fix it, it’s cheaper for us to just pay for it in the long run, rather than having to worry about our premiums going up,” he says.

Mike Biros accepts collateral damage as a part of the job and takes it in stride.

“We usually correct it ourselves or pay for the damage so someone else can fix it, whatever the customer wants.” He says being upfront about incidental damage is the way to go. “You have to be truthful. It pays to keep the trust of your customer.” That trust is especially important in his rural Pennsylvania, where farmers respect physical labor and understand mistakes, but also expect honesty and a fair shake.

Biros says whether he’ll file an insurance claim on the cost of a repair depends on the significance of the damage. “We’ll either pay for it ourselves out of our pocket or turn it in to insurance … but we try to avoid the insurance company,” he says. “You’ve got to measure the one-time cost against what you might get hit with in higher premiums.”

Clay Barks does all of his business by contract. He writes protective clauses holding his company harmless against claims made for damage that happens while technicians are doing their job.

“Basically, we have a lengthy contract that says we’re not responsible for any unknown, unmarked water, wires or pipes,” he explains. “So, if we run across something (during line cleaning) we are not aware of, it’s not our responsibility to fix it.”

For damage that happens in the course of pumping septic tanks, he says, “We just fix it. If one of my guys runs into a neighbor’s gate or chips a tank lid or something like that, we just fix it. If it costs under $2,000 to repair, we just pay for it. Anything over that, we’ll put in a claim with our insurance company.”