When you ride in the driver’s seat of a pumper truck, you meet a lot of people. And the vast majority of them are great customers. They trust your expertise and judgment when you pop the tank lid. They will listen and heed your advice about proper care of their septic system. They don’t balk when they’re handed a bill.

But every once in a while, Joe Homeowner will present a “customer service challenge,” to put it in charitable terms. Maybe they never wanted to have to call you to fix a frustrating issue with their wastewater system. Perhaps their mindset is always that goods or services are too expensive. It could be that they believe your every suggestion is an opportunity to round up the invoice and they’re skeptical. 

Most customers defer to your hard-earned knowledge. But some of them believe they know more about wastewater than a trained professional who provides this service every day and has seen every situation that leads to required maintenance or system failure. 

These are the customers you need to turn around and get on your side. You are paid to pump, but sometimes — for good or for bad — your job is encouraging an attitude adjustment with argumentative folks. You must put down your hose and become an educator, a psychologist, a trusted adviser. But why should you have to do this?

BITE YOUR TONGUE

At online wastewater forums, I have read the responses of exasperated pumpers who are tired of dealing with difficult customers. They talk of secretly wanting to snap back at the occasional backyard buffoon who wants to supervise the septic service call and chisel away at the bill when it comes time to pay. Oftentimes the pumper, letting off some steam in an online post, says he wants to threaten to return the load he just pumped back into the customer’s tank.

Of course, this reaction would be unproductive, to say the least. To not show patience with your customers and answer all of their questions or inane statements about septic systems is to risk hurting the reputation of your company and turn away repeat business. This is the bane of everyone who works in the trades as a service provider, actually.

It can become a frustrating exercise to constantly provide clear explanations of necessary work. But that is part and parcel of quality customer service — and what encourages positive Google reviews, neighbors recommending you to neighbors, and ensures that septic systems provide trouble-free service over the long haul.

DIPLOMATIC AND SYMPATHETIC

To help you build more positive relationships with prickly or simply uneducated customers, I have assembled a list of four common statements you hear while standing around an open tank with the homeowner — and how you might respond in a way that brings them around to your way of thinking.

“Why does it cost so much? Another guy said he’d do the job for half that.”

Response: Here are my itemized expenses, allowing for a profit that provides a living wage for my crew. If you still think it’s too expensive, you’re welcome to hire the other guy.

Many homeowners don’t understand the many costs you incur to come out and pump their septic tank. They may be surprised to learn the dumping fees you pass along could make up one-third of the total bill for service. They probably don’t understand the purchase, fuel and maintenance costs for your vacuum truck and that it takes many service calls per month just to put and keep your truck on the road. The fuel alone to drive to their homes, idle while pumping and driving to the treatment plant could easily reach $50. Tires, tuneups, breakdowns, rebuilding pumps, replacing hoses, all these erode your profit margin.

Add to those hard equipment costs that you need to carry insurances, stay up to date on your professional licensing, pay utilities and mortgage on your shop, and set aside enough to pay your crew, your office staff and cover associated employment taxes. This is physically demanding work that requires training and experience to do correctly, and nobody — including your customers — would want to work for free. A detailed accounting like this should make customers realize your septic service is priced fairly and their money is well spent.

“My dad always said that as long as it’s working, you don’t need to pump it.”

Response: I’m sure your father imparted much great advice to you. But this is incorrect.

Dad meant well, but is he really a decentralized wastewater treatment expert? Likely not. Gently explain to the customer that it’s important to consider who you are taking advice from when it comes to caring for one of the most important and expensive household systems. It amazes me that many people are quick to latch onto the false concept that septic systems do not require any maintenance at all. What other system in your house never requires inspection, repairs or upgrades?

To reinforce the need for periodic inspection and pumping of septic tanks, turn to your county or state’s onsite system regulations and recommendations from noted industry professionals. Tell customers about the general 3-to-5-year rule to have you check that their system is functioning properly and pump the sludge at recommended intervals. Offer to show them the sludge level before and after pumping. Explain the cost of replacing a failed system versus keeping their existing system shipshape. Tell them that, indeed, onsite wastewater treatment can be a bargain when compared to paying a monthly municipal sewer bill.

“We don’t flush wipes/condoms/feminine hygiene products (or you name the foreign object).”

Response: I’ll show you that you do — and here’s why it’s a bad idea.

Pumpers have told me that customers deny using so-called “flushable” wipes, even as they fish giant wads of these woven materials out of the tank for proof. Finding any of these foreign objects in the tank can be an embarrassment to the homeowner in the first place. And it can be upsetting to learn how detrimental wipes can be to the health and maintenance of a septic tank. So the key is to educate and be careful not to make your customers feel stupid when you discover these things. 

My opinion is that the wipes crisis our industry faces is partly due to a misinformation campaign by manufacturers of these products. They want to extoll the many virtues of wipes and not worry about the problems they cause to consumers’ plumbing and wastewater systems. Sure, I guess you could argue that wipes are flushable. But more importantly, what happens to the wipes after they are successfully flushed from the toilet? They wreak havoc.

Your message on flushability should be plain and simple. The only things that should enter the septic tank are human wastes and bathroom tissue. Period. Every other product used on or around the toilet goes in the trash bin. Should you encounter a clog of wipes, offer to show the customer what it does to their tanks and your equipment. If you can illustrate the problem, it is less likely to happen in the future and you will be saving both your customer and your service technicians a lot of grief.

“Just do the bare minimum to save me money.”

Response: The bare minimum does not save you money in the long run.

Of course, nobody wants to spend more money than necessary to maintain their septic system. Wastewater treatment is something people take for granted and they take no joy in spending a buck to prevent septic issues — even though they get quite panicky if the system stops working. Understandably, the average consumer would rather buy a new car, go on a European vacation or send their kids to college than replace a septic system. However, if you see maintenance or repair opportunities that will head off a system failure in the future, it’s important to lay that out for the customer.

A good example of work that would not be considered “the bare minimum,” but would be a worthwhile investment is adding a quality riser and lid to bring access to the ground surface. It might be viewed as an upsell by the customer, but explain how a cost like this can save money over the life of the onsite system. Next time you inspect the tank, you won’t have to cause a mess digging up the buried access lid. You will never again have to charge a shovel fee. The riser and lid may bring the system into compliance with changing regulations and it will make it easier to increase the inspection frequency to better gauge tank usage. 

Consider other smart upgrades that will extend the useful life of the customer’s system: outlet filters, inspection ports, landscaping to remove the threat of tree roots, new control panels or tank alarms. Do not be afraid to outline these improvements to the most cost-sensitive customers. As a trained professional, your suggestions can save homeowners money and improve system performance.