Customers can always expect a cheerful greeting when they call Harris & Sons Septic in Halifax, Virginia. Whether it’s the big personality of owner Megan Throckmorton or a polished greeting from her 5-year-old son, the company’s personable service starts with “hello.”

“I would say I’m a fun person,” says Throckmorton, owner of Harris & Sons. “I love to talk and that really is one of my strong suits.”

Her passion for people includes educating the company’s customers about proper septic maintenance. The company runs a vacuum truck along the North Carolina and Virginia border. Throckmorton is also licensed to perform septic inspections in both states using her Insight Vision camera with a 200-foot reel. Last summer, she expanded her inspection range to include the entire state of Virginia. 

“People were waiting over a month or even two months for a septic inspection,” she says. 

Lenders are requiring homebuyers to go through a point-of-sale inspection, she says. Throckmorton believes this is because many of the older homes hadn’t undergone proper septic maintenance throughout the years. 

“First-time homebuyers are going out and buying 50-, 60-, 70-year-old homes and there was no education for sellers to know that you need to get them pumped,” she says. “Within a couple of weeks of buying them, the septic is backing up or within a couple of years, the septic is failing. People are taking out the biggest payment of their life and now they’re having to get another loan to fix the issue.” 

On every job, Throckmorton makes it a point to tell people to get their septic tanks pumped every three to five years. “Over the past two years, we’ve educated thousands of people.”

This expansion took the company’s service area from an approximately 50-mile radius to a 200-mile radius. Instead of using her vacuum truck for far-flung calls, which would take business away from the current service area, Throckmorton decided to partner with local companies. 

“I didn’t want to be an outsider going in and taking away business from local septic companies,” she says.

Throckmorton called and introduced herself to local pumping companies. She also joined chambers of commerce in the area. “This helps me educate and serve a wide range of people,” she says. 

Eventually, Throckmorton plans to purchase another truck and run it further into Virginia. But for now, she’s happy partnering with new colleagues and educating a new batch of customers. 

Read more about Harris & Sons Septic in the January issue of Pumper magazine.