Over the years, we have all looked for ways to leverage our core business of plumbing and drain cleaning. I have talked to some that do septic work, HVAC, electrical and others that have branched out into specialties in their markets. I want to outline the pros and cons of Water Filtration as an add-on business.
While I have personally owned water softeners and reverse Oosmosis systems since the 90’s I did not look at it as a business until 2008. I was introduced to a product line from Kinetico, based in Newbury OH. I was impressed with the product and was asked to be a dealer for their product line in our area. Now, 15 years later and about 100 units per year let me share some of my let me share some of my thoughts.
The water filtration business is focused on
the sale of new equipment. That said lead generation is key. The goal is to get a salesperson into the home and have them show the benefits of your water filtration system. Lead generation, in-home demo and close are all modellable for this business. In-
stallations are done by focused individuals who know the equipment and plumbing. Service for many companies is run as a breakeven business or at least to prevent a loss. With all this cost to generate sales there must be a significant gross margin for the product.
The Science: I always thought of water filtra
tion as a screen that captures all the stuff you don’t want in your water. While this is true, I think reverse osmosis membranes have often been out of the price range of most homeowners. So, the solution has been a backwashing media that captures or converts the dissolved ions to be later washed down the drain.
With a 9th grade chemistry class background, I chose to relearn all about water. I believe that to be good at something you need to know all you can about the products and in this case chemistry, to solve the customers’ problems.
The Equipment: In general, there are four basic designs for controlling the back washing of the media; Clack, Fleck, Autotrol and Kinetico. All but Kinetico use an electrical control system for this purpose. From the first three all the others have been derived. E.g. Aquasoft/Hellenbrand takes a Clack valve, make “improvements”, and calls it a Aquasoft/Hellenbrand. In our world.
I also wanted to share with you my assumptions and the key takeaways of what I have learened along the way with you:
I have seen limited success with this. Some techs are great at this, others cannot think outside of their job at hand. It does take constant education and support of the techs to make this work. Currently, less than 5% of our leads come from Roto-Rooter.
2. While I like the Roto-Rooter brand, I felt that who would want to buy clean water equipment from a “Dirty Water Company”.
A. The Kinetico brand is not known in our market like the Rainsoft and Culligan brands. I chose to develop our own brand in conjunction with the Kinetico brand. This has taken years to develop in our market. Our market has a high number of transplants from other locations that have an awareness of the Kinetico Brand which has helped us.
B. I tried to offer a simple water filtration product through our Roto-Rooter tech’s, but it was not successful for the reasons stated above.
C.I run the Aon Water Technology company using specific sales, installers, and service folks.
3. I can use my Roto-Rooter Plumbers to do the installations.
A. This was tried but Roto-Rooter by its nature is dirty and service oriented, so I could not get the plumber to present the high level of cleanliness our customers expected. I quickly developed our own installers and service folks separate from each other.
B. I have been able to allow tech’s a career path option switching between groups which has had an incredibly positive outcome.
4. If you have the best technical product on the market, then the market will always choose you.
This comes from my years in High Tech and basically it is true if that is what is important to the prospect.
I now offer both a High Tech/Price and Low Tech/Price solution with the goal of meeting the market.
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5. I assumed the overhead impact would be minimal since I can leverage my existing team to offset those costs.
In general, this is true but this is a proactive sales model not a reactive service model so not all folks will get it. Today, I ran off the same office, payroll, insurance etc., but I have specific CSR that supports the sales folks and the service.
Back in the 90’s I had the folks from Rainsoft visit my home and tried the strong-arm sales approach on me. It left a bad taste and so I chose NOT to practice it. I know that most of my competitors teach it and practice it. Do I lose business because of this? Yes, but I want a happy customer not just a customer.
The Summary:
Sales – Sales – Sales are the key with Water Filtration. If you choose to enter this market know that you need the best sales folks and lead generation possible. For me it has been a terrific addition to my company but not without some major growing pains.
You ask the question to your employees “who can drive a forklift?”
They all raised their hands. Sound familiar?
While it looks like a simple piece of equipment it can be very dangerous. The main reason for Forklift accidents is the lack of proper Forklift Training and lack of Forklift Certification given by the company. operators must undergo proper training and certification before handling forklifts. Adhering to speed limits, maintaining clear visibility, and avoiding sudden turns can prevent collisions. Seat belts must always be worn, and only authorized personnel should operate forklifts. Proper load distribution, with loads tilted backwards,
helps maintain stability. Adequate distancing from edges and ramps prevents tipovers. Pedestrian safety is crucial; horn usage, slow speeds in crowded areas, and marked pedestrian zones prevent accidents. Regular maintenance checks guarantee optimal forklift functioning.
We have a daily maintenance check sheet that stays with the forklift to remind us of our safety steps and confirm it is in proper working order for daily use. We have adopted the use of the NSC National Safety Councils Forklift training program. I took the “Train the trainer” course on nsc.org so that we could then conduct a course inhouse to our people. The link is to an informational page about the course.
Why would you buy
My family celebrated 10 years as a Roto-Rooter Franchise this past year, and we can all accredit that to one another. Working in a business-like Roto-Rooter with close family members can be a unique and rewarding experience. It
when they rear-ended that car at the stoplight? Did they really flip off that person in traffic? Are they picking up their kid from school in the company van? In-cab driver facing cameras answer all those questions and some other ones that you’ve never even thought of.
We recently decided to put cameras in our vehicles. The system we went with has great features that will en-
hance safety by detecting and triggering alerts for tailgating, lane departure and speeding with the forward-facing camera but now the question was asked if we want the additional driver facing camera and we went with it.
We had a camera system in 2016 and that experience was a nightmare. These were big cameras on swivel mounts with wires running all through the cab.
hey were difficult to install and easy to tamper with. They were almost always turned away from the driver because they had “shook loose”. Most technicians felt it was an invasion of their privacy so these cameras didn’t help with moral either.
Fast forward to 2023 and these cameras are much different. It’s one stationary unit mounted directly to the windshield and one wire that runs to the gateway plugged into the OBD port, so installation is simple. There was a little bit of grumbling about the cameras initially but times have really changed since 2016 with things like Ring doorbells and video surveillance systems becoming common so it really wasn’t a big deal to have a camera in the vehicles.
The camera uses AI technology to detect cell phone usage and distracted driving then gives the driver in cab alerts to keep the
driver’s attention on the road and help avoid accidents. One benefit that we hadn’t anticipated was that these cameras contribute to improved culture, moral and customer service because guys that want to do bad stuff while in our vans are easily identified and held accountable, which has resulted in a more honest and professional group of technicians overall.
With all of these benefits you’d think it would come with a hefty price but it’s just the opposite. This system is cheaper than the GPS and safety systems it replaced. Our experience has been great.
My only regret is that we didn’t get them sooner. These cameras are powerful tools that can transform fleet management and ultimately elevate overall business performance.
ROTO-ROOTER CORPORATION IS YOUR SOURCE FOR DRAIN CLEANING MACHINES, CABLE, BLADES & MORE PLUS GREAT PRICING ON TOP-OF-THE-LINE TOOLS FROM TRUSTED BRANDS
The RRFA completed the first of the Regional Roundtables on September 9th. Oklahoma City did an excellent job providing the space and open forum for the attendees to cover whatever topics were important for each Franchisee.
A lot of ground was covered including: marketing, training videos, how to deal with slow paying corporate accounts, ChatGPT, inventory / van load out practices, sales positioning, pricing and more. It has been a long time since the RRFA had a regional meeting and we are really excited to be bringing them back.
These regional meetings are a great opportunity for all franchise owners and operators to meet with other owners and work together to find tools to grow everyone’s business. They are specifically designed for those owners who find it hard to get away for the weeklong convention each year. Being just one day, on a weekend, was the best way to allow owners to not lose out on business while they are away working on their business. They me be short but they can be mighty, a lot of care and effort is put into the quality of these meetings so those that are taking the time to come get the best benefit available.
I encourage each Franchise owner to take a look at a meeting closest to you, or at a convenient time for you, and take advantage of this opportunity.
The RRFA is here for you.
Gold Vendor
US JETTING 850 McFarland Rd Alpharetta, GA 30004
Nick Woodhead
Sally Woodhead
800.538.8464
www.usjetting.com
Working on Roto-Rooter since 1982
1585 Beverly Court Unit 115 Auroro, IL 60502
SERVICETITAN
855.899.0970
servicetitan.com
hello@servicetitan.com
The World’s Best Service Companies Run on Service Titan
MILWAUKEE TOOL 13135 West Lisbon Road Brookfield, WI 53005
1-800-SAWDUST (1-800-729-3878)
www.milwaukeetool.com/
SIGNAPAY
866.685.2575
877.369.ENZI
salesusa@enz.com Gold Vendor
ENZ is the leader in sewer & pipe cleaning equipment
Vendor 7601 NE 38th St Kansas City, MO 64161
signapay.com
www.enz.com
Contact: Eric Stegner
erics@signapay.com
500 S C.P. Avenue Lake Mills, WI 53551
800.598.2285
www.midwaytrucks.com
Contact: John Vestal jvestal@midwaytrucks.com Gold Vendor Truck/Van Fleet Discount Program * Finance/Lease Available
920-648-4848
info@hhtrenchless.com
hammerheadtrenchless.com
PICOTE SOLUTIONS
20810 SE 18th Pl. Sammamish, WA 98075
www.picotesolutions.com
Contact: Katja Lindy-Wilkinson
Roto-Rooter Branded Equipment
1912 John Towers Ave El Cajon, CA 92020
800.421.3251
https://www.markful.com/rotorooter-plumbing-water-cleanup
Contact: Suzi McLean smclean@markful.com
VIOLAND
Contact: Jeff Jones 800-360-3513 violand.com
Helping owners grow profitable businesses, impliment scalabl systems, develop emplyees & provide executive coaching.
MONGOOSE JETTERS
800.323.1604 www.mongoosejetter.com Associate
Serious Machines For A Serious Business
CAT Joe Nevels 913.205.7659
nevels_joseph_l@cat.com cat.com/en.US.html
The Cat product line of more than 300 machines, attachments, power systems and parts reflects our commitment to our customers’ success.
SERVICE EXCELLENCE Training & Consulting
Contact Todd Liles 512.333.4133
Support@ServExTra.com www.servextra.com/
IMAGE APPAREL
877.LOGO.WEAR
www.ia4biz.com
Contact: Jacky Roza
j.roza@att.net
Anything You Can Wear
PLUMBER MARKETING ISA
909.331.5965
Contact: Richard Cruz rcruz@wsiprioritymedia.com
The Old Ways of Marketing No Longer Work
CAPITAL REGION INS AGENCY
Contact: Logan Stumpf 717.731.1142 logan@criainc.com
I strive to provide a true, concierge client experience.
ASSURED PARTNERS
800.860.0090 EXT 6527
Contact: Cindy Lockhart clockhart@assuredpartnersoh.com
Youe Franchise, Your Business, Your Life. It’s Worth Insuring
DEXCOMM
Contact Jed Antoun 214.674.7692
jed.antoun@dexcomm.com www.dexcomm.com/
Answering & Communications Services. Your Voice. Heard.
10132 Norwalk Blvd Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
562.944.3060 www.gorlitz.com
Contact: Gerd Kruger sales@gorlitz.com
10% off machines and accessories and 20% off on cables.
Corinne Bangs
Central Director & President 5700 S 107th East Ave
Tulsa, OK 74146
O:918-622-6996
corinne@rotorooterok.com
Term Expires 2024
Randy Anderson At Large Director & Board Treasurer 9471 US Highway 431 Albertville, AL 35950
randy@mazamaservices.com
Term Expires 2024
Keawna Mojanovski
East Director 106 E 18th Street
Columbia, TN 38401
931-345-4933
keawna@rotorooter.services
Term Expires 2026
Subal Das At Large Director 2410 W 9 Mile Rd Pensacola, FL 32534
850-477-7349
subaidas@pensacolaplumbingservice.com
Term Expires 2024
Membership Committee: Rhonda Stewart, Subal Das, Greg Smith
Franchise Communication Committee: Abby Zaffuto and Keawna Mojanovski
Convention Chairperson Committee: Jen Brierly, Abby Zaffuto, and Corinne Bangs
Endorsed Vendor Committee: Subal Das
Administration
P.O. Box 2190 • 251 S.L. White Blvd
LaGrange, GA 30241
Cathe Baker, Executive Director
Email: cbaker@asginfo.net • Phone: 706-407-2267
Legal Counsel:
SkarlatosZonarich, LLC • 320 Market Street Suite 600W • Harrisburg, PA 17101
John R. Zonarich, Esq. • Email: jrz@skarlatoszonarich.com
Nathan Berry, Esq. • Email: nberry@skarlatoszonarich.com
Mike Jennings
West Director & VP 3961 Pell Cr Sacramento, CA 95838
O: 918-825-7605
michael@rotoco.com
Term Expires 2026
Rhonda Stewart
West Director & Secretary 13570 Tonikan Road Apple Valley, CA 92308
O: 760-245-2947
rhondastewart52@gmail.com
Term Expires 2024
Mark Stepowoy
Central Director 7001 Wooster Pike Medina, Ohio 44256
330-725-9586
mark@steprises.com
Term Expires 2025
Abby Zaffuto East Director 136 Tanner Rd Greenvill, SC 29607
C: 864-288-7686
abby@rotorootersc.com
Term Expires 2025
Branding, Marketing & Communications Committee: Kyle Brierly, Jim Halcomb, Abby Zaffuto, and Wes Andersen
Regional Meetings Committee: Rhonda Stewart, Mike Jennings, Subal Das, Abby Zaffuto, Corinne Bangs, Jen Brierly, and Mike Zaffuto
Website Committee: Randy Anderson and Paul Farmer
