Rooting Out Revenue

Drain cleaning and root control form the backbone of work for Jet-O-Rooter of Syracuse, N.Y., a company looking to grow through personalized service.

Look up Jet-O-Rooter in the Syracuse Yellow Pages and you’ll see local numbers for the New York cities of Baldwinsville, Skaneateles, Fayetteville-Manlius, Fulton, Oswego, Watertown, Pulaski, Weedsport, Auburn, Camillus and Liverpool, all within a 60-mile radius from the company’s head office.

Call any of the numbers around the clock and you’re likely to be greeted by the friendly voice of Kathy St. Croix, president of Drainman Jet-O-Rooter Inc. “We can be reached on 13 different lines, but all of them feed into the same office,” says St. Croix. “In this area, people are more likely to choose a business with a local contact, but they also like the strong corporate image of a franchise.

“The local numbers allow us to give them the sense of personalized service. When they call, they get a real live person to talk to, not a phone message. More often than not, if they call us, it’s for something that needs immediate attention. I answer the phone 24/7. I may be a little groggy when I answer at three in the morning, but I think customers would rather have that than a machine.”

The company offers a broad spectrum of services with a special emphasis on root control – root intrusion is a major issue on local communities’ tree-lined streets and in wooded yards. Other services include video inspection, waterjetting, trenchless waterline installation, plumbing services, grease trap pumping, and septic system installation and maintenance.

Well-equipped

The company’s nine employees include Kathy’s husband and vice president, Duncan, and their 21-year-old son, Nick. Son Tyler, 17, and daughter Nicole, 27, work part-time and during the summer.

The technicians live all around the market area so that they can provide hometown service. While most machinery and equipment is centrally located, on-call employees drive their outfitted service vehicles home in case of midnight emergencies.

An impressive array of equipment starts with a P series waterjetter by Harben Inc.; a 3010 jetter from US Jetting; five each of Model 2001 and Model 100 cable machines from Spartan Tool LLC; and five K-40 dual-feed sink machines from RIDGID. The main drain service vehicles are three Chevy Express vans and two Chevy Kodiak box trucks.

On the septic system side, the company operates a new Kenworth T210 with a 3,400-gallon waste/200-gallon fresh water stainless steel tank by Best Enterprises Inc., and a 2001 2,500-gallon vacuum truck on a Sterling chassis. A 304.5 excavator and a 305C CR mini-hydraulic excavator by Caterpillar Inc. provide heavy equipment support.

Trouble from trees

The backbone of the company business is drain cleaning and root control. About 60 percent of all calls the company receives are for drain blockages, often caused by roots. “Maple trees and willows are a huge source of revenue for us,” says St. Croix.

The company started life in 1998 as Drainman, but the overwhelming call for root control and jetting services inspired a switch to Jet-O-Rooter in 2001. That name seemed to strike a chord with customers.

The company responds to both names and has twin Web sites to avoid alienating older customers, but it is slowly migrating to the newer identity. St. Croix answers the phone with the company’s catchy slogan: “Jet-O-Rooter, the Better Rooter.”

“We basically offer two approaches to root control,” says St. Croix. “We can do the traditional root cutting, or we can provide chemical treatment.” The company uses the RootX chemical root-control treatment, which foams on contact with water and dissolves roots by encouraging bacterial breakdown, while discouraging future growth.

“If it’s a tough job, we often treat the lines with a cutter beforehand, and then apply the treatment,” says St. Croix. “After the treatment, it takes 90 days to take full effect and for the roots to turn to mush and wash away. If the lines aren’t clear within 90 days, we will re-snake for dead roots as part of the original price.

“The roots will continue to grow every year, so we might be called to re-treat in subsequent years. Maple trees have tough roots that continue to grow, even from a stump, for years after the tree has been cut down.”

The company also offers drain treatment with Bio-Clean, a bacterial product distributed by Statewide Supply, to break down organic clogs in commercial and residential drains.

Satisfied customers

Part of the company’s philosophy is that educated consumers are more likely to be satisfied with their service. The company Web site carefully lays out typical drain problems and the solutions Jet-O-Rooter offers, including detailed descriptions of jetting and cabling.

“If they find us on the Web site, they’re likely to try to look up information about their problem before they call, and they may already know some of the solutions we offer,” says St. Croix. “By the time they talk to us, they know the terminology and they feel empowered to make some of the choices themselves, rather than have us tell them what they need.”

Jet-O-Rooter aims to take as many corporate and municipal contracts as it can capture – they’re ultimately more financially rewarding and offer steady business. “The contracts we currently have are mostly restaurants, hospitals and health care facilities,” St. Croix says. “We also have a contract with Carrier Corporation, the company that makes air conditioners, in Syracuse. Right now, we’re doing roughly 20 to 30 percent contract business, but never at the expense of serving residential clients as well.”

Embracing the new

The company embraces new technology when it suits the business and the needs of consumers. Trade shows, trade magazines and Internet research help keep the staff on top of the latest in products and services.

Jet-O-Rooter is well served by an arsenal of inspection cameras. The company owns two RIDGID push-rod video inspection cameras, a Gatorcam inspection camera by WCT Products Inc., and push camera supplied by Spartan Tool LLC.

“We see the cameras as not only a way to inspect trouble spots, but to show the customer, and our technicians, that the job has been done right,” says St. Croix. “The boys are pushing for a remote-controlled crawler camera and a computer-outfitted service truck so we can snag the more lucrative municipal drain inspection contracts.”

Computer technology has helped to make the company Web site more efficient. Customers can schedule appointments online, for example. “That’s mostly the influence of my son, Nick,” says St. Croix. “I’m a paper and pen type of person, but Nick is computer savvy and has set up our payment system so that we can accept credit cards online. One day I came back from an appointment and he was talking about using PayPal to accept bill payments. Before I could say two words about how we were going to proceed with that, he interrupted me and said. ‘Mom, it’s already done.’”

Caring for water

Challenges to the business include the ecologically sensitive lake system surrounding the area. “The state of New York has very stringent rules about water quality, so we’re careful about everything we do,” says St. Croix.

But those rules also provide business opportunities. For example, any property with a septic system sold in the state requires both a percolation test for the drainfield and a dye test for the septic tank as a condition of sale. Nick handles most of the perc tests.

Onondaga County, where the company operates, also has an extra level of regulation in the form of a plumbing board overseen by the county’s licensed plumbers. Any job involving connections to the county water system must be observed by a licensed plumber.

“We believe that it’s the only body of its kind in the country,” says St. Croix. “They will oversee certain drain jobs to make sure that they’re done properly, but they seem to be good people, and we play nice with the board.”

Branching out

The company is planning for expansion, which started with the recent construction of a larger garage near the head office, designed to house more equipment. Growth will next concentrate on consolidating the new office in Watertown.

The company already has an employee with a Watertown home base to serve the area, and a recently purchased 2.5-acre site will be used to construct a second garage. Plans are for Nick to strike out on his own in 2011 to establish a second satellite office in Auburn, about 35 miles away.

“We’ve discovered that, after you consider fuel cost and travel time, we can offer cost-effective services within an hour’s drive,” says St. Croix. “With two additional offices, our operating area will expand significantly, putting us in reach of Rochester to the west.”

The company hopes to continue to grow on new ideas, new technology, and new markets inside its service area. “At the heart of it, we want to be perceived as a business that can compete with any franchise,” says St. Croix. “But we still want to convey to our customers that we can deliver our services with all of the individual attention and pride that can be offered by a family-owned business.”



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