In some ways, the drain-cleaning business hasn’t changed in years. Drains and pipes still get blocked. Lines get inspected with push cameras and cleaned with spinning cables or high-pressure water. The equipment gets better by increments every year, but the mechanics of it are largely the same. But the business has changed greatly in other ways. In a relatively few years, the world has gone electronic in wholesale fashion. Contractors use more digital tools to collect information, like job site photos and video pipe inspections. And customers increasingly communicate with businesses digitally: They use Web sites and e-mail instead of
