When Chris Carlin added video inspection to his company’s lineup in 1996, it was an add-on service that cost extra for drain cleaning customers.

Now it’s just a routine part of every job.

“I want that done because it makes customers feel better knowing it has been done,” says Carlin, owner of C. Carlin Plumbing in Erie, Pennsylvania. “It also covers us, too. If I drain clean and two weeks later the customer calls again with a backup, they’re not going to pay me again. We camera it so that we know it was cleaned and we have proof that it was.”

Cleaning and inspection is all rolled into a single price for customers, though they may still feel like they’re getting a bonus service with the inspection.

“The customers think they’re getting something extra, which they are, but we’re proving we’re doing the job too,” Carlin says. “That customer satisfaction is very important.”

Technicians are trained not to upsell customers after doing camera inspections. If something is found that needs to be corrected, they will offer the homeowner an array of solutions from repair to replacement to entering into a maintenance program.

“Do they want us to snake the line three times a year and use a treatment on it, or do they want a permanent repair?” Carlin says. “About 30% will want the permanent solution, but others aren’t going to spend $6,000 when they can spend $600 a year, so they don’t. We offer them different solutions and let them decide on what they want.”

Read more about C. Carlin Plumbing in the June 2019 issue of Cleaner magazine.