Patrick Pither, owner of Pither Plumbing in Longview, Texas, established for his business what he calls a “kind of hybrid method.” He did so as a way of fully integrating trenchless technology into his traditional service plumbing offerings, and in the process better serve customers and reward his employees.
“We are a time and materials company, not a flat-rate company,” Pither says.
Consequently, the bigger the job, the more lucrative the payout. So Pither aims to literally show customers the wisdom of sometimes ordering additional services. The key is the inspection camera. The trenchless division of the company has substantially benefited from Pither’s initiative.
“We usually get about one call a week for one of our trenchless services,” he says. “Generally, we usually generate our own leads.”
This is how it works: Company technicians dedicated to drain cleaning and associated infrastructure problems routinely send a camera into a line whenever a stoppage has occurred and been cleared. The footage is immediately uploaded so that Pither is able to look at it back at the office. He reviews the video and determines the condition of the pipe and what trenchless solution would best address the situation.
“I then call the crew on site to quote the job,” Pither says.
If the damage assessment and repair estimate are agreed upon by the customer and the job is undertaken, the camera technician is given a commission. Furthermore, the crew that subsequently undertakes the trenchless fix of the line is also financially rewarded — again, pegged to the estimate.
This hybrid method of rewarding the drain cleaning crews and repair crews “has been a game-changer,” according to Pither. “It gets the camera crews excited about sending the camera into the line and incentivizes them. And the repair crews benefit, too.”
He says the initiative has separated his workforce from some other plumbing companies in the area.
“At these other companies, I hear groans and gripes that they can’t get people to work. The problem is, they aren’t paying them. That’s the deal.”
So, Pither addressed several issues in one stroke — how to more fully promote and utilize his trenchless repair capacity, how to show customers the real condition of their underground infrastructure and persuade them to prevent further problems through lining or patching, and how to motivate employees to do their best work on every job.
Trenchless repair work sells itself, but promoting it in a timely way — that is, in the course of a routine service call — seems a perfect way to raise customer awareness.
Read more about Pither Plumbing in the June 2026 issue of Cleaner magazine.
