Quality human resources and technology spells success for L.A. Hydro-Jet & Rooter Service

He adds that part of his strategy is to offer a higher commission than the competition, provide a family atmosphere as well as respect, and to be sure he's part of the group. "We do out decision making together for job standards. We work out how to respond to pagers, for example, so they feel they're an active part of the company. We stress individual initiative, individual accountability. Communication is the key. A company can't offer its clients quality service unless everyone is pulling in the same direction."

The goal is to have each employee govern himself, to solve the problems his call entails. "This is not a structured company; everyone is involved. This open communication lets us focus on the work that needs to be done, to take good care of the customer."

Dan the reiterated that an important key to success is building relationships with customers. "We ask them how we can give them better service, rather than selling them on our price. Our goal with each customer is a long term relationship."

Equally important is the technology. Since L.A. Hydro-Jetting's service techs work alone, a pull-out swivel reel for the hose and a remote switch are two important pieces of each service tech's equipment lineup. Dan says, "U.S. Jetting's 300-gallon, trailer-mounted reel hose pulls out and turns 90 degrees in both directions, which makes for easier access to those hospitals, high rises, and shopping centers.

"But another big innovation is the one-man foot switch operator valve that allows the person to operate the machine when feeding a line as far as 250 feet away from the actual machine. The serviceman can get into the commercial building. He can work away from the jetter, which saves on labor and use of two-way radios. The switch also means instant response, so when he sees water filling the plugged line, he merely has to move his foot and there's no trouble brought on by failed communication."

Since the equipment allows one man to do the job efficiently, customers enjoy seeing one man work a job instead of it taking a pair. "We're not billing for a second man to be there just to turn a machine on and off. I'd say the one-man foot switch eliminates the need for a second man about 20% of the time. This is a substantial labor savings, which helps keep us competitive and profitable."

Another plus is safety. "If something happens, the lone operator merely has to take his foot off the switch."

Another strategy that has helped the company grow ten-fold in four years has been the debt containment. "We purchased our original set of equipment and work it until that equipment was paid for before taking on more debt. Then, we began replacing payment with payment and built our equipment inventory by having a paid-for piece of equipment help pay for the newer piece. That gave us two pieces of equipment paying for one, without tying up our cash flow any more tightly. We're not just a large organization, so we cannot just invest thousands of dollars in equipment. We must make sure the equipment works for us."

Dan says the task is to ensure that a $35,000 jetter doesn't sit idle in the yard, but is on the road. "We absolutely avoid idle equipment. We go after jobs that will keep our equipment busy. We chose U.S. Jetting equipment as it was far superior to anything we had tested."

One-on-one selling is another key to his firm's success. He had no Yellow Pages advertising, but has his service techs spend their time seeking new customers. "Since they're on commission, finding new business lines their pockets, and long-term associations means everybody wins. So, when a serviceman's not on a service call, he's out selling maintenance contracts."

For this reason, Dan keeps his rooting business separate from the jetting business. "We don't want any rooting equipment laying idle in the shop, collecting dust and rust. Instead, that equipment is on the road with the service tech responsible for that particular piece of equipment."

Assigning exclusive use of particular machine ensures the machine is serviced properly, that should it break, finger-pointing doesn't become another problem.

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