Top Priorities for Septic Services — How is Your Business Doing? Take This Quiz!

Top priorities for septic service operations, above all, must feature ensuring top-quality workmanship in installation, repairs, and system maintenance for customers. Building customers’ trust through honest, transparent dealing, reliability, knowledge, professionalism, and great service overall is crucial to business longevity in a competitive market. Providing more comprehensive services expands the company’s market base. Septic service business efficiency and developing an effective online presence are also essentials for meeting the top priorities that define the industry performance standard. 

Do you want to know how you and your septic service business rate compared to the industry standard of performance in the top priorities? Take this little quiz and see your score!

Quiz: Top Priorities for Septic Businesses – Rate Your Performance! 

Here’s a fun little self-evaluation for septic business owners to help you gauge how your leadership and team measure up against the industry’s standard model of performance priorities. Give yourself points on a scale of 1-5 for your performance on each of these key priorities and total your points to find your combined score. Then, see where your score fits into the rating matrix below the quiz, to learn your company’s performance level on these priorities in comparison to the industry standard.

Septic Business Performance Management Quiz

Performance self-score: 1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent

Priority

Priority Description

Score (1-5)

1

PRIORITY: Quality workmanship

  • Track record of quality installations, repairs, and maintenance services. 
  • A list of customers that welcome emails or calls from prospective customers to confirm references regarding excellent work quality.
 

_______

2

PRIORITY: Customer service:

  • Timely response in helping customers, communicating clearly, and following through with commitments. 
  • Explaining the functions of the customer’s septic system and its maintenance requirements, as well as common potential issues.
 

_______

3

PRIORITY: Maintaining good equipment and supply stock

  • Investing in adequate equipment for quality work enables your field team to deliver quality service. 
  • Maintaining abundant supplies ensures that your team can consistently provide timely service.
 

_______

4

PRIORITY: Demonstrate integrity in all you do 

  • To support your technical and service quality, you need a company culture of trustworthiness. Provide 100% appropriate estimates and honor all commitments to your customers. 
  • Provide your employees with everything they need to do the job right, compensate them fairly for their work, and operate transparently to earn their trust and build loyalty.

 

_______

5

PRIORITY: Work warranties and parts guarantees

  • Provide warranties on workmanship to help ensure customer confidence.
  • Provide parts and equipment guarantees to give customers complete peace of mind. 
 

_______

6

PRIORITY: Operational efficiency

  • Use available tech tools to increase route efficiency and reduce errors in scheduling. Strive for optimal efficiency in office organization, phone call handling, etc.
  • Work to improve customer satisfaction rates for increased referral business revenues. 

 

_______

7

PRIORITY: Manage customer relationships

  • Implement a cost-effective CRM software system to manage customer communications, document the historical details of the service to the account, and provide convenience and accuracy for your customers and employees during every interaction. 
 

_______

8

PRIORITY: Strong marketing and branding

  • Online reputation: Manage your online presence by encouraging customers to provide online reviews of your service. 
  • Social media: Engage on social platforms to raise brand awareness in your local community. 
  • Off-line marketing: Use traditional branding and marketing methods to promote your business locally, like networking with other local companies, participating in nonprofit activities, sponsoring local events, etc. 
  • Revive inactive accounts: Reach out to former customers offering reminders about needs for upcoming tank and/or pump inspection and/or maintenance, and information about service upgrades. 

 

_______

9

PRIORITY: Full regulatory compliance

  • Keep informed about local, state, and federal laws governing business and septic service operations, including permit requirements, liability insurance, etc. 
 

_______

10

PRIORITY: Short- to Long-term financial planning

  • Have a clear and practical business plan.
  • Study your business’s financial performance records and pinpoint areas of opportunity for improvement. 
 

_______

TOTAL POINTS

Add up your total performance points for Priorities 1 through 10 and enter your total quiz points here —->

 

_______

Here’s How Your Company Leadership Rates in Managing Septic Business Priorities

How did you do on the quiz? See the interpretation of your ranking below and think about what have you learned from this little exercise. Congrats! Whatever your score, just by taking the quiz you’ve made an important step toward improvement and set up yourself and your team for the next move to increase the quality of your service and organizational management.

Total Quiz Score

Performance Level Per Industry Standard

10

This score indicates that your leadership team needs to reevaluate priorities and commit to increased attention and resources, as necessary to improve performance in managing this key priority for sustainable success.

11 – 20

This score indicates that your team is struggling to manage daily workloads, stay organized, promote healthy revenue rates, and focus on priorities. Examine the priorities on which you scored lowest and start efforts to improve management in these areas. Dig deep! 

21 – 30

This score indicates that you and your team appear to be making efforts to increase service quality and operational efficiency. Focus on strengthening performance in the areas of systemic weakness indicated in your individual priority quiz scores. You’re on your way!

31 – 40

This score indicates that you are a savvy business manager with an effective team of professionals who may be looking to go the distance to achieve the highest performance levels. The need is to demand the best from yourself and your team. Think: We can do this! 

41 – 50

This score defines you and your company of pros as a team that expects the best everyday from yourselves in your words and actions, in the service you provide and the smooth functioning of your organization. You are proven professionals who have cultivated a company culture of requiring excellence. Congratulations on your outstanding model of success! 

Aligning Priorities with Daily Responsibilities

Improving performance in the areas of the industry’s recognized top priorities for your business type is the most basic step toward ensuring your company’s long-term profitability. That means increased service quality, local brand reputation, customer and employee retention, and financial security and prosperity for your business. 

If you scored low across the board, it’s time to reorganize operations in a way that focuses on these fundamentals. If you scored low in some areas and high in others, then redirect some human and other resources to spot improvements. If the budget is to be affected by improvement initiatives, then plan accordingly. 

Don’t expect perfection immediately. The point is to persist. Keep pushing to make the changes your business needs, gradually if necessary, until you have incorporated those and they have become a fully embedded component of your normal operations.

If you’re not quite satisfied with your current quiz score, work on areas of needed improvement and retake the quiz when you believe you’re ready to raise your rating.

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