Can you help me? Can you fix it?” Bill McGovern heard these questions almost every week in his septic tank pumping business.
While pumping tanks, he regularly uncovered needed repairs that generate the questions from customers. For years, he referred customers to an installer friend, Donald Thompson. But then he decided he couldn’t ignore an obvious growth opportunity. And Thompson, a skilled installer, saw that the infrastructure McGovern had would let him move to the next level. So, together, they formed McGovern & Co. Excavating Inc.
Located in Kennett Square, Pa., about 40 miles west of Philadelphia and 15 miles north of Wilmington, Del., the company serves parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Founded in 1987, the company employs 10 people and operates from the same office and with the same administrative support team as McGovern’s pumping business, Wm. P. McGovern Inc.
A matter of trust
Then and now, pumping customers seek McGovern’s expertise when they have onsite system problems. And homebuyers and builders now look to McGovern Excavating to install new systems. “Our customers trust our judgment, and they tell their friends and neighbors,” McGovern says. This trust evolves from positive, collaborative relationships, often nurtured over an open septic tank while discussing solutions to a problem, or at a predevelopment planning meeting in the office or in the field.
Rapport building begins during the first customer contact. The tone and tenor of a conversation with the office staff lets customers know they are dealing with the right company. Sometimes the staff has to help customers understand what service they are seeking, and sometimes customers know what they need before they call. “Whatever the situation, we take care of customers’ needs,” says Randy Dietterick, general manager.
As McGovern, Thompson and Dietterick see the need or opportunity, they educate the customer. This willingness to give knowledge away solidifies the customer connection and builds trust. “A customer’s trust generates far more business than a full-page Yellow Pages ad,” says McGovern. Sixty to 65 percent of the installation and repair business comes directly from pumping contracts. The balance comes by word-of-mouth from former customers.
Demand-driven services
Since 1987, McGovern’s response to customer requests for new services has followed the same pattern. Identify and understand the opportunity. If it is a good fit and offers profit, add it to the service menu.
McGovern’s home turf, Chester County in southeastern Pennsylvania, administers that state’s onsite system regulations through the Health Department. Landowners seeking permits can designate McGovern & Co. as their agent for onsite interactions with the county. This role helps the landowner and the county streamline site evaluation. The one-stop approach to site evaluation, design, permitting and installation is in direct response to demand.
“The Health Department’s Sewage Enforcement Officer (SEO) evaluates the site while we handle the logistics of deep probe excavation and perc testing,” says Dietterick. If the soils dictate alternate system locations or configurations, he explores those with the SEO on the spot.
Bringing an understanding of the landowner’s goals and concerns, and an understanding of siting requirements, McGovern personnel can satisfy both regulator and landowner. “We have found that both parties appreciate the value we add to this process,” says Thompson. Other installers have mimicked the service.
In a recent year, 94 percent of landowners who started the permit process with McGovern as their agent continued the relationship through installation to final approval. That retention rate includes projects that fell through because of unsuitable sites, changing economic conditions or other external factors.
It is also common for landowners to move their projects to McGovern & Co. during the site development process. “We are in constant communication with the landowner, building the trust and the relationship,” Dietterick says. Lack of communication from other installers has been a factor for owners who switch.
Natural next steps
The company includes system design in the one-stop package. “The more work we can bring under our roof, the more profitable we are,” McGovern says. Landowners also benefit when their site evaluator is also their designer and installer. “When one organization coordinates a project from a what-if dream to the reality of ‘Wow,’ there are very few cracks into which details can fall and be lost,” notes Dietterick.
Not long ago, McGovern brought notary services in-house. Now, rather than send skilled technicians off site to get their signatures to be notarized, they stop by a support person’s desk to sign forms, which are notarized on the spot. This saves time and avoids interruptions in the flow of service to customers.
Both of McGovern’s enterprises provide service in seven counties. As more of these jurisdictions add maintenance and management to owners’ responsibilities, Wm. P. McGovern (the pumping business) has added those to services. In the firm’s metropolitan marketplace, onsite system inspection as a part of a real estate sale is also in demand. McGovern & Co. added that service in the mid-1990s, and it now accounts for about 10 percent of the onsite work.
Keeping busy
McGovern’s seven-member field crew works on about 100 systems per year. Thompson is the lead equipment operator. Foreman Rick Pruett and Tom Brown are also operators. Brown focuses on site evaluation and perc testing, and he is cross-trained to handle most jobs.
Justin Cunningham and Andrew McGovern, Bill’s youngest son, serve double duty as drivers and laborers. Dietterick prepares all bids, is involved in nearly every phase of every project, and is a willing mentor to the less-experienced employees.
In the office, Lynne McQuiston manages secretarial duties and Judy Yeatman coordinates excavating projects. McGovern’s other office staff members help as needed with customer telephone contacts. Helen McGovern, Bill’s mother, was in the office on the day he opened the first company’s doors. Today, at 84, she still provides live and telephone customer service.
The equipment roster has grown from a single pickup truck, backhoe and dump truck in 1987. The current fleet includes three 2006 Case backhoes (two model 580s and one model 590), a 1972 Case W14 loader, a 1998 Case 1840 skid-steer, and a 2003 Case 850K dozer. Supporting and servicing these machines are three 6-wheel dump trucks, two 10-wheel dump trucks, and a tri-axle dump truck. All this and numerous pickups and other equipment keep full-time mechanic Dave Yarnall occupied.
Always growing
The company keeps growing in part by staying abreast of trends. Pennsylvania, for example, is changing the way stormwater is managed. Development-wide approaches are being replaced with lot-by-lot solutions. When soils must support primary and alternate onsite system sites and stormwater management measures, coordinated approaches become more critical.
About seven years ago, McGovern & Co. added stormwater management planning and implementation services. “It made sense to incorporate all aspects of a site’s water management strategies into our one-stop approach,” McGovern says. It was a natural and logical expansion, and now the company offers a complete package of earthmoving services. “Unlike excavators who also install onsite systems, we have always been onsite installers,” says Thompson. “Now we are a full-service excavation company as well.”
McGovern & Co. broke ground when it became Chester County’s first approved installer of chambers from Infiltrator Systems Inc. The company has installed a wide range of absorption areas, from drip irrigation, to elevated sand mounds, to conventional beds and trenches. The company also repairs systems installed by others.
Sacrifice nothing
McGovern acknowledges that in a down economy, business is not as robust as it once was. “Slow times are not a reason to compromise or sacrifice standards, or risk one’s good name,” he says. The company has been successful, in part because it maintains high standards. McGovern is holding the line on prices and will not cut corners to save money or land a job.
“A good reputation is too hard to get and too easy to lose,” says McGovern. His partnership with Thompson started when they recognized that a customer’s request for help was an opportunity for growth. Although built during a robust economy and with roots in the onsite industry, the company now installs all underground utilities for homes that will be served by centralized sewage collection and water supply services.
“When we have responded to our customers’ requests for help, our business has grown and has been successful,” McGovern says. Regardless of the immediate purpose, McGovern & Co. will move the earth to make it happen: “We can help, we will help, we do help.”
