Whether it’s silencing banging restroom doors at a golf tourney, answering calls in the middle of the night or even turning down work they can’t perform up to their standards, Eagle Services relies on crack customer service to build profits.
The Bennington, Neb., portable restroom operator tries to anticipate customers’ needs even before they know them, says Jeff Fisher, who owns the company with his wife, Leslie. The pair counts on quality service to hold the line on pricing, even as some competitors are quoting ridiculously low.
Eagle Services manages more than 1,000 portable restrooms within a 50-mile radius of Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., and includes among its customers the Cox Classic PGA golf tournament, the NCAA College World Series and the RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa, which ends in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from their headquarters.
Those high-profile events enable the company to get good word-of-mouth for its performance, Fisher says. But its construction-related customers, who make up 50 percent of the company’s business, are Eagle Services’ bread and butter.
Fighting the recession
Fisher says recession has cut into business, but commercial construction customers are staying busy with shopping center remodels and build-outs, new buildings, and hospital and school remodeling. Residential builders have cut back much more, but there are a lot of roofing jobs in the region that call for restrooms.
Some slacking demand and strong competition makes responding to customers’ needs more important than ever.
“In all honesty, when we get a call on the radio for dispatch or delivery, I really try to get there in an hour,” Fisher says. “We’ve been known to chase cranes around town for units that have to be lifted to upper floors of construction sites.”
To facilitate quick response, the service trucks usually go out with one or two extra restroom units strapped on the back. All their trucks have a carrier for at least one unit.
“We call it a ride-around,” says Leslie Fisher. “You never have to come back and reload.” The extra unit often comes in handy, as heavy winds are common on the Great Plains and so are tipovers, even when the portable restrooms are fastened down. If the unit isn’t damaged, drivers will reposition the existing unit. “If we get a big windstorm, I just send a truck out there. They don’t need to call. I send a guy out there and say stand them up, clean them up,” Jeff Fisher says.
Two years ago, the Fishers turned down a large job for a utility plant maintenance outage. They were having problems with one of their trucks and were short one employee, so Jeff Fisher didn’t think they could perform up to their usual standards. “Jeff was honest with the guy,” Leslie Fisher says. “We said we don’t think we can do the job you are used to. The customer really appreciated that. They had us do half the job and another company did the other half.”
A big territory
The Fishers owned Eagle Services seven years in September. Each came from other careers: Jeff as a mechanical engineer and Leslie as a customer service manager for a hotel chain for 20 years and a computer programmer for three.
Eagle Services was an established business with a good reputation when Jeff Fisher noticed some of their units on a jobsite and said to an acquaintance, “That’s what I need to do.” The acquaintance knew then-Eagle Services owner Skip Stepanek, found he was willing to sell, and introduced them.
Jeff Fisher says the portable restroom business struck a chord.
“Mechanical engineering, you can always use that. You know how equipment works. You’re not afraid to tear into something. I wasn’t really burned out of engineering. I just wanted to try something different,” Jeff Fisher says. And Leslie Fisher found the office side of the business was a good fit.
The company manages its operations from offices in Bennington, a suburb of Omaha, and Lincoln. It services an egg-shaped area around Omaha and Lincoln, about 50 miles apart. The main office and shop are in Bennington, where three route drivers, a pickup/delivery driver and two office assistants are located. Two route drivers and a pickup/delivery worker are stationed in Lincoln.
Maintaining higher pricing isn’t easy in a down economy, but the Fishers think it’s the only way to go. With several competitors offering lower prices, landing new business isn’t always easy, but repeat business is good from customers who appreciate the responsive service they have found.
“We try like heck not to cut prices. You come down too much from prior years and it looks like you were gouging,” Jeff Fisher says. “What we try to do is keep our prices up and give them the service.” Fisher argues that low prices might get business in the short run, but in the long run the math doesn’t work out.
Major sporting events
Eagle Services has been providing restrooms for the Cox Classic, a PGA Champions Tour event, for seven years. Fisher explains the tournament lost a major sponsor this year and for the first time in several years put the contract out for bid. Fisher didn’t offer the lowest bid, but reminded tournament officials that their time is valuable and they didn’t need to expend it on someone else’s learning curve.
“They have enough to worry about. For the little bit they were going to save with another company, it was worth it to them to stay with us,” he says.
Eagle Services again got the contract and Fisher says he hardly had to communicate with organizers before or during the event. They put out about 70 units for the 10-day event. Some were well-screened by trees and other landscaping, but some were within 40 to 50 feet of the course, Fisher says.
Tournament organizers asked them several years ago to put weather stripping on restroom doors to deaden the sound so the golfers wouldn’t be disturbed by the banging doors. Fisher says that worked OK, but they only did it one year. Instead, signs on the door now ask patrons to close them quietly, which seems to work as well.
Pumping and maintenance is done at night and they pump up to 1,500 gallons daily.
Eagle Services has provided service for the College World Series, held at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, off and on over the years. This year they placed 60 units at the stadium. A side benefit of the World Series is they get a lot of work from businesses around the stadium, such as bars, also serving Series fans.
“We probably had 100 units on the ground for those 14 days,” Fisher says.
Leslie Fisher says that during the recession she’s had to remind cost-cutting event customers that it’s not always a good idea to underestimate the number of units needed. Her message is that ordering too few units can reflect poorly on the event, as well as cost organizers more money in the long run.
“One event tried to cut way back this year. But before we got back to Bennington after setup, they were calling and asking us to bring two more units, four more units,” Jeff Fisher says. “They’ve been organizing this event for 20 years, but the dollar was driving it. It probably ended up costing them more the way we had to do it.”
Job-ready equipment
Eagle Services has 1,200 restrooms, 20 percent of them with hand sanitizers. About 825 are construction units and the remainder earmarked for parties and special events. They have 740 from Satellite Industries Inc., mostly Tufway models, with some Liberty (ADA) and Maxim 3000 models. They also have 130 Global models, formerly of Hampel Corp., 330 Taurus, High Tech and World Care (ADA) units and six NuConcepts VIP units. All told, they have 42 ADA units, 30 hand-wash stations, six PolyJohn Enterprises Corp. SaniStands, 18 wheeled units, 18 lift units, 13 elevator units and six 250-gallon holding tanks.
To offer a VIP customer solution, Eagle Services recently acquired a restroom trailer from Rich Mobile Restrooms Inc., with four stalls on the women’s side and three stalls and two urinals on the men’s side. Heaters on each side are designed as fireplaces. They have yet to put the trailer into service, but they believe there is a market for it, especially with high-end weddings. They made the purchase after attending the 2009 Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International in Louisville. They said the show afforded them the opportunity to see many trailer makes and models before the major purchase.
“There are probably people who would say this is not a good time to buy it, but is there ever a good time?” Fisher says. “If you aren’t buying new stuff, you aren’t growing.”
Eagle Services’ service truck fleet consists of a 2001 Ford F-350 with 300-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater slide-in steel tank with a Jurop pump from Imperial Industries; two 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 flatbeds with 200-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater steel tanks and Masport pumps; two 2008 Ford F-450s, with a 650-gallon waste/350-gallon freshwater steel tanks with Masport pumps from Lane’s Vacuum Tank Inc.; a 2005 Ford F-350 pickup with a steel 300-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater slide-in tank with Jurop pump from Imperial Industries; a 2008 Ford F-550 with a 650-gallon waste/350-gallon freshwater aluminum tank and Conde pump from Satellite Industries; a 2009 Ford F-550 with a 650-gallon waste/350-gallon freshwater aluminum tank and Masport pump from Satellite Industries; and a 2009 Ford F-550 with a 650-gallon waste/350-gallon freshwater steel tank and Masport pump. In several cases, Eagle Services has transferred tanks as it upgraded service vehicles.
Service is the key
The Fishers say providing customers with the best service pays off in multiple ways. Besides helping justify prices that bring profit, word of good service spreads among potential customers, and can generate new business. As an example, Rosenblatt Stadium is home to both the College World Series and the Omaha Royals, and city officials recommended Eagle Services to the Triple A baseball team.
“They said you have to go with Eagle Services. They are the best,” Leslie Fisher says. “That’s what we want to be.”
