As I sit at my desk in late winter and prepare my column for the May issue of PRO, I’m thinking about the major work at hand for portable sanitation contractors this time of year.
By now, you’ve attended the off-season industry trade shows to browse new equipment and collect some continuing education credits. You and the crew have inspected the restroom inventory and made necessary repairs so they’re ready to hit the road when the busy season begins. If you’re lucky, winter maintenance is complete for your fleet of trucks. Maybe you’ve even worked in a vacation to a warm climate to recharge the batteries.
So now, what else to get done before Memorial Day rolls around, signaling the torrent of service work for the summer? Just as I was pondering a few more slow-season tasks for PROs, an interesting idea crossed my desktop from marketing expert Jennie Lyon, of Jennie Lyon Virtual Assistant Services.
Lyon’s specialty is helping businesses develop and promote their brand through social media, content creation, email marketing website management. In this instance, she talked about creating “evergreen content” businesses can share to help educate their customers.
TIMELESS AND HELPFUL
Working in the media, I understand the term, but for those not familiar, Lyon describes evergreen content as, “Timeless advice your audience always looks for. … Think of a tree that stays green all year around — always relevant, regardless of the seasons. It’s the kind of stuff your audience returns to, finding value today, tomorrow and even years from now.”
Whether it’s written website material, brief social media videos or Instagram photo posts, evergreen content should reinforce your company’s brand messaging surrounding things like quality service, professionalism and customer responsiveness. It should also offer insights about how portable sanitation can best serve the clients that hire you. And the key with evergreen is that it always remains valuable as the months and years fly by.
“Evergreen content is like the foundation of your digital presence — the articles, videos and guides that stay relevant long after being shared. It’s the FAQ section that answers common questions and the case studies that show timeless success,” Lyon says.
Maybe you already post some evergreen content. Maybe you see other companies employ this strategy to fill out their websites with useful information and continue with regular social media posting week after week. It takes some time to build up this content, and writing and making personal videos may seem a daunting task — more challenging, perhaps, than all of those other off-season jobs you are accustomed to performing.
TO-DO LIST
If the prospect of creating evergreen content is more mystifying than, say, rebuilding the brakes on a vacuum truck, I’ll suggest a few basic ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Work with your crew to knock out a few ideas on this list right now, and then add more as time allows:
Explain the restroom calculator
You’ve seen helpful restroom calculator graphics posted by many PROs outlining how many units are needed based on the number of attendees and duration of an event. If you don’t already have this tool on your website or posted occasionally on social media, it’s time to do it. But consider going beyond simply posting the graphic and create a story or video that goes into greater detail and covers factors that might tweak the formula to give clients a better estimate of their equipment needs.
Steps to an effective restroom order
Assume prospective customers don’t understand the process of hiring a portable sanitation contractor. Create a blog or a video that breaks down the steps of ordering a restroom, covering customer needs, extent of service, billing procedures, delivery and pickup of the units. Review all aspects of your invoice so the costs, methods of payment and timelines are well-understood.
Illustrate a service call from start to finish
Shoot a video of a service technician stopping at both a construction site and special event. Show the process in detail, from pulling up in the vacuum truck and unraveling the suction hose to scrubbing the restroom, replenishing paper products and drying the clean unit for the next user. Make sure the technician is uniformed and clean, wearing all the appropriate safety gear and following all applicable OSHA regulations. This video will help customers understand the value proposition of hiring your company to provide safe and clean restrooms for employees or guests.
Use of add-on products to make users happy
The COVID pandemic raised awareness of ways customers could upgrade units with sinks and hand sanitizers to enhance safety for users. But there remains much room to promote other optional features that will improve the user experience and grow your revenue. Like adding sprinkles to an ice cream cone, use social media posts, blogs and videos to promote add-ons like solar lighting, mirrors and custom signage or upgraded from a basic to event-type or ADA unit.
Best construction site placement tips
Strategic placement of units on construction sites requires cooperation — a give-and-take approach — to satisfy the needs of your customer and your service technician. Use photos to illustrate how to keep units out of the equipment traffic flow and to avoid the frustrating blocking of restroom access when your technician arrives to provide service. You want to put the units where they can be easily used by busy construction crews but where users will stay out of harm’s way from moving machinery and overhead risks.
What happens to the waste?
Your customers may have no idea about the challenges of safely disposing of waste. Once the truck pulls away from a service, it’s out of sight, out of mind for them. But explaining your disposal process will help customers better understand the cost of your service and provide a positive environmental message — that their waste is being responsibly managed. Through words or video, follow a full vacuum truck to the treatment plant and show how the waste is measured, metered and tested as it enters the receiving station. This way you can explain the costs and worker time necessary to finish the job started with the service call.
How to move restrooms on the site
Sometimes customers may need to move a unit on their own — to follow workers on a construction site or to adjust to crowd needs at a special event. Explain when moving a unit is practical and when the customer needs to call you to pump the holding tank first. For minor adjustments in the field, use photos or a video to show how to safely move a unit using grab handles or a forklift.
Handling overuse of a unit
When a unit is overflowing, it needs to come out of service immediately to protect the reputation of both your customer and your service company. Outline how you want customers to lock down a restroom and contact you immediately to handle the situation. Show the difference between clean and usable units and messes that must be addressed. Always follow up by explaining what caused the overuse and how it can be prevented in the future with additional restrooms or more frequent service.
Stop vandalism or tipovers
Customers often have no concept of the cost in time and dollars involved in fighting vandalism and tipovers. Share stories of the damage your technicians have encountered and how it is managed. Give tips for how customers can work with you to avoid this frustrating and growing problem. This will be helpful to state your case if and when you need to hold customers responsible for this damage.
Damage waivers explained
If you utilize damage waivers, it would be a good idea to provide a step-by-step review of the waiver document and its advantages for customers. Who pays for damaged units can be a sore point in a customer relationship and details of damage waivers can be misunderstood. So a FAQ entry, blog or a video on the topic can head off problems in the future.
Restroom trailers vs. plastic units
More and more, customers are seeking options for portable sanitation service. While tried-and-true traditional restrooms remain a go-to product in many cases, restroom trailers are a growing choice, especially for small backyard parties and business remodeling projects. While many service providers now offer trailers, few promote them adequately. Post case studies showing where these VIP units are chosen for weddings and commercial uses. Showing the features found in these upscale units or sharing testimonials from happy users will go a long way to growing future bookings.
FINAL WORD
These are just a few ways PROs can create evergreen content that will educate, raise brand awareness and build revenue moving forward. If you want to get into more detail with Jennie, visit her website, jennielyon.com There is one final message from Lyon that is important to repeat. And that is even though this content is designed to be “evergreen,” that doesn’t mean it will never need updating.
“Go back to your old stuff and cut out any outdated info or ideas,” she says. “Keep an eye on what’s new in your industry. Update your content with the latest stats, recent stories and what’s trending. By blending your timeless ideas with fresh updates, you make content that stays helpful.”
