Damian and Lisa Baker learned about customer service while operating a van service for movie and ad production in Los Angeles.
Show business people are famously demanding, Damian observes: “You have people who may literally want a bowl of red M&Ms placed on their table at six in the morning, and you’ve got to make it happen. We learned early on that when a customer calls for something, you have to be ready to go. You have to perform and give them what they need as quickly as possible.”
They now bring that level of customer care to their VannGo Luxury Mobile Restrooms & Portable Solutions business, based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville. Since its launch in 2018, they’ve built an inventory of 24 luxury trailers and some 3,000 portable restrooms, plus hand-wash sinks, hand sanitizer stands, water tanks and more.
The company’s core values — safety, efficiency and service — are embraced by 41 team members. “All three values go together,” Damian says. “We can’t be efficient if we’re not safe, and we can’t have good customer service if we’re not efficient.”
A better place
Before moving to Tennessee, the Bakers operated Video Village Vans, supporting on-location shoots for motion pictures and advertising campaigns. Eventually they decided that Los Angeles was not an ideal place to raise their son, Owen.
They moved to Tennessee, where Lisa had family, and ran the Video Village Van business remotely. Then came inspiration. “We had a birthday party for me at our house,” Lisa recalls. “About 100 people came here. We rented a restroom trailer, and we realized that could be a pretty good business. We started with one trailer, and that snowballed into something much larger.”
They took possession of that first trailer at the end of 2017, creating the VannGo name and logo in 2018. Lisa is an art fan and “Starry Night” is her favorite Vincent Van Gogh painting. The couple felt luxury restroom trailers are almost a work of art, and so the name stemmed from that. Competition in the Nashville area was limited. Still, that first two-stall trailer went six months without a rental. They first promoted the business by making connections through organizations such as the Murfreesboro Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce.
They began picking up rentals for private parties and sometimes donated a trailer for charity events. Then in 2020, along came the COVID pandemic, creating explosive demand for portable restrooms, sinks and sanitizer stands in Nashville for the city’s Homeless Impact Division, and for deployment in the streets for use by the general population.
That business led to numerous contacts which, along with in-person sales visits, a search-engine-optimized website and online advertising, generated demand. Meanwhile, the Bakers sold the van business in Los Angeles.
It’s about service
Today, the company serves about a 70-mile radius in Middle Tennessee from the Murfreesboro home base and a yard and office in Nashville. Service and reputation drive growth: “We focus a lot on giving five-star service and requesting reviews,” says Lisa. “We are the highest-rated portable restroom company in all of Tennessee on Google.”
Five-star service first of all means, “consistency and dependability — it’s just those two words,” says Damian. “It’s continually showing up every time we’re supposed to do scheduled service.” More specifically, it means careful attention to each unit in the field.
“Our people do a complete washdown of each unit with soap and water and smell-good spray, and they use the appropriate amount of chemical. We refuse to resort to pump-and-go service, where the driver pulls up, pumps out the waste, puts in paper and chemical, and moves on.
“We wash down the unit inside, wipe down and dry the tank top, and dry the seat. When we finish, the unit smells fresh and actually is clean. So if someone enters the unit immediately after we’re done servicing, they will have a pleasant experience.”
The company serves construction sites all over the Nashville metro area and in addition to restrooms provides 300-gallon flat water and waste tanks for placement under construction trailers.
The restroom trailers are deployed at long-term commercial projects, weddings and private parties and at community events for New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day and weekend celebrations.
“We focus on larger events,” says Damian. “We’ve reached a level where we’re competent to serve any type of event here in Middle Tennessee.”
Team makes it happen
None of it would be possible without a high-quality team, the Bakers emphasize, including:
- Brad Franklin, operations manager
- Megan Hastings, office/human resources/billing director
- Aaron Hill, driver and safety manager
- Sommer Adkins, outside sales manager
- Taryn Lau, inside sales manager
- Jeff Hart, lead driver
“Our people are our biggest asset,” says Lisa. “We have a culture that says you’re not just a number. You’re family, and we like to treat our family very well. We do our own internal events. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Our team members spend more time with us in many cases than they do their own families, so we want them to feel appreciated for doing so.”
Meanwhile, structured training ensures that team members understand and buy into the company values. “First they have an in-person sit-down interview,” says Damian. “Then they ride along for a couple of weeks in a truck with a driver.
“Eventually they get into the driver’s seat with that driver. Then they slowly move into getting their own truck, once we know that they can handle everything they need to do on their own.” Team members receive generous compensation that includes health, vision, dental and life insurance, a 401(k) account and profit-sharing.
There are also rewards for performance. “We have an incentive plan for every driver that encourages them to do their best to deliver the five-star service standards that we require,” Damian says. “For people who want to improve, there is tremendous opportunity. We move our team up pretty quickly.”
When hiring, Damian and Lisa look for people with goals, which can be as simple as wanting to save money to buy a car or move out of the parents’ house into an apartment. Says Lisa, “If they really want to make their goal happen, they can do it. We have employees who stay with us for a long time.”
Damian adds, “If someone doesn’t have a goal and is just looking for a job, they’re not motivated to do anything. As owners and a management team, it’s our job to help them reach the goals they’re working on individually. Then it’s a team effort. We’re helping them, they’re helping us.”
Military veterans and firefighters often show the work ethic and team orientation that fit in well.
Helpful technology
Digital tools help keep things on track in a complex business with a fleet of 16 trucks and multiple service routes. In the office, Lisa and her team use ServiceCore software for billing, routing, inventory control and other tasks. “I do all my reporting through there,” says Lisa. “Our CPA and bookkeeper have access as well.”
For truck routing, “We can easily and quickly hold down on a mouse and drag a route from one truck to another. It’s very quick and easy to make adjustments. Their map system works very well. Our routing manager [Bill Porter] puts in the orders. Then our driver manager, Aaron, can make small adjustments real quickly and easily on the fly.”
Another vital tool is the Samsara GPS tracking system for the trucks. It’s instrumental in boosting safety and profitability. “It gives each driver a safety score, and the whole company a safety score as well,” says Damian. “If you have a threshold you’re trying to meet with your team, you can see who is helping that and who might be falling short.
“If someone is driving erratically and taking corners too fast, that can mean accidents and wear and tear on suspensions. That takes tremendous money off the topline revenue, which affects everybody. So if one person is not driving safely when 15 drivers are, that one driver is undermining all the others.”
Powering growth
Busy days can be challenging; growing to keep up with demand can be more so. To that end, the business employs a sound financial strategy. “Our labor cost is a little high because our office team and our driver team are a little bit larger than they normally would be,” Damian says.
“We have to be that way if we’re going to be ready for growth. We spend a bit more on labor so that we have the staff we need when growth opportunities come. We’re always pushing for more equipment, more service area, more density. We just keep pushing.”
Lisa emphasizes giving back to the community, as befits a business rooted in faith. “We have a philanthropic side that we call Restrooms for a Reason,” she says. “Whenever a trailer goes out, a portion of that rental goes to charity. We’ve grown from a handful of charities to more than 50 local and some national charities we’ve donated to. Our goal is eventually to do that across all of our business.”
As for the future, Damian observes, “We feel like the economy in this part of the country leans in favor of growth. Our goal is to continue with the service we provide and continue taking one small bite at a time. Every day is a learning experience. Every single day we learn something new. We keep ourselves humble. We’re very thankful, and we’re very appreciative.”
