It’s 2019, not the Wild West, but yet somehow cowboys are still a problem in today’s society.  Only in this case it is cowboy firms who are looking to trick the consumers with un-necessary work and fabricated activity.  And as the public are unlikely to know the great extent of the pipework residing beneath their property, it can be easy to confuse them with terminology and insist upon them that certain repair works must be carried out.  Especially if the reason they have called a company out is an emergency and they “just want to get it sorted”.

Much like taking your car to the garage to have a simple oil change, only to be told that you need to replace all four brake-pads and calipers, as well as refill the air freshener, whilst you weren’t expecting to hear that, you haven’t investigated for yourself, and how would you?  After all, they are the specialist in this field.  So ultimately you begrudgingly accept this additional and unexpected cost in order to get your vehicle back, but always wondering if there was actually a problem with the brakes.  Funnily enough, the drainage industry is very similar, as very rarely do you come across a member of the public who owns a drainage camera and frequently surveys their property, instead just assume that when it flushes, its gone somewhere else.

The problem comes when you hear of various stories where another company has been called out, either to supply another quote for repair/restoration works, only to survey the pipeline with a camera system to discover that the ‘cowboy’ quotation contains faults and issues that aren’t actually present in the pipeline at all, and whilst where it might simply need a jetting to clear a blockage, the ‘cowboy’ quotation cites the need to “use a mechanical cutter to remove a root intrusion, then fit a patch”.  Members of the Facebook group “Sewer men and proud” will recall frequent posts where their members highlight such fraudulent activities that they have come across where the customer has been given a quote for £thousands when upon their survey they have quoted £hundreds.

Using mina as part of your customer service can help restore customer’s faith, through 3 simple stages:

1) PROVE that there is an issue by showing the customer a live video of the inside of their pipeline on your iPhone or iPad

2) EXPLAIN the pipe network and where any work will need to take place using a digitally designed survey map on top of a Google Maps image

3) DISCUSS the issue(s) with the customer at the time of the survey, and provide them a full and thorough report there and then.

If any corrective work is required, they will have the confidence that you have performed a thorough survey and are more likely to ask you to go ahead and carry out the works.  The more companies using mina to help the public understand what needs to be done and why, the less room there is for cowboys to trick them.  Download mina today for free from the App Store to get started, and if you have an existing Maxprobe or TrapJumper control box you can arrange through the Scanprobe Service Team (service@jamesgraphics.co.uk/scanprobe) to get a free update to enable the wireless connectivity and get the BRAND NEW mina survey reporting software.  All new units come with this as standard.