PortaPro

Septic maintenance reminder program

The reminder program your website promises.
Running inside your software.

Homeowners sign up for pump-out reminders on your own website. Each one becomes a customer in PortaPro with a site and a septic tank on it. Reminders go out on your schedule by email, text, or as a call task for your office, and the next one reschedules itself the day your truck pumps the tank.

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screenshots/septic-reminders-signup-form.png

Why this is different

A reminder date that moves when the truck does.

Almost every septic company's website has a box that says sign up for our maintenance reminder program. Behind it is usually a website-builder form that posts to an inbox or a spreadsheet, and a reminder date that never changes after the day the homeowner typed it. Nobody in the office lives in that spreadsheet, so the promise quietly goes unkept, and the company that does remind the homeowner two years later is the one that gets the call.

PortaPro keeps the enrollment next to the tank. A sign-up that matches a customer you already have attaches to their septic system; one that does not becomes a customer with a site and a tank. From then on the reminder follows the same predicted service date PortaPro maintains from your completed jobs, and the Reminder Program tab says so on every row: Follows site.

The mechanism that matters: when your crew completes a pumping job at that site, the tank's last-serviced date and its predicted next service move, and the enrollment moves with them. The two-months-out reminder for a tank you just pumped simply never fires. If a job never got logged, Log pump-out on the enrollment does the same thing in one click, and because it writes to the tank itself, every other screen agrees.

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Log pump-out writes the date to the tank, so the next reminder moves with it.

How it works

From your website to the pump-out, in six steps.

Everything below is set up once in Settings and then runs on its own. The office reviews new sign-ups from one tab.

  1. 1.Turn it on

    Settings, Septic Reminders. One switch offers the program. The reminder sequence defaults to two months before, two weeks before, and on the due date; edit it up to six touches. Offer email, text, phone call, or any mix. Set the pumping interval PortaPro falls back to when it cannot work one out from the tank.

    screenshots/septic-reminders-settings-sequence.png

  2. 2.Put the form on your website

    Copy the standalone link, the inline embed, or the popup embed. It is the same one-line script as the PortaPro lead form, so the two sit on one site without a second setup. The headline and intro are yours to rewrite.

    screenshots/septic-reminders-website-embed.png

  3. 3.A homeowner signs up

    Name, email, the septic system's address, when it was last pumped or not sure, optional household size and tank size, and how to be reminded. Choosing text shows a consent checkbox with the disclosure, and the exact wording is kept with the enrollment.

    screenshots/septic-reminders-signup-consent.png

  4. 4.PortaPro files it

    The sign-up is matched to an existing customer by email, then phone. If nobody matches, PortaPro creates a prospect customer, a service site at the address, and a septic tank on that site. Your office gets a bell; the customer gets a branded confirmation with a link to manage their reminders. Every sign-up lands on the Reminder Program tab under New, next to the customers your office enrolled.

    screenshots/septic-reminders-program-tab.png

  5. 5.Reminders go out

    Every morning PortaPro checks each enrollment against its next due date and sends the one reminder that is due. Email is branded as your company. Text ends with reply STOP to opt out. Phone call becomes a task for your office with the customer's number on it. Every email and text carries a private manage link where the customer changes channels or leaves the program without calling you.

    screenshots/septic-reminders-manage-page.png

  6. 6.You pump the tank

    Completing the pumping job updates the tank's last-serviced date and its predicted next service, and the enrollment follows. Nobody edits a spreadsheet. If a job never gets logged, Log pump-out on the enrollment does the same thing by hand.

    The job is completed from the technician's phone. No screenshot here; the Log pump-out dialog is shown above.

What the customer receives

Branded as you. Never a blast.

Email that reads like it came from your office

Your logo and color. The subject line changes as the date gets closer, from a heads-up two months out to “Your septic tank is due for a pump-out” on the day. Every email carries a manage link and says why the customer is receiving it.

Text only with consent, and only when it is polite

Texts go to customers who agreed to them, never during their quiet hours, never after a STOP. Each one ends with reply STOP to opt out.

One reminder per customer per day

A customer enrolled ten days before their due date gets the closest reminder, not the whole sequence at once. A reminder more than three weeks past its send date is skipped, so turning the program on for a book full of overdue tanks cannot spray stale messages. On the due day your office gets a bell too, unless a job is already on the board.

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Old way vs PortaPro

The old way vs. PortaPro

What a website form and a spreadsheet actually do with a sign-up, and what PortaPro does instead.

A homeowner signs up on your website

A form emails the office, or lands in a spreadsheet nobody opens

PortaPro:A customer record with a site and a septic tank, in the software the office already lives in

You pumped the tank last month

The reminder date on the spreadsheet still says what the homeowner typed two years ago

PortaPro:The completed job moves the next reminder. Nothing to update

Knowing who is due next quarter

Sort the spreadsheet, hope the dates are right

PortaPro:Due in 30 days and Overdue tiles on the Reminder Program tab, filtered and searchable

Sending the reminder

Someone remembers to send it, or does not

PortaPro:Sent on schedule by email, text, or as a call task for the office, one per customer per day

The customer wants to stop or change how you reach them

They reply to an email and someone edits a cell

PortaPro:Every reminder carries a manage link. They change channels or leave the program themselves

Turning it on with a backlog of overdue tanks

A mail merge to everyone, including people you pumped last week

PortaPro:Reminders more than three weeks late are skipped, so a new program never blasts stale messages

FAQ

Questions septic operators ask

Is this the same thing as PortaPro's pump-out prediction?
They share a due date. Pump-out prediction works out when each tank on a customer's site is due and reminds your office. The Reminder Program is the customer-facing half: it tells the homeowner on a schedule you set, and lets homeowners enroll themselves from your website.
What happens if the person who signs up is already a customer?
PortaPro matches by email, then by phone, inside your company only, and attaches the enrollment to that customer without touching their existing sites or system details. If they have one septic system on file, the enrollment follows its predicted service date from then on.
Does 'phone call' actually call the customer?
No. On the reminder date it creates a task for your office with the customer's phone number and due date, and the normal task reminder brings it to whoever handles calls. It is on by default because septic companies traditionally promise a call. Turn it off in Settings if you would rather not.
Can we send text reminders?
Yes, to customers who agreed to texts, when your PortaPro texting is active. Texts are short, name the due date, end with reply STOP to opt out, never go out during a customer's quiet hours, and never after a STOP.
Can we enroll customers ourselves?
Yes. Enroll Customer on the Reminder Program tab, or the Enroll link on a customer's profile, picks the customer, their site and septic system, the last pump-out date, and the channels. Office enrollments skip the review queue.
How does a customer stop the reminders?
Every reminder links to a private manage page branded as your company, where they change how you reach them or leave the program, and can re-enroll later. Your office can also pause, resume, or unsubscribe anyone from the tab.
What does it cost?
It is included with PortaPro. The program is off until you turn it on in Settings.

Get Started

See a sign-up become a customer.

Book a walkthrough: fill in the form on a demo site, watch the customer, site, and tank appear, and see the reminder schedule it gets.

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