Most septic companies already run some version of this: a "sign up for pump-out reminders" box on their website that posts to an inbox or a spreadsheet, and a reminder date that never moves after the day the homeowner typed it. PortaPro's version lives inside the software. Customers put themselves on your reminder list from your own website, or the office enrolls them, and PortaPro sends the reminders, by email, by text, or as a call task for your office, ahead of each predicted pump-out. When your truck pumps the tank, the next reminder reschedules itself.
Service Hub → Reminder Program is where enrollments live. Settings → Customers & Growth → Septic Reminders is where you turn it on and shape it.
Reminder program vs. pump-out prediction. PortaPro already predicts when each septic tank on a customer's site is due (see On-Site Systems) and nudges *your office* with a bell. The Reminder Program is the customer-facing half: it tells the *homeowner*, on a schedule you set, and lets them sign up on their own. The two share the same due date.
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SRP-1: Turning the Program On
Settings → Customers & Growth → Septic Reminders.
The first card is Reminder Program with one switch: Offer the Septic Maintenance Reminder Program. It is off for every company until you flip it. While it is off, the public sign-up page returns "not found", the embed renders nothing, and the Service Hub tab shows an empty state that reads Septic Maintenance Reminder Program is off with a Turn on in Settings button.
Flipping it on changes nothing retroactively. No reminders go out until a customer is enrolled and their next pump-out is inside the reminder window.
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SRP-2: The Reminder Sequence
The Reminder sequence card decides three things.
When reminders go out
A list of reminders measured in days before the predicted due date. The default is three touches:
| Reminder | Fires |
|---|---|
| 2 months before | 60 days ahead of the due date |
| 2 weeks before | 14 days ahead |
| On the due date | the due day itself |
Click the pencil to edit. Each reminder is a chip with an × to remove it; the Add reminder row takes a number of days (0 to 365) and adds a chip. Up to six reminders, at least one. Duplicates are refused with "That reminder is already in the sequence."
Channels offered
Three checkboxes. Customers pick from whichever you leave on when they sign up.
| Channel | What actually happens |
|---|---|
| A branded email with a link to manage their reminders. | |
| Text message | A short text, only to customers who gave SMS consent. |
| Phone call | Creates a call task for your office on the reminder date instead of messaging the customer. |
Phone call is on by default because the industry promises it, but it is office work, not automation: on the reminder date a task titled Reminder call, {customer} appears for your office with the customer's number and due date, and the normal task reminder bells it. Uncheck it if you would rather not promise calls.
Default interval
The pumping interval used when PortaPro cannot suggest one from the tank size and household. Choose Every year through Every 5 years, or Custom and type a number of days (30 to 3,650). The default is 3 years. A customer's own declared interval, or a suggestion from a known tank size and household, always beats this.
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SRP-3: The Sign-Up Form
The Website sign-up card carries three things to paste, each with a copy button:
The embed is the same `embed.js` your lead form uses, with `data-form="septic-reminders"` added. Both forms can be on the same site.
The Sign-up form copy card lets you replace the headline and intro the customer sees. The defaults are:
Septic Maintenance Reminder Program
Sign up to receive friendly reminders by phone, text or email when it is time for your next pump-out. We track your service schedule and let you know when maintenance is coming due, free, and no effort on your part.
What the customer fills in
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Your name, Email | Required. |
| Phone | Required only when the customer picks text or phone-call reminders. |
| Where is the septic system? | Street address and city are required; state and ZIP are optional. |
| When was it last pumped? | A date, or "not sure". A future date is refused. |
| About your system | People in the household and tank size, both optional. They feed the pump-out estimate. |
| How should we remind you? | The channels you offer. Email is checked by default; at least one is required. |
| Text-message consent | Appears only when text is checked, with the same TCPA disclosure your lead form uses. The exact wording shown is stored with the enrollment. |
The button is Sign Up. On success the page says You're on the list and, when PortaPro can compute it, the month the first reminder will start.
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SRP-4: What Happens to a Sign-Up
PortaPro first tries to match the sign-up to a customer you already have, by email and then by phone, inside your company only.
Either way the customer sees the same "You're on the list" screen, the form never reveals whether an address is already in your book.
Every web sign-up lands in Service Hub → Reminder Program with a blue New dot, and your office gets a bell: Reminder program sign-up, {name}. The customer gets a branded confirmation email, You're enrolled in our septic reminder program, with a link to manage their reminders.
A second submission from the same person updates their existing enrollment (channels, phone, last pumped) and puts it back in the New queue. It never creates a duplicate.
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SRP-5: The Reminder Program Tab
Service Hub → Reminder Program. The header button is Enroll Customer.
Four tiles across the top: Enrolled, New sign-ups, Due in 30 days, Overdue. Below them, filter pills, All · New · Due soon · Overdue · Paused, and a search box for name, email, or address.
Each row shows the customer (with a Prospect note when PortaPro created them from a sign-up), their address, the channels they chose, Last pumped, Next due (with Follows site underneath when the date comes from their on-site system), status, and where the enrollment came from (Website or Office). Overdue dates read in red.
The ⋮ menu on each row:
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Open customer | The customer's profile. |
| Mark reviewed | Clears the New dot. Only shown on new sign-ups. |
| Log pump-out… | Records the date the tank was pumped and rolls the next due date forward immediately. |
| Send email reminder now / Send text reminder now | Sends one reminder today, outside the schedule. Text requires consent on file. |
| Pause / Resume | Stops or restarts the sequence without losing anything. |
| Edit… | Channels, a per-customer pump-out interval, a per-customer reminder schedule, and notes. |
| Unsubscribe | Ends the enrollment on the customer's behalf. |
| Delete | Removes the enrollment and its history. |
Enrolling a customer yourself
Enroll Customer opens a dialog: pick the customer, choose the Service site and On-site system (PortaPro pre-selects the only septic system when there is one), enter Last pumped if you know it, tick Remind by channels, and optionally set a Pump-out interval and Notes. Office-enrolled customers skip the New queue.
Text reminders need the customer's consent. If none is on file the dialog asks you to attest that the customer agreed, and records that attestation with the enrollment.
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SRP-6: How the Due Date Is Chosen
PortaPro resolves each enrollment's next due date the same way the Service Hub tab, the customer profile, and the nightly sender all read it:
Log pump-out on a linked enrollment writes the pump-out date onto the on-site system itself, so every other surface sees it too.
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SRP-7: What the Customer Receives
Reminders go out once a day in the morning (13:00 UTC). For each enrolled customer PortaPro checks the sequence against the next due date and sends the one reminder that is due, never two on the same morning. If a customer is enrolled already inside the window (for example 10 days before due), only the closest reminder is sent and the earlier ones are recorded as skipped. A reminder more than three weeks past its send date is skipped rather than sent late, so turning the program on for a book full of overdue tanks cannot blast stale reminders.
Email is branded with your logo and color. The subject and headline change with proximity:
| Timing | Subject |
|---|---|
| Far out | Septic maintenance reminder from {company} |
| Within three weeks | Septic pump-out due {date} |
| Due day | Your septic tank is due for a pump-out |
Every email ends with Manage my reminders, a private link where the customer can change their channels or leave the program, and a footer explaining why they received it.
Text messages are short, name the due date, and end with "Reply STOP to opt out." They are only sent to customers with text consent on file, never during their quiet hours, never after a STOP, and only when your Twilio texting is active.
Phone call creates the office task described in SRP-2.
On the due day, your office also gets a bell: Pump-out due, {customer}, unless a job is already scheduled at that site.
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SRP-8: The Customer's Manage Page
Every reminder links to a page at `/septic-reminders/manage/{token}`, branded as your company. The customer sees Next pump-out due with a note on where the date came from ("Based on your last pump-out", "Based on your service history with us", or "Estimated from your sign-up date"), can change How should we remind you?, and can choose Leave the reminder program? → confirm. Someone who left sees You've left the reminder program and a Re-enroll button.
The link is the only key, there is no login. A bad or expired link reads This link isn't valid.
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SRP-9: On the Customer Profile
The customer's info panel carries a Reminder Program field beside Rate Card:
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SRP-10: Roles and Availability
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SRP-11: Troubleshooting
The sign-up page says "not found."
The program is off, or the link uses the wrong company slug. Check the switch under Settings → Septic Reminders and copy the link from the Website sign-up card.
A customer signed up but I don't see them.
Look under New on the Reminder Program tab, and check the bell. If they were an existing customer, the row is under their existing name, not the name they typed.
Next due looks wrong.
Open Edit… and check the pump-out interval, or use Log pump-out… to set the real last-pumped date. If the row says Follows site, fix the date on the customer's On-Site System instead, that is where it comes from.
Text reminders aren't going out.
The row must show consent on file (the ⋮ menu says "Needs the customer's text consent" otherwise), your Twilio texting must be active, and the send must fall outside the customer's quiet hours. A skipped text is retried the next morning.
A customer got two reminders in one day.
They shouldn't. One scheduled reminder per customer per day is enforced; a second one is a manual Send … reminder now from the office.
I want to stop everything at once.
Flip the program switch off. The sender skips companies with the program off; enrollments are kept and resume when you turn it back on.