Delivering the Message
* Speak in soft, even tones
* Be sincere
* Never show belligerence or anger
* Don't try to overpower the client, i.e. don't try to out shout them
* Be firm, convey that you believe what you are saying

Show Respect & Consideration
* Make your message understandable
* Never speak down to the client
* Ask what they think
* Listen to all they have to say

Give Time for Questions
* Gives you feedback on the accuracy of your communications
* Don't hide behind technical language
* Only quote the rules as a last resort
* Use the same explanation for the same question each time it is asked so as not to have to 'figure out' what to say every time

When the Client gets personal
* Remember that personal attacks come from the 'client's anger at the situation
* Don't respond personally
* You are not responsible for the unsuitability of the site
* Shift the responsibility: Mother Nature gave us the resources
* Express sympathy for the client's situation
* Allow the client time to vent his anger at the situation

Offer Alternatives
* Devise new use options
* Focus on what can be done rather than what can't
* Develop the ability to cultivate creative ideas specific to the original use planned by the owner

Close with a Clear Message
* Don't end with a maybe, however, or but
* Explain and use review and appeal processes

Follow Up!!
* Do what you promise
* Be reachable

Remember: Consistency in good practice will always support your message - good or bad.

Costs

Envision this scenario: A local environmental health specialist has met with the owner of a malfunctioning septic system, decided why the system failed & determined a way to repair it. He/she has drawn up an Authorization to Construct and issued it to the homeowner. And that person says, "How long do I have to put this in? My SS is only $571 a month and I have to spend over $100 a month of that on my medicine. I just can't afford it right now. What can I do?"

At some point, all environmental health specialists have been in this situation or one similar to it. And even though I am quite sure that nowhere in their job description does it list "provide financial counseling" as one of their duties, there will be times when the environmental health specialist will be called on to do just that in order to reach his goal of getting a septic system out of failure.

When an environmental health specialist finds himself faced with homeowners claiming a lack of funds as the reason for their inability to repair their septic system -- his job is not yet done. There are suggestions he can make and resources to direct homeowners to, but in order to do so he will have to know something about the owner's financial status.

In general, homeowners can be split into one of three categories:

1 They have the money and don't want to spend it or it would be inconvenient. They want the new car or the nice vacation instead of paying to get their sewage off the ground surface or out of the creek. OR
2 They don't have the money now, but they have enough income that through budgeting and/or borrowing they can get it in a reasonable amount of time. OR
3 They don't have the money now & having little or no income are unlikely to get it thru borrowing or budgeting.

Dealing with the first category:

If a homeowner falls into the first category -- sympathy is the first thing to offer - he's being hit where it hurts - in the wallet. This is the time for the sweetest PR songs. Suggesting the owner get bids and references is a place to start. Reminders that if he wants his yard ready to mow as soon as the grass grows back after the installer leaves he needs to say so up front can forestall complaints later. If he has a row of prized azaleas or a 40-year-old grapevine that he wants to save, the environmental health specialist can sometimes try to work the repair around them. As long as the owner doesn't lose sight of his responsibility to fix his problem.

Dealing with the second category:

If a homeowner is of more moderate means, some common-sense suggestions can be helpful. Their current mortgage holder might add the system cost to their existing loan. Refinancing or a home equity loan might be done through their current mortgage holder or another commercial lender. Or the Self Help Credit Union might be able to assist. With five regional offices in NC, the Self-Help Credit Union works with homeowners that often fall through the cracks in obtaining loans. They will do "refinance/renovate" loans or "purchase/renovate" loans that include covering the cost of a new septic system. They will not finance just the septic system or give home equity loans. Information on these offices is in your handouts. Some installers may accept payment over time. Or perhaps the homeowner or a couple of strong relatives or friends might provide unskilled labor for the installer and cut installation costs. If the failure isn't too bad, severe water conservation might work until they can get up the cash. All laundry must be washed at the Laundromat; all family members take only very short showers, use paper plates, etc.

And dealing with the final category:

This brings us to the third category of homeowner - those of severely limited means. For our purpose, define "Severely Limited Means" as having less than $1000/month income for a one-person family. Add $1000/year to that for each additional person in the home. For example, a family of four with a household income of no more than $15,000/year would be of severely limited means.

When a homeowner falls into this third category, the first place to refer them to, one that's available in every county, is USDA Rural Development - the old Farmers Home Administration. Their 504 Loan & Grant program is open to all owner-occupants with qualifying incomes. Grants of up to $7500 are available to those 62 and older. Loans at 1% interest of up to $20,000 are available to any age applicant. These loans can be amortized for up to 20 years, which works out to a monthly payment of ~$20 for a $4000 loan. The loans can be used for septic systems, wells, or housing rehab for existing homes. This is a federal program, so new monies become available each fiscal year. There is a lot of paperwork and a lag time of 6-10 weeks for processing. A number of owners have had good luck in the last couple of years with this source of funds. The handout contains a list of Rural Development offices, the counties served by each, and their phone numbers.

The homeowner can approach churches or civic organizations for assistance. Additionally, local community action agencies, those folks who commonly have weatherization or meals for the elderly programs, often have urgent repair funds available for replacing a failing septic system. See the Sources of Funds section of the handout for agencies in a number of counties that have funds available for replacing failing septic systems. All sources carry their own list of prerequisites for eligibility. These change over time as funding is obtained from different grantors. You won't know for certain whether or not a particular person can qualify for assistance from a particular source, but rather have suggestions that the homeowner can then follow up on.

Finally, all else failing there is the new source of funds that can be brought into being. If a county has a significant problem, either overall or just in one area, it may be worth the investment of time to initiate the development of a new fund. One place to go for help with this is the local Council of Government or Regional Development Commission. They often are the agency who apply for and administer Community Development Block Grants. While block grants usually ID potential recipients ahead of time, they often have emergency needs or local option dollars attached which can be used by homeowners. I recommend that someone from each health department contact their local COG periodically to check on availability of funds that can be used to repair failing septic systems. AND while talking with them, see if they can help put together a grant proposal targeting problem areas. The same recommendation goes for any community action agency. Many agencies are actually unaware of the need for assistance for low-income homeowners seeking to repair their failing septic systems.

And don't think that this is one of those things that sounds great for me to say but impossible for you to bring about. During the 16 months from March 97 - May 98 that I worked in the WaDE program in Asheville, we were able, through a cooperative effort between Madison County and the Land of Sky Regional Council, to bring nearly $900,000 into that one county to be used to reduce the number of failing and straight-piping septic systems. $121,000 was to plan and carry out a county wide survey effort and $770,000 was to be used for grants and a revolving loan fund to provide money for repair of septic systems. This project is still going on.

During that same time Craven County got $140,000 to start a revolving loan fund for repairing failing septic systems or for tapping onto sewer. The Uni-four counties -Burke, Caldwell, Catawba & Alexander - received $450,000 to start a revolving loan fund. And Jackson County got $1.2 million to extend a sewer line through an area where over 60% of the homes were failing or straight-piping into the creek and could not be repaired on-site. Currently there are also projects in Mitchell and Halifax counties to install septic systems for homes with black-water failures, straight pipes or privies. Student interns and temporary employees together with state and local staff worked in several North Carolina counties this summer conducting surveys in an effort to identify failing septic systems and secure funding for their repair.

The WaDE, or wastewater discharge elimination, program, is part of the On-Site Wastewater Section in the Division of Environmental Health. Created to reduce the number of straight-piping and surface discharging septic systems in the state, one of their primary goals has been to find, create, and facilitate the creation of funding sources for repairing failing septic systems. They offer assistance with public education, with designing and finding funding for solving problems with failures in specific counties or regions, or with helping individual homeowners find money. Homeowners can be referred to them through the WaDE toll-free number at 1-800-9SEWAGE. This number rings into the On-Site Wastewater Section central office in Raleigh, so when a homeowner calls, he must make sure to say that he is calling the WaDE Program for assistance. The message will get to Terrell Jones or Peter Whittaker much quicker. Or they can call Terrell & Peter directly in Asheville at (828) 251-6784.

There are several other agencies that can be contacted in the search for funding:

1 The Clean Water Management Trust Fund. Part of DENR, created in 1996 specifically to fund projects to protect or clean up the surface waters of North Carolina. They receive about $30 million each year from the legislature and in the first two years have funded revolving loan funds, riparian buffers, purchase of land around drinking water supplies, sewer lines, and sewage treatment plants to name a few.

2 Community Development Block Grants, which I spoke of when talking about Regional Councils, are not only administered by COGs. In some areas private engineering firms play this role.

3 USDA Housing Preservation Grants. Similar to the 504 program except administered by some other agency. The agency applies for funds from USDA and disburses the money themselves.

4 EPA Hardship Grants for Rural communities. For communities with populations under 3000. System(s) must be municipally owned.

5 The Rural Center has Supplemental Grants or Capacity Building Grants. Again, systems must be municipally owned to be funded. The main difference is that the Rural Center prefers to spur economic development and so sewer lines they fund can also allow taps from new homes or businesses which most of the other sources don't allow.

6 NC Housing Finance agency. Located in the Office of the Governor. Funds the Urgent Repair Program and the Single Family Rehabilitation Program. This agency funds projects one year at a time. A number of agencies offering these grants are listed in the Sources of Funds section of the handout.

For further information on these sources, contact Terrell or Peter with the WaDE program.

Self Help Credit Union Regional Offices

Asheville
34 Wall Street, Suite 502
Asheville NC 28801
828/253-5251

Charlotte
500 East Morehead Street, Suite 205
Charlotte NC 28202
704/376-6778

Durham
301 W. Main Street, PO Box 3619
Durham NC 27702-3619
919/956-4400

Greensboro
122 North Elm Street, Suite 810
Greensboro NC 27401
336/378-1840

Greenville
400 W. 5th Street, Suite 202
Greenville NC 27834
252/7512-8866

Will do "refinance/renovate" loans which include septic system
Will do "purchase/renovate" loans which include septic system
Do Not Do "home equity" loans

USDA Rural Development Offices
Contact points for the
504 Loan & Grant Program

Office	Phone	Counties Served
Albermarle	794/982-5114	Cabarrus Rowan Stanley
Asheville	828/271-4705	Buncombe Madison
Bolivia	910/253-4448	Brunswick Columbus New Hanover Pender
Bryson city	828/488-2684	Graham Swain
Cherryville	704/435-1352	Gaston Lincoln Mecklenberg
Clinton	910/592-7958	Sampson
Columbia	252/796-8251	Dare Hyde Tyrrell Washington
Dobson	336/386-8751	Surry Yadkin
Elizabethtown	910/862-4172	Bladen
Fayetteville	910/483-4405	Cumberland
Franklin	825/524-3175	Jackson Macon
Greensboro	336/294-7181	Davidson Guilford Randolph Rockingham
Greenville	252/752-2035	Pitt
Halifax	252/583-7171	Halifax
Henderson	252/491-4161	Franklin Granville Vance Warren
Hendersonville	828/693-1734	Henderson Transylvania
Hertford	252/426-5733	Chowan Currituck Pasquotank Perquimans
Hillsborough	919/732-9388	Durham Orange
Jacksonville	910/455-9445	Carteret Onslow
Jefferson	336/246-2885	Alleghany Ashe Avery Watauga
Kenansville	910/296-0827	Duplin Wayne
Kinston	252/523-7681	Greene Jones Lenoir
Lumberton	910/739-4331	Hoke Robeson Scotland
Monroe	704/289-3212	Union
Morganton	828/439-9727	Burke Caldwell
Murphy	828/837-8141	Cherokee Clay
New Bern	252/638-4948	Craven Pamlico
Newton	828/465-1221	Catawba Alexander
Raleigh	919/231-6126	Chatham Wake
Rockingham	910/997-6281	Anson Montgomery Moore Richmond
Roxboro	336/599-0284	Person
Sanford	919/776-4331	Lee
Shelby	704/471-0235	Cleveland McDowell Polk Rutherford
Smithfield	919/934-6089	Harnett Johnston
Spruce Pine	828/765-0889	Mithcell Yancey
Statesville	704/873-7242	Iredell
Tarboro	252/823-3039	Edgecombe Nash Northampton
Waynesville	828/452-0319	Haywood
Wilkesboro	336/667-1234	Wilkes
Williamston	252/792-7603	Beaufort Martin
Wilson	252/297-1005	Wilson
Windsor	252/794-5307	Bertie
Winston-Salem	336/767-8160	Davie Forsyth Stokes
Winton	252/358-7836	Gates Hertford
Yanceyville	336/694-4162	Alamance Caswell

1. Don't React. Stay Calm. When confronted with an irate client, everyone has the urge to return fire. But don't fight back. And don't take it personally or you'll become an emotional basket case. Keep relaxed and remind yourself that this discussion will not change the destiny of mankind.
2. Let them vent. Remember that you simply cannot get customers to deal with the logic of a situation until you've dealt with their emotions. Trying to attack the problem before people have vented their anger or disappointment just won't work.
3. Defuse the anger. When a tirade is winding down, try asking - sincerely - "Is there anything else?" By this point, they're usually exhausted and willing to talk.
4. Find out what they want. Once they've calmed down, that's the time to find out what they want. Find out quickly to determine whether you can solve the problem on the spot.
5. Figure out what they can have. Once you've figured out what they want, what can you do? This will be set by the bounds of your counties policies and the particular statutes and rules you are enforcing.
6. Consider customer solutions. Sometimes the best solution you can deliver is one the customer suggests. Surprisingly, it can end up being no less acceptable than what you were about to offer. Of course, some clients will make outrageous demands. In that case, ask them what they'd consider a "fair solution." Instead of confronting the customer, this reply opens the discussion to a more equitable resolution.
7. Follow up! Don't make an angry client even angrier by not doing what you said you'd do. When a promise is made, keep following up to be certain that what was promised has been implemented.

This page created by Roland O. Coburn
Reasearch Tech I
on 3/27/00.