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Growing your plumbing company in a competitive market means capturing plumbing leads and transforming them into revenue. Set your plumbing business apart by providing stellar customer service and equipping techs with the right sales tips and tools to increase plumbing sales in the field.
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Studies show 93 percent of customers are likely to make repeat purchases from companies who offer excellent customer service. That benefits plumbing contractors, because 73 percent of businesses that provide above-average customer experiences report better financial performance than their competitors.
Plus, customers today may agree to additional work in the future or higher-priced alternatives if they trust you as a home service provider and understand the value of your services or products.
Provide Top-Quality Customer Service
Prioritize customer experience
Prove efficiency with real-time data
It may sound simple, but quality customer service is the foundation of any good plumbing business.
New customers want helpful, knowledgeable customer service reps the moment they make their first service call for plumbing problems. When they need plumbing services from a local business, they want quick response and efficient work.
First impressions, such as presentable plumber uniforms and trucks, and high-tech solutions like ServiceTitan’s cloud-based plumbing software, let potential customers know you’re serious about your business and will get the job done right the first time.
Show customers you value their time by notifying them when a tech is on the way to their home. Dispatch software sends customers a picture and bio of the tech, and enables customers to track their travel in real time.
After the completion of a job, use ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro — Reputation to automate review requests by text or email. Going a step further, you can tie your online reviews to system data and match each review to specific technicians and jobs.
Dispatch for Profit
Send skilled communicators to high-value jobs
Utilize integrated property information
Increase your chances of closing plumbing sales by sending the right person to the right job. While not every tech may possess the ability to fluently communicate with customers, with ServiceTitan dispatch software, you can make sure you send your most skilled communicators to high-value jobs.
That’s the strategy of Nikolai Matveev, one of the owners of Cardinal Plumbing, Heating & Air in Northern Virginia, who sometimes sends his plumbing manager to do estimates for big-ticket projects, such as water or sewer-line replacements.
“There is more communication (necessary) on the repairs than actually the skill and how to do the job, because you have to explain (the job) fairly well—and then you have to justify the price,” Matveev says. “You have to be almost part salesman, so you’re going to have to sell your job first before you even do the job.”
ServiceTitan dispatch software enables your company to attribute certain skills to certain technicians, and build a technician scorecard so you know who’s capturing the highest average tickets and generating the most leads.
Give your technicians a head start on the sales process with integrated property data information, so they know as much about the customer’s property as possible, including past completed work or any other communication with your company.
Utilize On-Site Software Tools
Show value of good-better-best options
Present customers with immediate digital estimates
Empower your techs with mobile plumbing software that delivers on-site quoting and estimates. Accurate estimates lead to more income, and more profit for your company.
Give homeowners multiple options to aid in their decision-making, presenting detailed good-better-best options. ServiceTitan’s Pricebook Pro, built with industry input, provides photos and prices for thousands of items, and includes upgrades and recommendations. When options are presented this way, a customer is more likely to see the value of the “best” option.
Techs also can create branded digital estimates while in a customer’s home, so customers can make an immediate decision about the job, without waiting days for an email or phone call from your company. Accurate, quick estimates are essential in an emergency, when a customer needs their plumbing problem fixed immediately.
Prioritizing repairs for a customer shows your company’s honesty, and allows the customer to make the right decision. For instance, if your technician finds 10 problems during a plumbing inspection, customers should know what needs to be fixed right away, what can wait, and what is optional. You’ll likely receive repeat business, and even referrals on social media, if you prove your company is trustworthy, efficient, and fairly priced.
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Price Accurately
Offer competitive rates
Utilize mobile software for accurate estimates
With the average cost of a plumbing job ranging from $175 to $450, upfront pricing helps your customers avoid sticker shock.
Learn how to create plumbing pricing by working backward, figuring out how much you—or a plumber in your company—needs to make in hourly wages each week. After determining wages based on actual billable hours, add to that figure costs of taxes, insurance, and overhead, as well as profit margin. Compare the hourly rates of other plumbers in your area to make sure your rates are competitive.
Give accurate estimates to customers by utilizing ServiceTitan’s Pricebook Pro, which comes pre-loaded with content. You can customize by using the built-in feature to calculate prices to charge for each service, but set your own company’s markups and labor rates. Keep your pricebook as current as possible for accurate estimates.
To increase sales in the field, techs can search for specific service descriptions, complete with images. Techs can show customers exactly what they are recommending when discussing repair or replacement options.
Follow Up Estimates
Use software to capture plumbing leads
Create a long-term plan for follow-up
With the busy day-to-day responsibilities of a plumbing business, it can be difficult to stay on top of details like unsold estimates.
“We’d all like to believe our sales people are great at following up, but let’s be honest, it’s pretty tough,” says Chris Hunter, ServiceTitan Director of Customer Relations, and founder of Hunter Super Techs and co-founder of the GoTime Success Group. “When it gets really busy, the follow-ups tend to tank.”
Follow-up should start within 48 hours after delivering the estimate, and not end until you get a yes or no, says Hunter, who hosted a webinar on the topic. There should also be a long-term follow-up plan for customers who aren’t ready to immediately commit.
ServiceTitan Marketing Pro will do the work for you by sending out emails or texts based on your customer data, so unsold estimates don’t fall through the cracks.
Prioritize Training
Empower techs to sell
Align incentives with goals
Provide proper tools and training for your employees to empower them to turn plumbing leads into plumbing sales. Implement plumbing sales training for your preferred procedures and sales techniques so your team stays on the same page.
Hunter suggests if you want an employee to push, say, unsold estimates, align incentives with the behavior you want driven. Make it worthwhile for employees to close plumbing service leads or upsell products and services.
If a tech answers a call to fix a clog or water leak, it’s a great time for them to check water heater status or other potential maintenance issues. Make it protocol for techs to communicate other services of your plumbing company or inform new customers of maintenance memberships.
Promote Your Expertise
Give maintenance tips and advice
Target marketing to the right audience
A plumbing company that focuses on the importance of educating customers, rather than simply making plumbing sales pitches, tends to experience better success.
Not every customer knows the parts of their water heater or potential problems resulting from high water pressure. Help customers remain proactive by educating them with content posted on your plumbing website, or through targeted, seasonal plumbing marketing emails.
ProSkill Services in the Phoenix area gives tips on their website about water heater maintenance, helping customers avoid costly water heater replacements. Roto-Rooter’s website features a “how-to” section where visitors can get answers to common plumbing questions or submit a question to a master plumber. Other companies showcase how-to videos or seasonal tips, such as ways to keep your pipes from freezing in winter.
From start to finish, ServiceTitan’s software is designed to support your company and improve your relationship with customers. It keeps your company’s goals at the forefront, so you can track ROI and keep steering your company in the right direction.
ServiceTitan Plumbing Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive plumbing business software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
