Whether you are looking to start your plumbing business or already have one, maintaining growth is essential to your success, not to mention increased revenue. In learning how to grow a plumbing business, you must understand that growth has a different plan of action for every business because each one is unique, in addition to location. Regardless, having the right plumbing business software, attainable goals, plumbing tools, and resources puts you in a position for growth and success.
From setting attainable goals and sharpening your company’s image to automated processes, we break down the top 13 tactics for growing your plumbing business.
1. Set Attainable Business Goals
Without goals, your business can struggle to grow and succeed. Setting attainable business goals places everyone on the same page with the same goals. When setting goals, know what you or your team can do and raise the bar slightly. You should have short-term and long-term goals.
Short-Term goals
Short-term goals should utilize the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) process, such as setting a monthly new customer count goal, achieving a particular number of hot water tank installations, achieving specific certifications, setting a monthly customer ratings goal, or even utilizing a mission statement to maintain focus on achieving it through several avenues.
You need short-term goals to achieve long-term goals, or your business will need help to catch up trying to reach those long-term goals.
Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals are the destination that the short-term goals help achieve. If you set monthly quotas for installs, the long-term goal should reflect the achievement generated from short-term goals. If a short-term goal had a new customer percentage number to achieve per month, such as a 5% increase, the long-term goal should also reflect that and include a 5% increase from last year’s numbers. Also, a long-term goal requires the achievement of several short-term ones, like achieving a profit increase per year.
Goals don’t have to be calculation-based. You can also set goals like hiring new plumbers, completing training, improving training that provides increased focus on the customer, learning and using better plumbing job scheduling software to improve customer service and save time, etc.
2. Sharpen Your Company’s Branding
Branding is a crucial element of any plumbing business. A good design must stand out, represent your values and services, and become easily remembered. Your logo design, color scheme, and fonts should remain the same on all materials and objects, such as social media, business cards, marketing materials, emails, and vehicles.
Colorize Your Brand
You should choose colors wisely to reflect your business and use them across all marketing and website materials. This step also helps make your business easily remembered. It’s best to pick only a few colors; you should have a primary and secondary color followed by one or two more.
It’s OK to use an actual image with many colors, such as on a landing page or your van, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the color scheme used to identify your business.
Create or Improve Your Business Slogan
Another way people easily remember your business is through your slogan. It should be short, focused, and reflect your core values and services. Imagine having a color scheme established, an attractive logo designed, and the words “Your Pipes, Our Priority!” all written across your van. The slogan says something about your business. It shows your dedicated service and what you do. It’s short, specific, and becomes mentally attached to your logo by those who see it.
Create or Improve on Marketing Taglines
Taglines can also work as slogans, but they work best for marketing. They support your existing business slogan while also defining your marketing intentions. Adding a tagline like “We Keep Things Flowing” to a marketing campaign backs up your existing slogan, such as “Your Pipes, Our Priority!”
You should also ensure that you have software that allows you to incorporate your brand’s imaging. HouseCall Pro’s field service invoice software lets you integrate your branding to make your business easily remembered, even with invoicing and customer communications.
Plumbing Service Software Empowering Your Brand
Plumbing service software is an excellent solution for plumbing companies looking to maintain consistent branding in their invoicing and estimate processes. Here’s how software like Housecall Pro can help enhance your brand’s professional image:
- Professional Appearance: A branded invoice looks more professional and trustworthy. It assures customers that they are dealing with a reputable company, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Memorable Customer Interactions: Integrating your branding into every customer touchpoint makes your business more memorable.
Free Plumbing Resources & Templates: Our customizable templates can be easily updated to incorporate your plumbing company’s brand identity, ensuring a professional, consistent brand image that impresses customers.
3. Personalize the Customer’s Journey
To grow your plumbing business, you must understand the customer’s journey, from searching and selecting a plumber to scheduling and completing repairs. If you comprehend their mentality and process, you can harvest that information to keep in touch, provide recommendations, offer unique opportunities, and keep them informed on the progress if the job takes days.
Recognize Your Ideal Customer’s Problems
The first step in the customer journey process is recognizing that a plumbing problem exists. You work all day fixing customer sinks, pipes, drains, etc., and installing new water lines, tubs, showers, toilets, etc. But what does it feel like on the customer’s end? If you understand their needs and frustrations, you can adapt your service to increase satisfaction rates.
Understanding your customer’s needs lets you fulfill them while ensuring their concerns and stress levels remain low.
Know How You Can Resolve the Customer’s Problem
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How did the customer search for a contractor for their specific problem?
- Did they look at experience, guarantees, reviews, years in service, and prices?
- Did they seek a licensed, bonded, insured, and certified business or contractor?
- What inspired them to contact you?
- Did they hear from a friend or family that referred you?
- Did they hear from a friend or family that referred you?
- What can you do to prove you are the right choice to do the job?
- Do you have solid reviews on various sources?
- Do you actively participate on your social media pages?
- Do you provide friendly service and keep the customer informed?
- Do you have the right tools for the job, including modern, innovative tools?
- What can you do to put their mind at ease?
- Will you explain the details of what you are doing and when you’re doing it to keep them informed and let them understand?
- Can you assert that you will resolve the problem?
If you have answers to all the above questions, you make the customer’s journey more satisfying, and they’ll probably call you again.
The ultimate goal is to understand your customer’s mentality and concerns and use that information to provide reliable service that cultivates long-term relationships.
Stay in Touch With Your Customer
Businesses that perform a service for a customer and then disappear without interaction can hinder customer loyalty. Part of the customer’s journey is to experience excellent service, even after the job.
Without it, your business may not get verbal or physical referrals or the best reviews possible. You must show the customer that you care and are always there for them when they encounter a problem.
Ways to keep in touch include:
- Using software that allows plumbers and office staff to communicate directly with customers through an in-app chat feature. This provides real-time updates, answering questions, and addressing concerns quickly.
- Automated appointment reminders can be sent to customers via text or email, ensuring they don’t miss their scheduled service. This helps reduce no-shows and keeps customers informed.
- Give your customers a dedicated customer portal to view their service history, upcoming appointments, and invoices. This transparency fosters trust and keeps customers engaged.
- With GPS tracking, plumbers can share their live location and estimated arrival time with customers keeping them informed throughout the service process.
Remember, the customer’s journey isn’t over until the problem is solved. You should remain with them throughout the entire process and stay with them afterward.
4. Invest in a Well Defined Digital Marketing Strategy
Investing in digital marketing is another essential way to grow your plumbing business. A strong internet presence helps make your brand an authority in the area and industry. This action can also relate to the customer’s journey. As they repeatedly see you advertised, they see you as a successful business.
A well-rounded plumbing marketing strategy is mandatory and well worth the investment because it helps increase your audience response ratio, increasing the value of your leads and customers. Here are some ways to boost your digital marketing efforts.
Start With Local SEO
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is the first step to gaining traction on the internet, especially with search engines. After all, your plumbing services are local. When a potential customer searches for local plumbing repair services using various keywords, you want them to see your business at the top. You can consider several marketing tactics to crank up your local SEO marketing efforts.
Create a Website
Ensure you have a website for potential customers to visit. According to PR Newswire, in 2021, 76% of consumers check out a business’ online presence before physically visiting the business. In a digital world where smartphones and computers have become the go-to place to research a company and choose where to take action, a website is vital to getting noticed and showing the audience what you can do for them.
You can hire a web designer to build your website, do it yourself, or have Housecall Pro’s dedicated website team build you a custom, SEO and mobile-friendly website. Once you have the website how you like it, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting. You can obtain these two items on sites like GoDaddy and Domain.com.
When it comes to local SEO, having a website to send potential customers to is vital to the growth of your business.
Claim a Google Business Profile
Once you have a website, the next step is registering your business and claiming a free Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). This action allows Google to include you in local searches better. It provides a page about your business, including address, phone number, hours, directions, website link, offers, photos, and even a “Get a Quote” button. You can also add your logo, services, and more.
Add Your Business to Relevant Listings & Directories
Citations are online mentions or listings of a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on various directories, websites, and platforms across the web. Think of them as digital signals that help verify your business’s legitimacy, prominence, and relevance for local searches.
Here are the top 10 most relevant and authoritative directories where plumbing companies should get listed to increase their online presence and local SEO:
- Yelp
- BestPlumbers.com
- Angie’s List
- HomeAdvisor
- BuildZoom
- Contractors.com
- Networx
- HVACYellowPages.com
These directories are specific to the plumbing/construction industry and are trusted by major search engines. Accurate business listing information on these platforms can significantly boost your plumbing company’s local search visibility.
Use Paid Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a prevalent method to drive more phone calls, generate better-qualified leads, and grow your customer list. You bid on keyword phrases where you want your ad to appear within search results. If someone clicks on your ad link, you pay the service provider on a pay-per-click basis. Amounts will vary, and you choose your daily budget limit for clickthroughs.
PPC is available as the following:
- Paid search ads (all-text ads) like Google Ads.
- Display ads (visual ads across Google’s ad network or partner websites).
- Remarketing ads allow you to reactivate a paid ad to give previous viewers more exposure.
- Social ads (Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media sites).
Use Google Ads to Reach High-Intent Plumbing Leads
The plumbing industry is notoriously competitive when it comes to paid advertising. The most commonly used PPC campaigns appear in Google Ads, but there are many others. According to Search Engine Journal, in 2023, Google Ads was the most used platform for digital marketing, bringing in more than $58 billion in ad revenue in Q2 of 2023.
If you bid on a keyword like “water softener repair near me,” your text ad can be displayed in the search results. Bids help determine who gets placed in the search results ads. Still, other elements contribute, too, such as a quality score based on click-through rate, ad quality and relevancy, and the landing page or website experience.
PPC search terms you choose must be intended for commercial purposes when using Google Ads, such as plumbing service Boston, leak repair near me, clogged drain, clogged basement drain, vanity installers, etc. Terms like ” how to fix a clogged showerhead” won’t include anyone’s ads by default because this term is used by people looking for information, instead of a service.
Use Social Media Platforms to Grow Your Visibility
Aside from paid ads, social media has the most significant impact on your business. You can create a business page optimized for SEO that shows up in search results and boosts your recognition.
Word of mouth also significantly builds your reputation and influences others to choose your business for the needed services.
You can use social media to gain the following benefits:
- Increase brand awareness and exposure.
- Gain word-of-mouth influence.
- Offer discounts and special offers.
- Create contests to gain more attention.
- Sell your services with quality content.
- Join business and networking groups on FaceBook and LinkedIn.
As mentioned earlier, You can also use PPC ads to promote your services and offers.
Leverage Email Marketing for Personalized Offers
Email marketing is vital to boosting your business because it reminds people of your services and shows dedication to solving their problems.
You can incorporate a newsletter option to offer tips and tricks, special offers, and special services.
Sending personalized emails produces better clickthrough rates than bulk-sent emails. Send them schedule reminders, events, customized offers, and more. House Call Pro’s plumbing CRM software can help you identify the customer’s information, history, needs, recurring service agreements, and preferences, such as how they pay. You can access the insights necessary to provide custom-tailored emails that help create long-lasting relationships and repeat customers.
You can also incorporate an email form into your website or landing page and get the customer’s email address when providing services.
In addition, you can send follow-up emails to customers with a link to review pages to boost your ratings and influence potential audiences.
Mailchimp Integration for Hyper-Targeted Email Marketing Campaigns
Mailchimp is a great email marketing tool that offers advanced configurations and control. You can set up automated email campaigns and custom-triggered emails based on customer behavior, enhancing your email marketing strategy. You can also create a range of email templates to cross-sell, re-engage current customers, and gain new ones.
HouseCall Pro’s Mailchimp Integration gives you an edge over your competitors. It streamlines and personalizes email campaigns across various marketing channels, so you can focus on other essential aspects of your business, like excellent customer service. This integration helps you send reminder emails efficiently, ensuring timely communication and boosting customer satisfaction. By leveraging this powerful tool, you can significantly improve your return on investment through effective and targeted email marketing.
Related content >>> The Ultimate Plumbing Marketing Plan to Help Grow Your Business
5. Track Your Sales and Marketing Data
To grow your business, you must always know its current state, starting with tracking sales and marketing data. Tracking your sales and marketing data is crucial for plumbing companies as it directly impacts annual revenue, overhead costs, and operational efficiency.
By closely monitoring your marketing efforts, you can identify which marketing strategies generate the most leads and conversions. Additionally, understanding your sales processes can highlight areas where overhead costs can be reduced, ensuring a smoothly run and profitable business.
A data-driven approach helps in accurately forecasting annual revenue, leading to better financial planning and resource allocation. Reporting and analytics tools provide real-time visibility into critical metrics like lead sources, job costs, tech performance, and more. This allows you to optimize your efforts and increase your return on investment.
6. Focus On Improving Customer Service
One fundamental way to deliver exceptional customer service is to keep the customer informed and updated so they have peace of mind. You can use the Housecall Pro mobile app to keep your team connected and responsive to customer needs in the field. Customers receive automated “on my way” notifications and updates throughout the job lifecycle.
The software lets you access complete customer history data and empowers you or your team to provide personalized, attentive service. Having reliable scheduling software is also a great way to improve customer service. You won’t miss appointments or double-book; you can also use the software to update the customer if something arises.
Free Ebook Resource Download: Ultimate Guide to Customer Experience for Home Service Companies
7. Automate Redundant Systems & Business Processes
Automation is a big time-saver. It does the work for you; you just need to monitor it while it handles the rest. Automation lets you streamline operations with automated job dispatching, online booking, invoicing, and follow-up for estimates and invoices.
Another automation process is customizing workflow checklists to standardize processes across your business. Housecall Pro business software integrates everything you need to automate your systems and processes, freeing up your time to manage other business needs.
8. Set up Recurring Service Plans
Recurring service plans are another essential element to the growth of your plumbing business. This one aspect generates more sales and profits, almost on autopilot. You must still perform the work, but setting it can become automated.
If you want to use software to manage recurring plans, you’ll get more time for other things. However, finding software that maintains customer information, sales, expenses, scheduling, estimate creation, invoices, and more can be a challenge, often leading to trial and error if you don’t find the right combination of software.
Using plumbing maintenance software is one way to combine everything into one interconnected system, including setting up recurring service plans.
Streamlined Management of Maintenance Agreements
HouseCall Pro allows you to automate routine maintenance visits. You can set up recurring appointments and reminders, ensuring that no maintenance task is overlooked. This is particularly useful for keeping track of multiple service agreements, ensuring timely service for all clients.
Detailed Service Histories
Maintain detailed records of all service visits, repairs, and maintenance activities for each customer. This is essential for both commercial and residential clients expecting accountability.
- Service Logs: Keep comprehensive logs of all maintenance activities, repairs, and inspections.
- Customer Profiles: Access detailed profiles that include service histories, ensuring that your technicians are well-informed before they arrive on site.
Contract Management
Manage service contracts efficiently by storing and organizing them digitally. HouseCall Pro makes it easy to track the details of each maintenance agreement, making sure all terms are met and clients are satisfied.
- Digital Storage: Keep all service agreements and contracts in one place, accessible from any device.
- Contract Alerts: Set up alerts for contract renewals and expiration dates, ensuring timely renewals and continuity of service.
Performance Tracking
HouseCall Pro provides powerful reporting and analytics tools that help you track the performance of your maintenance service plans. This data can be used to improve service delivery and client satisfaction.
- Maintenance Reports: Generate detailed reports on completed maintenance tasks, service frequency, and technician performance.
- Customer Insights: Analyze customer data to identify trends, preferences, and areas for improvement.
Benefits for Both Commercial and Residential Contractors
- Commercial Contractors: Ensure all commercial properties receive timely and consistent service. Detailed service histories and comprehensive reporting help meet the stringent requirements of commercial clients.
- Residential Contractors: Improved customer loyalty and satisfaction by providing personalized service to homeowners by keeping customer data, service, and equipment histories in one place.
9. Hire the Right Plumbing Team
Another big part of business growth is hiring the right people. You may want to hire an apprentice fresh out of training, but you would need an experienced plumber by their side, showing them how to function in a business atmosphere.
Hiring the right team will likely pay off in fostering an inclusive and supportive company culture. Plumbing contractors across the U.S. can agree that making keeping your team happy, will likely result in better service, leading to happy customers.
Employees should understand your business visions, goals, and work ethic. They should also have positive attitudes and care about the customers. You don’t want someone only looking to make money. You want employees who love their work and strive to improve their skills.
For existing employees, the best way to ensure they perform as expected and strive to improve their skills and customer service is to track and monitor employee performance. It is also beneficial to have payroll and time-tracking software to monitor employee finances, attendance, and punctuality. You can use field operations software solutions that include those features or find an application that integrates with your existing applications.
10. Leverage Online Reviews
Since most consumers look online to research something before they make a move, online reviews can help you grow your plumbing business by building trust and credibility. People are social beings, and when they see positive reviews from others, they are motivated to take action.
The first step is to motivate your satisfied customers to leave reviews. One way to do that is to provide an incentive, such as 20% off your next service or offering a free inspection. Positive reviews can be featured or published directly on your website, Google, Facebook, and more.
Once you get those reviews, you can integrate them into your paid ad landing pages, email campaigns, and more. This benefit helps raise your credibility and build trust, two essential elements customers look for in a plumbing business.
Managing Bad Reviews
How about bad reviews? They are not bad at all. They help you identify the root causes and let you find solutions to improve your service.
Solve the Problem and Request a Review Update
You can find a solution to the customer’s problem and ask them to update their review if they are satisfied with the results.
Identify All Responsible Parties
Assuming you have employee performance tracking software, bad reviews can help identify the employee involved in the situation so you can improve their performance and guide them in the right direction. If the same problem keeps happening with the same employee, after you try to help them improve, it may be time to let them go.
Reply to Negative Feedback
Another way to manage negative reviews is to respond to them on the review site. Potential customers see you attempt to make things right, raising their trust. Sometimes, it shows that you are not at fault, but this is a “tread lightly” strategy.
Free Ebook Download: How to Manage Bad Reviews
Clarify The Problem and Provide a Solution
Lastly, negative reviews may stem from a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Sometimes, clarifying the situation to the customer via a review response can set things right. However, handle it carefully and use the right words to turn things around.
As part of the Housecall Pro business software suite, reputation management software lets you manage reviews in one place rather than twenty. You can see reviews 24 hours daily from various channels and respond to them immediately.
11. Invest in Training & Modern Equipment
Your employees, or you, if you are a sole proprietor, are only as good as the training they or you receive. There is always room for learning in business, especially since technology and techniques change. Your business is an expert in various types of plumbing work, so naturally, you need to invest in modern tools and equipment to help complement your highly needed-skills.
Whether you are a one-truck plumbing company or a commercial plumbing business with a large operation, investing in training will pay off in the long run.
Using modern equipment also produces better results and more satisfied customers. Stay current with the latest equipment, as your competitors surely will. Using modern equipment stands out and builds a better reputation.
You can use Housecall Pro software to:
- Manage and maintain your tools inventory, equipment, GPS vehicle tracking, and more.
- Equip your team with the latest technology to maximize efficiency and customer service.
Download Our Free Ebook: How to Train Service Techs to Be Sales Pros
12. Network & Build Relationships
You can use social media to network and build relationships. However, attending events, clubs, and your local chamber of commerce are great ways to harvest and develop relationships in the industry on a personal level.
Attending Events & Business Clubs
Holding booths at fairs and other events lets you connect directly to prospective customers and raise brand awareness. Here are some ways to network and build relationships in your local area:
- Fairs and Trade Shows: Setting up booths at fairs and trade shows allows you to meet potential customers face-to-face, demonstrate your expertise, and showcase your services.
- Attend Home Improvement Clubs: Attending home improvement clubs provides opportunities to connect with other professionals in related industries, which can lead to referrals and partnerships.
- Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce: Being active in your local chamber of commerce helps you gain insights from established plumbing business owners who can help you grow.
13. Offer Flexible Payment & Financing Options
Another way to grow your business is to offer financing for plumbing installations and repairs. This tactic provides more opportunities because potential customers can better afford higher ticket services. If you choose Housecall Pro’s Wisetack partnerhsip, you can turn financing on, and it will include it in invoices and estimates automatically to motivate the customer.
Turning on consumer financing options in HCP’s plumbing business software provides:
- Flexible financing that allows you to offer promotional plans to customers.
- Increased average ticket size by removing barriers to larger projects.
Grow Your Plumbing Business For the Long Run
As mentioned before, you should never stop learning. Always be open to possibilities and creative thinking. Continuous improvement only comes from changing how you run your plumbing business; growth naturally comes with constant improvement.
No matter how you pursue growth for your plumbing business, remember the following:
- Growth requires effort but leads to increased success
- With the right mindset, plans, and tools, sustainable growth is achievable
Housecall Pro understands that concept and has adapted software to help grow your business while saving time to focus on other important aspects within your company. Start your risk free 14-day trial today! With features such as online booking, personalized messaging, scheduling, invoicing, payment processing, and marketing, our platform provides a seamless and efficient solution to understand and expand your business. You get all the right tools at your fingertips, all seamlessly integrated to simplify your processes and save you time.
