If you are a professional plumber, you already know that yours is not an easy job! There are so many different factors you have to balance, from the business side working with your clients and trying to keep the business afloat, to the trade side getting your hands dirty on site.
Those who have been in the plumbing industry for many years, and who have already established their business know that there are things you can do at every plumbing job site to make your business the best it can be.
Read on to find out some top tips from industry leaders on how to make the most of every plumbing job you go on.
Keep Your Customers Happy
Keeping customer service at the forefront of your business is hands down the most important tip for anyone starting out in the plumbing industry.
Why? Because if you do not have excellent customer service, it won’t matter how efficiently you work, or how good a job you do. If you don’t have excellent customer service, you’ll lose all your customers and, eventually, your business.
Here are some tips for practicing perfect customer service:
- Make yourself available to answer calls or, if you can’t get to a phone to answer, always call customers back in a timely manner.
- Listen to your customers’ needs and concerns, and offer your honest opinion about how you can help.
- Be honest about the work you do, and the price you put on it.
- Thank your customers for choosing you to work in their home or office, and let them know their business is appreciated. Remember, they had other choices.
Protect Yourself And Your Team
If your plumbing company consists of other plumbing technicians besides just yourself, it is critical that you always have their well being in mind, as much as you do your own.
This means ensuring that your team is always well equipped with safety gear such as hard hats, work gloves, protective eyewear (goggles), sturdy boots, and masks. All of these are crucial, as they protect you and your team from things like injury, illness, and infection.
Learn as You Go
The final tip is to always allow yourself to learn something new from each and every job you go on. There are hundreds of tricks you’ll pick up over the course of your career to help make your job as a plumber easier.
You may learn these “tricks of the trade” on your own, from experience, or from a mentor or other plumbers you’ll work with.
Plumbing hacks can involve everything from making pipe cutting easier to recovering hardware that may have fallen in a small deep crevice. One hack that has become popular among plumbing professionals is using string to cut through a PVC pipe.
Not only is it a neat trick, but being able to cut a pipe with string can also save you from having to bring heavy or bulky equipment along on a job. It also saves time on the job, as it doesn't require digging up a large area of land around the section of pipe that needs cutting.
