Plumbing
The drain call you could not get to today called the next truck.
Marketing and follow-up for plumbing companies
A plumbing company runs on calls nobody planned for. A burst pipe or a backed up drain does not wait for a truck to come free, and a homeowner who cannot reach you keeps dialing until somebody answers. The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System gives a plumbing business a system for the four jobs of growth, from the emergency call at seven in the morning to the customer you helped three years ago, and you own every account it runs on.
About two minutes. You see your score right away.
The four jobs in a plumbing business
Getting Found.
In a plumbing business, marketing means being the name a homeowner finds when water is coming through the ceiling and they need someone today. It also means showing up for the planned work, like a new water heater or a fixture replacement, where the homeowner takes a few days to look around before calling anyone. The system tracks which ads and pages bring in calls, so your budget goes to the ones that bring you jobs.
Reply/Follow Up.
Most plumbing calls come in while your plumbers are under a sink or in a crawl space, and a call that rings out often goes to the next company on the list. The system catches those calls so someone can return them, and bigger quotes like a water heater or a sewer line get followed up until the customer gives you an answer.
Operations.
A plumbing day rarely goes to plan, because one emergency can push the scheduled jobs back by an afternoon. Online booking, invoices, and payment reminders run on a system, and when a customer books a drain cleaning online, what they wrote about the problem goes into the job. The schedule and each customer's notes, like where the shutoff is or how old the water heater is, live in your field service software where the whole team can see them.
Word of Mouth.
Plenty of plumbing customers call you once in a hurry and then forget your name until the next thing breaks. After each job the customer gets a request for a Google review, and past customers hear from you now and then, so when the old water heater finally goes or a neighbor asks who to call, yours is the name they remember.
Video: how plumbing companies show up on Google
An example of what we hear from the plumbing companies we work with
A customer called about her drain while we were on jobs, and nobody called her back in time.
A homeowner called us at eight in the morning with her kitchen drain backing up and guests coming that night. Both of my plumbers were on jobs, so the call went to voicemail, and by the time anyone listened to her message after lunch she had called the next company and her drain was already cleared. The next time something went wrong in that house, she called them first.
What the Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System does for a plumbing company
The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System runs under all four jobs in your plumbing company, alongside the field service software where your schedule already lives. If your company runs on Jobber, we set it up and support it, and Jobber for plumbing companies shows how we work with it. Over roughly twenty years in real estate, Robert Earl dealt with plumbing companies as a client and as a business partner.
Plumbing advertising and follow-up we set up as your marketing agency
Our marketing services for plumbing companies start with what a homeowner sees before calling: pages on your website for the jobs you want more of, from drain cleaning to water heater replacement, a complete Google Business Profile, Google search ads and Google Local Services Ads, and Facebook and Instagram ads where they fit your work. We add call tracking so you can see which ads and pages bring in calls, and the follow-up that gets every missed call returned and every open quote answered.
Everything is set up in your company's name, and you can see what was spent and which jobs it brought in. The free business score shows which of the four jobs is costing your plumbing company the most work, and we start there.
- How we get plumbers more customers from Google, Facebook and Instagram
- How we help plumbers answer every call and follow up every estimate
- How we help plumbers run on clear numbers with Housecall Pro or Jobber
- How we help plumbers get more work from past customers and referral partners
About two minutes. You see your score right away.
Articles for plumbing owners
- How do plumbers get more water heater replacement jobs?A water heater usually fails without warning, so the plumber who is easy to find and quick to answer gets the job. Emergency and planned replacements compared.
- How should a plumber handle emergency calls and routine jobs on the same day?Sort each plumbing call by urgency the moment it comes in, so an emergency gets a fast answer and a routine job gets a firm time. How that looks in practice.
- How can a plumber get repeat customers when most calls are one-time emergencies?A customer you rescued from a burst pipe will remember you, but only if you stay in touch. How a plumber turns one-time emergency calls into repeat customers.
Questions plumbing owners ask us
What happens to a plumbing call that comes in at night or while the crew is on a job?
It goes into one list with the caller's name, whether it came in as a call, a text, or a web form, and the owner gets an alert as soon as it arrives. Each morning the owner also gets a list of the calls still waiting for a reply. A call that came in at nine at night or while everyone was under a house is still there with a name and a number, so it can be returned first thing.
Why do plumbing customers call the next company when nobody picks up?
A homeowner with water on the floor needs help now, so when nobody answers they call the next plumber on the list and often do not wait for a call back. Returning every missed call quickly is hard when the owner is also the one turning the wrench, which is why a missed call needs to reach someone who can return it that morning instead of waiting until the end of the day.
What kind of marketing works for a small plumbing company?
It starts with being easy to find when someone in your area needs a plumber today. That means a complete Google Business Profile, a website that shows what you do and where you work, and reviews from real customers. Search ads can help too, as long as you can see which ones bring in calls. Home Service Guild builds the profile and the pages and can run the search ads, all in your name. After that, the customers you already have are the least expensive place to find the next job, so staying in touch with them matters as much as finding new ones.
What does a plumbing marketing agency do?
A plumbing marketing agency gets homeowners to call your company, both for emergencies and for planned work like a new water heater. Whether you call it an agency or a plumbing marketing company, the work usually covers your website, your Google Business Profile and reviews, and paid ads on Google and Facebook. Ours also covers what happens after the call, with every missed call on one list and a reminder on every open quote, all set up in your name.
Do I have to change the software my plumbing company already uses?
No. The Home Service Guild system connects to the field service software you already use, like Housecall Pro, so your office and your plumbers keep working the way they do now. If your company runs on different software, Tell us what you use, and we will tell you plainly what connects and what does not.
Who owns the accounts and the website?
You do. We set up your website, your Google Business Profile, your Google Ads account and your Facebook and Instagram ad accounts in your company's name, and we work in them with the access you give us. The history of what you spent and what it brought in stays with your business if you ever stop working with us.
Free business score
See which of the four jobs is costing your plumbing business the most work.
Eight questions, about two minutes, and your score on screen straight away.
Get my free plumbing business score
