2 Things A Plumbing Company Does to Get Outstanding Customer Loyalty

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I knew the plumbing company was successful with outstanding customer loyalty. I knew their brand was popular in my marketplace. I got a chance to find out what was going on without using their services first because I got an inside look at their processes.

This particular company did two remarkable things that make me want to high five them.

1. Every single morning, the plumbing technicians are given their customer orders. That’s a usual routine, of course. What is not usual is where this company thrives.

When a customer calls the call center, the people who are responsible for taking in the customer details-of-need provide follow up actions that are responsible for determining the Value Behavior. What is Value Behavior?

In the initial interview, the call center rep quickly asks the incoming caller about the things that are most important to them in order to have a successful experience with the plumber. For instance, the rep will ask questions like these:

  • Have you ever used a plumber in your home before?
  • What is a quality most important to you with your plumber? (They want the customer to make their own statements but are ready with prompts if the customer hesitates.)

Cleanliness/neatness?
Promptness?
Informative and educational?
Friendly and courteous?
Quick in his/her work?
Knowledgeable about plumbing issues beyond your immediate concern?
Good social skills?
Quiet and not too talkative?

The intake rep collects this brief information and gets it on the call ticket that each plumber receives. For each call, the plumber knows which of his behaviors to demonstrate most when they make the call. It’s pretty incredible.

I’ve hired plumbers many times and one of the qualities I want is for them to be articulate and educational enough so I can learn from them. I hover when they are working with me because I want to know what happened to create my plumbing problem, what they did to fix the problem and what I can learn going forward. I don’t care about his social skills. Other homeowners just want the guy to get in and out and not disturb anything or talk too much. While others love having a plumber with good social skills and a friendly demeanor. We are all different in what we want and how we will assess whether the plumbing experience was right for us or not.

2. The second step is another way to strengthen customer loyalty. After the rep gets all the information from the customer, he checks his scheduler and tells the customer that the plumber most likely to provide the service is ____________________ (name of plumber). That’s not all that unusual but here’s what’s neat. The rep refers the customer to the website where that plumber’s complete bio and a great picture are posted. Each plumber has information about their family, pets, hobbies as well as their certifications and skills. Now the customer feels comfortable that a real human being with families and values will be entering into their home.

The Value Behavior is a process that can be used with so many service providers. Why don’t all companies behave this way? It leads to some of the best customer retention you can get.

Darcie Davis
A career focused on finding the factors that inspire customer/client retention was shaped from, often naively, relentlessly asking questions. I am the founder of HUDDLE Sessions for Women which offer pop-up advisory boards.

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