PlumbingBossPro Blog — Running a Plumbing Business

Why Equipment Records on Every House Make a Plumbing Business Worth More

A list of customer names and phone numbers is useful. A list of houses with every water heater, softener, sump pump, shut-off and cleanout recorded is valuable. The first tells you who to call. The second tells you what they will need, when they will need it and how to do it right the first time. Over years, that second list becomes one of the most valuable things a plumbing company owns.

Records Are What Let the Owner Step Back

Getting the owner's knowledge into the system is the first step in From Owner-Operator to Manager: Getting Out of the Van in a Plumbing Business. Equipment records are the biggest part of that knowledge.

What to Record

In PlumbingBossPro, every property keeps a list of its equipment:

• Water heaters: tank or tankless, gas or electric.
• Water softener and whole-house filtration.
• Sump pump, sewage ejector and well pump.
• Garbage disposal.
• Main water shut-off and sewer cleanout.
• Backflow preventer.

Each item can hold brand, model number, serial number, year installed, size in gallons or HP, fuel or power, location and access notes. The tech sees it on the job card, for example “Water Heater - Tank (Gas) · Rheem XG50T06 · 50 gal · Natural Gas · installed 2014,” with the serial on the next line and “Garage · Shut-off is in the meter box at the curb” below it.

Faster, Better Calls

A plumber who knows what is in the house before knocking works faster and makes fewer mistakes. He brings the right parts. He knows where the shut-off is when water is spraying. He can tell the customer the water heater's age without crawling into the closet to find the label.

When the customer calls, the office can answer questions on the spot. “Your water heater is a 50-gallon gas tank from 2014. We can quote a replacement right now.” That kind of answer wins jobs.

Easier to Staff

When the knowledge lives on the house, any plumber can go to any house. A new hire in his first week has the same information as the owner. A plumber who quits does not take the company's memory with him. That makes hiring, training and covering for time off much easier, and it makes the company less dependent on any one person.

Records Sell the Next Job

Equipment records are also a sales tool. The install year on each water heater tells you which customers are likely to need a replacement soon. A slow week is a good time to reach out to them with a friendly note and an offer to check the unit.

Recorded equipment also makes recurring work easier to sell. A customer whose record shows a softener is a natural fit for softener service. A customer with a tank water heater is a natural fit for a yearly flush plan. More on that is in Building Recurring Work in a Plumbing Business With Yearly Flush and Service Plans.

Records That Stay Current

Records are only valuable if they are right. PlumbingBossPro keeps them current in two directions. New jobs at a house fill in from the equipment already saved there with the From House picker. And changes made on a job flow back to the house. When a plumber replaces a water heater, the new unit's details become the house record for the next visit.

Estimates work the same way. Equipment details can be filled in on the estimate for a replacement and carry onto the job once it is approved.

A Business With Records Is Worth More

If you ever want to sell your plumbing company, bring in a partner or simply know what you have built, the customer list is a big part of the value. A list of names is worth something. A list of houses with years of equipment history, maintenance plans and service notes is worth far more, because a buyer can see the future work in it.

Even if you never sell, those records make the company steadier every year you run it.

Start With the Next Call

You do not need to record every house at once. Start with every job from today on. Each time a plumber is in a house, check the equipment against the record and fill in what is missing. Within a season or two, most of your regular customers will have full records. Make it part of your written procedures and your training so it never slips.

For more on building a plumbing company with lasting value, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing business software page.