Stop Sending Your Plumbers on So Many Calls

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Force a call onto a plumber who doesn't want it, and only a few things can happen, and none of them are good. He rushes it, underprices it, does the bare minimum, or does everything right and misses his kid's baseball game. Either way, that's how good companies lose great plumbers.

This breaks down why cramming the board full of calls actually costs you money, and what changed when the approach shifted to one call at a time. You'll hear the real story behind that lesson, the exact text message that gave plumbers control over their own afternoon without anyone abusing it, and why slowing down is where all the profit, the reviews, and the pride in the work actually come from.

Topics discussed:

(00:00) - Why forcing a call on a plumber backfires
(01:51) - How good companies lose their best plumbers
(02:41) - The Valentine's Day call that changed everything
(04:18) - Giving plumbers the time to offer real options
(07:48) - Why a full board isn't actually a good thing
(08:33) - The 2pm text that changed how calls got assigned
(09:27) - Why this builds control instead of chaos
(10:37) - Earning the privilege of choosing your next call
(13:45) - Where all the real profit actually comes from
(15:21) - The one rule to remember: one call at a time

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique: https://www.podcastboutique.com

The Podcast that helps plumbing and heating service contractors stop working for free and actually turn a profit. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Want to make more money? Stop trying to cram so many calls onto your plumbers. Welcome to the Trade Traction Podcast. I'm Dennis, Dennis the Apprentice. This is a podcast for plumbing contractors who are tired of spinning their wheels, treading water, and working way too hard without getting where they want to go. I spent 25 years building a big, beautiful residential plumbing and heating company, over 60 employees, more than $12 million of revenue, double digit profits, and eventually sold it for eight figures. I did it. I learned a lot of it the hard way. Now it's your turn. My goal is to help you shorten that learning curve, finally get some traction, and build the profitable plumbing company you once dreamed of. And today I want to challenge a belief that might sound completely backwards. Years ago, Kenny Chapman taught me something about dispatching that I never forgot. He said, Dennis, if you force a call onto a plumber who doesn't want it, you're gonna get crap in your hand. And he was right, because there's only a few things that can happen. Your plumber can rush the call, he can underprice it, he can do the bare minimum. He might even do something for free because he doesn't want to deal with the paperwork. Or, and this might actually be worse, your best plumber can do everything perfectly, and now you've made him miss his kids' baseball game, and his lady is pissed at you. That's how good plumbing companies lose great plumbers. All because you forced a call on a plumber that didn't want to go. There's an error scenario. He does everything right, but he rushes through the call, and now you it creates a callback a couple months later because he hurried, right? See, there just does it work. You see, here's the thing that happens at a lot of companies, probably most companies. The best plumbers are often punished for being the best. Let me explain. I had a friend once who was a fantastic plumber. He was the best plumber at his company. And you know what his complaint was? He couldn't get to his kids' baseball game. Like they wouldn't let him have time off. They ran him into the ground because he was by far the best plumber. The other plumbers weren't pulling their weight. And so what I know and what I knew because of my experience in running plumbing companies is that that company desperately needed him to overachieve because no one was pulling their weight. And so, you know what I recommended? I recommended to him to have a frank discussion with his owner. And if they couldn't change things, he should leave. Right? He should leave. That doesn't make sense. Why why why are we abusing our best plumbers? And I see that all the time. You know why I see it so clearly? Because I did it. One time back in the day, I had one plumber that was by far the best. And so he ran the most calls, and wasn't the most calls because like he ran through the calls, but he literally would work till there were no more calls. You know, one time he had Valentine's Day plans, but he ran the call right and sold a big job and missed Valentine's Day for me. And I let him do it. Now that was back in the day when I didn't know so much. And that's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this topic is because sometimes we have great employees, great plumbers that will go the extra mile and do the extra work and they get abused. They get abused horribly. And why do they get abused horribly? Because we desperately need them to do their work. And why is that? Because we haven't trained our other employees. And it's not fair and it's not right, and we need to fix it. So that's why I'm super passionate about one call at a time. One call at a time uh sets you free, sets your technicians free to do amazing things. You see, when the dispatcher says, You've got to go quick today, we've got six calls for you. What happens is they're trying to get home on time. And so they're gonna rush through those calls. And the call, the first call, they're gonna really go through fast because they don't know what the next call is, right? And so they're gonna rush through the calls and they're gonna they're gonna stop drips and clear drains so fast, it'll make your head spin. But trust me, when you slow down and let your plumber do one call at a time and do their very best work, give them them time to give options. We talk about options, we do all the sales training stuff, right? And then why do we rush them through calls? It makes no sense. But train them to give options and all that, and then let them, let them give them one call and say, hey, let me know when you need another one. What about that? And let them go on the call, let them put the dog, let them visit the customer, let them ask them and explore what the situation is, let them find out what the values of the customer are and what they really want out of the situation. Let them take the time to come up with several options from the least they can do to the most they can do, and then let them have the time to share those options with the customer and decide what to do and then do it. Imagine that. Imagine, and then once they're almost done, imagine if they've got the time to say, by the way, I noticed something. I don't know if you want me to deal with it now or next time, but I thought you'd at least want to keep your eyes on it. And they might even say, Yeah, what do you got? This guy's so nice, he's been nice, my dog likes him, right? Finally, I got a nice plumber in the house. He's been clean, gave me options, educated me. Yeah, what else do you got? Right? Sometimes people are just waiting so they can be comfortable with somebody, your plumbers, and then there's more work to do. Like the reason that the call happened was because it was a straw that broke the camel's back. People don't just, when something happens at the house, they don't just call. Most people don't. But it's when something enough things happen or when something big happens, then you get the call. We get the call to go out there. But is that the only thing that needs to be addressed? Most usually not. Most likely not. There are other things that need to be taken care of. But if you're in such a hurry to move on, you'll never know. And here's the thing: when your plumber runs his call that way and does great work, first of all, he does his best work. He's not in a rush. If he's in a rush, he might do something just a little bit crooked and not fix it. But if he's not rushed, he might do it again and make sure it's just perfect, right? And to make sure there's no callback. And to make sure the work is picture perfect, make sure the work is dialed in and clean and straight, right? And then he takes time with with the customer. And you know what happens when that all that when all that happens? What happens is you get a review if you ask for it. Here's the thing everybody wants reviews, but if someone, if you say, I will do this work for this price, and the customer accepts, and you do this work for that price, or even Steven, they owe you nothing. You if you think about it, a review is like a tip. And so if you don't do extra, if you're not remarkable, then you're not gonna get a review. And so if you wonder where your reviews are going or what why can't you get a review, it might be because you're hitting six calls a day and it's just rush, rush, rush, rush. I'll do it for this price. Okay, do it. Did it, gone. That's that's how most plumbing companies work. Most most service companies work, not just plumbing, right? But when it's one call at a time and you're you allow your technician to take their time and do great work and build a relationship with the customer, amazing things happen. Profit comes because more is sold, more is chosen to be done than just the bare minimum. And that can only happen when it's one call at a time. And what does that look like? When I first started in the industry, we would put three or four calls on every one of our plumber's boards, and then we'd say the board's full. But when we matured and figured this all out, we would put all the calls down below. And then when our plumber needed a call, we would choose the next best call available for that tech and then assign him a call. And it'd be one call at a time. And amazing things happened. That's where the profit came, that's where the reviews came. We came predictably double-digit profit. We had more reviews than anybody in the state of Washington at one time. All because one call at a time. Super, super powerful. You know what I learned about not forcing a call on a tech? We initiated um a 2 p.m. text. And this is how it went. Once we got good at this, we did something that would scare the hell out of most plumbing contractors. At 2 o'clock, technicians who were at budget got this message. We're setting up the afternoon. Will you want another call? Or will the call you're on be your last? What does that feel like as a plumber? Imagine you're a plumber working for my company and you get that response. You get that email or that text. See, it gives you some control. Like you might have just got there and you don't really know, or it might just be a little something and it's only two o'clock, and yeah, you're up for another call. Or not today because you promised your wife you'd be home on time today because for whatever reason, because you've worked late the last three nights, whatever, right? And it's super empowering. Now, here's the deal. Immediately, what scares contractors is they say, Well, how can you do that? What if everybody says they want to go home at two o'clock? Well, first of all, first of all, at two o'clock, are people getting done? No, when that text goes out and you've got five, six, seven plumbers, several several of them have just gotten there. They just got started, or they don't know what's got they've got sold, right? So half of them are probably gonna be working later anyway. It's just are are we gonna give them another call or not? And and give them the power to know. Treat them like professionals, treat them like grown-ups, and and let them decide for themselves can I handle another call or I'm am I am I wiped out? Am I pooped? Am I am I max? Today's been a hard day. Like, I'm not up for another call. Do you want to force him to go on a call when he's not up for it? No. See, that's the thing. No. Give them the option. Now, here's the trick. You don't give everybody that option. Like, if the guy's not pulling his weight, if he isn't hitting his numbers, if he's not at budget, that's a whole nother topic is how does a plumber know? Every plumber should know if they're at budget or not every day, every week, every month. That's super important to make this work. And there's I have a whole, the whole, a whole way of making that happen and showing and letting them know what's going on. But what that does is it makes your technicians want to do well. It makes them want to do better and get better so that they are at budget so that they earn the privilege of getting a text at two o'clock. Hey, will this be your last call or will you be up for another call today? And now they get to decide. Here's the thing a lot of contractors get, I was saying this before, a lot of contractors get scared about this. But like, everybody can't go home at two o'clock. Like, everybody's got mortgages to pay. They got they got rent to make, they're saving for a damn payment on a house, they're saving for an engagement ring, they're saving for a new car or a repair on a car or whatever it is, right? There's or a vacation. Everybody can't just go home at two o'clock unless they're at their numbers. It doesn't work. And if you have a tech that does abuse it, first of all, they're not going to get it if they're at not a budget, right? But if you have someone that's always going home all the time and not pulling their numbers, you should have a serious talk with them. And if they can't correct that and pull their weight, then you should probably move on. They should move on, right? To something they're more passionate about doing. But what's super cool about this is this gives your best techs some power, some freedom, some liberty to choose for themselves how late they work in the day. And that is often, that little empowerment is really powerful in helping you become the employer of choice. And so what happens if too many people say, Oh, I'll take the day off? Here's what you do. Every once in a while you'll do that, and you'll have you'll what if you've got four more calls to schedule and you have five people that say they'll go home early? What happens when that happens? What you do is you say, Hey, I actually have four really good calls that I can't reschedule, or I really don't want to reschedule. Let's back up just a little piece. First, we reschedule the calls that aren't as important, right? And so we choose the very best calls. And if we choose we have five calls that we really need to go on, but we only have four plumbers that want to go. Does that make sense? Then what we do is we let our plumbers know, hey, I've got four calls. I need one one guy, I need someone to please take this one more call. And you'll have one of those guys say, I yeah, I wanted a day off, but or I wanted to go home early today, but I can do that call. And then remember that. Say, I got you. Next time I'll make sure I get you off on time. Does that make sense? And the odds are, the odds are that you'll have one or two people that can they'd like to go home, but if if you really need, if you got a really good call that needs to go on, they'll go, right? Because you're honoring them and and and next time you just pay attention to that. But you've just created a really cool company that allows your best plumbers to have some flexibility in their afternoon. And this is the strongest, most important part of this whole one call at a time lesson or principle is that's where all the profit is. That's where all the profit is. All the profit is in slowing down and doing the best on every call. In my experience, when you do more than you were called out to do because you gave options, and when you couple that with offering to do something else before you go, amazing things happen. That's where all the extra, that's where all the juice, that's that's where all the real profit is. It's all extra. But it only comes if your plumber has had the freedom to take the time to do the great work. You and else happens, plumbers do work they're proud of. When you rush a plumber and he doesn't do his best work, what is he thinking between calls when he's sitting at the traffic light, rushing to the next call? He's thinking, I should have done this, I should have done that, or that wasn't quite straight. If he has any pride, if he's worth anything as a plumber, if he has any pride in his work, he's thinking that. He's thinking, why, oh, I should have done that, I should have redone that, but I didn't have time. When you do one call at a time, you're freeing your plumber up to do their art. You're freeing your plumber up to do their very best work. And when they when things don't turn out quite right, they have the time to redo it and do it perfect. And then they're proud of their work. They're proud of their work and they're proud of themselves and they're proud of their company. And when they go on your next call, don't you want a plumber to be proud of their work, proud of themselves, proud of the company they represent when they're talking to your next customer that you pay dearly for? Doesn't that make sense? See all the best, all the best, all the juice. It's slowing down and doing one call at a time. Here's what I want you to remember: one call at a time until your plumber wants to go home. Give your people the time to do great work, give them clear expectations, reward the ones who perform, and quit grinding your best people into the ground just because they're your best people. I believe the trades are the place to be. I built the plumbing company I once dreamed of. Now it's your turn. If you're not feeling it yet, if you're working too hard, not making enough money, or the business just isn't becoming what you thought it would, I'd love to support you. That's what trade traction is all about. If this helped you, like this video, subscribe to the channel, and share it with another plumbing contractor who needs to hear it. Stop spinning your wheels, stop treading water. It's time to get some trade traction.