Home Services Success Stories

Built To Last: A Four-Generation Plumbing Legacy

• Peakzi • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Peakzi Podcast: Rick an RJ Romero from Metro-Flow Plumbing in Dallas, TX, a third-generation founder and a fourth-generation operator, walk us through how a family plumbing company stayed relevant, resilient, and relentlessly customer-focused for more than three decades. We open with the jump from cash-starved commercial projects to homeowner-focused, COD flat-rate pricing, and why that single move unlocked better cash flow, better service, and better training. From there, we look at how weekly practice, job-by-job preparation, and a promise to “do what we say we’ll do” turned first-time callers into lifelong customers.

We also dig into the tech that’s changing the trade. Cured-in-place pipe lining (CIPP) can renew failing cast iron without destroying slabs or yards, and modern cameras and acoustic leak detection help pinpoint problems before a single tile is touched. Add in a thoughtful expansion into whole-home water filtration, and you get a practical blueprint for protecting homes, budgets, and peace of mind. Throughout, we keep the conversation grounded in culture: how to create a place where technicians feel seen, trained, and supported enough to deliver five-star experiences consistently.

Strategy gets a boost from Peakzi's AI, which helped map pre-1980 homes perfect for CIPP outreach and benchmark performance across the local market. That data-driven focus turns into smarter marketing, stronger close rates, and service routes that make sense. We close on legacy and leadership: the win–win–win mindset where customers, technicians, and the company all benefit, and how that philosophy prepares the next generation to carry the torch. If you care about home services, small-business growth, or the future of the trades, this story delivers practical ideas you can use today.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow and share the show, and leave a quick review—what part of the story resonated most with you?

Powered by: www.peakzi.me

Find out more: https://www.metroflowplumbing.com/

Peakzi Podcast: Home Services Success Stories

Julian Placino:

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. And on the show today, we have Rick Romero, founder of Metro-flow Plumbing, as well as RJ Romero, operations manager at Metro- Flow Plumbing. Rick and RJ, it's great to have you on the show. How are you?

Speaker:

Great, good, good, good. Great to see you.

Julian Placino:

Yeah, excited to dig in and learn more about your story. So, Rick, we'll start back with you. So take us back to the beginning. What inspired you to start Metro-Flow Plumbing back in 1989? And what was your original vision for the business?

Speaker:

Actually, I was influenced by my grandfather. I remember being a kid growing up. I remember my grandfather's shop and how he would, you know, have his guys there and getting them ready and uh running their calls. Of course, it was a different time back then. Then my dad started his, and I worked for him right out of high school. He was going to school at night and learning the trade at the same time. So I was always inspired by them and I always wanted to do that. So now I'm third generation. Of course, it was never my grandfather had his own company. My father started his own. I worked for him as well. And then I came to Dallas from a little town in New Mexico and uh moved here working for a plumbing company. I'd already learned plumbing. So I came here and licensed and work for a larger commercial group and uh started going up in their ranks, and I became their their uh plumbing manager at the same time and uh running company. They started to go under and uh they wanted to finish the jobs. They shut the plumbing down and they asked me if I would continue finishing the jobs they had. They had like six jobs going at the time, commercial jobs. So they asked me if I would uh complete them for them. And I said, I I could do that for you, but at the same time, I'd like for you to put out a letter to your existing clientele letting them know that I am starting uh Metro-flow plumbing. And of course, it was commercial back then, and they sent out the letters and did it as I as I asked, and uh it worked for both of us. I was able to finish their jobs and at the same time, and then I started getting the phone calls doing the commercial work. Uh did commercial for probably 10 years, and uh it was a struggle back then. It was uh it was always robbing Peter to pay Paul because you in the commercial industry they hold your money, and uh they'll hold it up to five, six months before you receive your checks, and then they have a retainage, and you're struggling trying to keep up and make and payroll. It was pretty tough then. Then I started getting letters on uh on uh getting into the uh fixed pricing, uh straightforward pricing. Uh, and I went to some of their seminars and I it was COD, and they taught you a lot about COD and how that works. And boy, I started doing that, and I started the sun started shining. I was making hay and making money, and it started off doing really well, and we continued doing that, and you know, I like the fact of customer service working with the customers and and helping them get what they wanted, and at the same time uh putting warranties behind everything, educating them on what we can do and how we were going to do it, and I think that really helped. They really started uh getting busier doing that. And the key was, and also it's always about training and training the guys to do that, uh, what we were expected here. And here we are today.

Julian Placino:

And here we are today. And so it sounds like you literally grew up in the business. This was like a way of life for you, like down to the pedigree. So uh that's really cool to see that you are a product of the industry in that regard. So um, and definitely interested to learn more about some of those keys to success, which we'll dig into. So, so RJ, now that you're carrying forward a proud four-generation plumbing legacy, you know, what why did you decide to follow in your father's footsteps? And and and um what do you think will be kind of your legacy into the business?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's um it's almost kind of similar to what he was saying, you know, his grandpa, my great-grandpa, and then his dad, my grandpa, you know, just just watching it growing up, just seeing him working day in, day out, you know, and getting to go to work with him when I was little, just you know, being around the guys, uh just seeing it all being being built and just around. I'm just like, you know, I really could see myself doing this as well. It's obviously in my blood, you know, it's fourth generation plumber. So it's uh it's fun, it's been good. Uh, I love it. Um, just getting to see the day ins, day outs, growing up, just knowing when I was younger, I'm like, I want to do this as well. So keep it going, keep the business going, that type deal.

Julian Placino:

So what do you think inspires you most about your father, his story, and having seen him build the business?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's uh it's a lot. Yeah, just he's he's one of kind. So it's uh just getting to see him, just being a excuse my language, but a badass. Just getting to see, be behind the scenes, just seeing what he's built, what he's done for years, and me learning, learning, learning and learning. So, and getting to pass that on, what he's taught me, what the guys have taught me as an as I've me being an apprentice and then getting to teach the apprentices now and the tradesman journeyman now, like the ways how Metro-flow does it and how it's grown because of because of Rick, my dad.

Julian Placino:

So that's great. It seems like there's such a like a love between you and a great admiration. Rick, I'm curious. Having seen RJ kind of get emotional about that piece, like what how do you how do you feel about all that?

Speaker:

Well, it's uh being a mentor, I guess, uh teaching him and him wanting to do it. That's the key, is when you want to do it and when you show enthusiasm. And I remember when he started in the trade, it was like some of the text would teach him, and he wanted it's funny, he wanted to do it so bad. He would just okay, get out of the way, he'd push him out of the way so that he could get his hands on, and whether he knew what he was doing or not, he was gonna learn, and that's where he showed his enthusiasm and what he wanted to do. And of course, you get feedback from the guys when they come back out of the field and you know, saying how he was gonna do well, and the toughest part that I could see is he wanted to do it so bad. Mom wanted him in college, and it was a fight keeping him in college. He finally graduated, but it was a fight. It was like, I don't want to do this, I'm falling behind, I'm learning the trade, and you're making me go to school, and I'm not good in school. It was just a fight the whole time, and it was he just felt that plumbing is where he wanted to be, and it, you know, I kind of explained to him is how it's gonna help you in the business aspect, learning learning the numbers, learning running the books and stuff like that as you get older. Of course, back when he was younger, he didn't quite see that, and I think he sees it now. So it's uh mom was just always school, school, school, you're gonna go to school, you know. And it's back then, that's all that you know, it was always a bad word. The trades, you know, when I was growing up, it's like, you know what, you need to go to school, school's most important. You don't want to be digging ditches your whole life. That's the way we were I was brought up. And now the trades were suffering, and they're suffering now, because everybody said school, school, school. And now the uh it's kind of the tables are kind of reversed. You know, uh you can make just as much money being in the trade as you can with uh college education. So it's kind of now, you know, we ran into uh there weren't enough people in the trade and the prices started going up because you can't afford, you know, you can't you don't have enough people to get out and do the calls. And now here we are, people are just starting to the trades are really starting to blossom and they're starting to go places and the uh salaries are really grown, and you know, people are able to raise their families and and do well, you know. I mean here we offered the 401k, we offer the medical, the dental, the vision. And just like corporate America, you know, it's kind of you got to have that in order to keep your good people working for you.

Julian Placino:

Yeah, you know what, a couple of things that I found interesting is number one is that um uh RJ had a desire to do the business. And you know what? That's not every person who grows up into a particular business. As a matter of fact, I've interviewed some home services leaders whose children grew up in the business and they didn't want to do it because of they grew up into it, but he had like this innate desire. I think that's great. And number two, about the trades, which is really interesting because it's true. I'm seeing all these like memes on social media saying that you know the trades, that's where all the future millionaires are going to be because AI is sort of like like destroying corporate jobs. And like I heard someone also say what separates the US from other countries, from being a third uh third world country is actually the plumbing system, which I didn't even think about that, right? So so many interesting insights there. So so Metro-flow has been around for more than 30 years. So what do you think has been the key to the company's success, longevity, and great customer service retention? And uh I'll toss that over to you, um, RJ.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um, I just think uh, you know, the way it's been so successful is just uh, you know, we have three core values honesty, commitment, and dependability. So we strive on that. And I just think us just being getting to go to the customers' houses and sitting down with them, letting them know about how we work, what we do, all the pricing up front, uh basically treating your customer like you know, like a mom or dad, like a family member, you know, just showing, showing that we care, that we're here to help, we're here, we want to be here, you know. It's we know it's gonna cost money, but at the end of the day, we're gonna get you fixed up and taking care of that type deal, you know. So that's that's how I think it's just been so successful. And then, you know, and obviously just keeping up with uh the new, which I'm sure we're gonna get get to here in a minute, but just keeping up with what's what's out there, what to expect, all the new technology and all that stuff.

Julian Placino:

So it sounds like it's it's about customer service, it's about sticking to your values and just doing it right by the customer. So not not just, of course, like being excellent when it comes to the trade, but really treating the people well. I think that's great. And and since you brought us here when it comes to technology innovation and techniques, so uh, and I'll toss this over to either of you. What are some of the new innovations that you have discovered or implementing in the field right now?

Speaker:

Right now it's uh the biggest for us is secured in place piping. That is it's coming, it's up and coming, and it's been coming for years. Uh it's you know, you got these older homes, they got cast iron nowadays. Instead of digging up a whole house and starting to break concrete and digging under, uh we're able to go in there and secure the pipe. Uh what we do is kind of like a uh tube sock, if you will. And it's we kind of insert it into the pipe. And of course, it's got resins that go in there and they harden and they grab onto the cast iron. They harden, and you have a brand new pipe inside of a pipe, if you will. Uh that adds another 50 years to the pipe that you had. So only these houses are already 40, 30, 40 plus years old, and the cast iron is deteriorating. So we're able in most cases to where we can insert this tube sock, as you, if you will, and it adheres and it makes your pipe new again without having to tear up the house and the yard and everything else. It's just uh it's a new state-of-the-art deal that's well, it's been around for years. It started in Europe and it's finally made its way through. A lot of people aren't really they're afraid of it, which is good for us because we're not, we're gonna we're gonna run to the problem instead of run away from it. And it sells saves people money and destruction in their home.

Julian Placino:

Awesome. And you can implement that with any home any any year or any home, yeah.

Speaker:

Now, you know, it when we go in there, of course, we technology has cameras now where we can go in, it's kind of like an endoscopy, or we can go into the pipe, see what it looks like, and that'll tell you now if the pipe is is severed or broken like that to where it just offset to where you can't line it, of course, you have to excavate, but you know, it in 90% of the time you can probably save the pipe. So it's uh that that's great thing now. You know, water filtration, we're getting into that as well. It's been uh the technology's always been there, but I think we can get a bigger share than uh than Culligan. Uh and I hate to, I don't want to badmouth them in any way, but you know, we're doing plumbing. We're in there, we're we're see what their water is doing. We got firsthand. And if we're able to educate the customer, communicate to them how important it is, it's going to help us as well grow. And that's what we do is you know, it's it's it's all about training our guys and having them learn what technology we have out there and and uh what's available to them as well that'll help them.

Julian Placino:

Okay. So so the uh the CIPP pipelining at as well as water filtration, any other innovations that you're excited to talk about at this time?

Speaker:

Um, there's always something going on with your slab leaks. They're uh, you know, the way the grounds shift these days, uh some of it affects the pipes underground and under the houses uh is caused by electrolysis too, as well. So there's you know, there's technology being able to pinpoint where these leaks are, where you don't have this destruction, you know. Again, tunneling and breaking concrete, there's ways of of taking care of it. Now, sometimes you do, most cases we do, we'd rather tunnel than break concrete in the middle of the house to get to them. So, you know, it's just technology's out there is able to find it instead of guessing, takes the guesswork out of it. And that's what these cameras do with the drain lines. You know, we have listening devices to pinpoint uh where these water leaks are under the slab, uh, again, to keep it uh keep the destruction down to the home.

Julian Placino:

Okay. And you you touched a bit about your team. You said always training the guys in terms of the innovations, but also it's that level of customer service. So, what do you think y'all have done differently than other home services companies to build such a culture of excellence, both from customer service, innovation, and technical excellence? What do y'all do differently?

Speaker:

It's more communication, uh, educating the client. Uh, we'll go into homes and I can let RJ kind of let you he experiences it more whenever they're talking to the client and say they've had other techs out there, other companies out there. And as the communication builds and the trust builds with the client, uh, you know, I take it from here and just how they they don't explain.

Speaker 1:

And it's just uh we we uh we meet once a week and we train, train, train, train once a week. Uh and it's just a matter of, you know, just building that building that trust with the customer, not you know, not just going in there with a mad face because someone made you mad or whatever. It's just clearing the brain, getting ready for what that job is, preparing yourself if you have an apprentice with you, you know, talking about a game plan, just more preparatory. And then when you get in there with the client, it's just, you know, like I said before, it's like trying to make a friend. We try to make friends because we want we want that we want that uh customer for life, not just for that day or that couple days if it's a big project. We want them for life. We want them to remember us when we start by when they call in to when we leave at the end of the job. So that's to answer your question. You know, that's that's what we train here is train once a week, train, train, train, communication, stuff like that.

Speaker:

So and you're educating the customer at the same time. We try and educate our guys on what to look for and explain to the customer what we're gonna do, how we're gonna do it, how long it's gonna take. Uh, of course, you know, we don't work by the hour, we work by the job. So that that being said, if it takes us two hours or 10 hours, it's the same price. That kind of relieves the stress that the customer has on what it's gonna cost them. And uh they don't have to worry about watching the clock because we're you know, we kind of give them a straightforward price before we get started. And once we get in there, we tell them exactly step by step what we're gonna do before it gets done. We do what we say we're gonna do. Uh once we do that, you know, of course we're training our guys to do that as well. After the job, we walk the client through. We're gonna show them what we did. And we make sure they're they we did what we said we were gonna do, that the customer actually sees it and they they uh believe it, of course, because that's what we've done. We did what we say we do, and of course, will they tell their friends and neighbors? Yeah, will it if they don't, that's okay. At least they they were able to understand what we did and how we did it.

Julian Placino:

So definitely communication and training seems to be the key here. So um, and also it seems like so much of the culture is about leadership. And and RJ, you know, as you take on more leadership within the company, what are some of the lessons you've learned from your father about running business, about building an honest long-term business? Like, what are some of those lessons you've learned from it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um, Kylie, we've felt like we've been been talking about it. It's just uh, like you said, communication, um educating, um, and then just just watching how he interacts with customers too, and interacts with the other guys here. And, you know, it's just the culture is another word that I love is uh building a great culture. The guys where they come from other plumbing companies, they're like, Wow, this is a great place to work, like where I came from, you know, I was just a number, you know, that they didn't know my name, I was just a truck. number or whatever, you know. So building a culture, I think, is one of the main things that I've I've learned from him and just getting that trust and learning the day ends about your guys, even, you know, hey, how was your weekend? You know, how's the how's the kids doing? You know, that type deal in our business to where the culture, I think, is key.

Julian Placino:

So culture. And then really just following through his example, seeing learning by seeing him in action. And uh the culture is such a great piece because that it really kind of scales within the organization uh and that hits every touch point within. So um so shifting gears just a bit. So this show here of course is is powered by Peakzi and you are customers of Peakzi. So tell us what has been your experience working with Peaky and their team.

Speaker:

I love Peakzi. No what they do is you know what they are it's like it's kind of like you know we're talking earlier about state of the art. These guys are incredible. Peakzi is just they're all over what's going on in the industry and it helps us see what's going on, what the other companies are doing uh how can we do better? If we're doing good now how can we do better? We always want to again it's state of the art we want to be on top of it. We want to you know how they say uh you hang around with good people you do good things that should tell you what Peakzi does they have good people they're state of the art they know what's going on and AI is it's a coming thing and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and Peakzi's all over AI and it works to their advantage and to their favor. And they share with us what's going on in the market. You know they open our eyes to different things and you know how it'll help us in our market you know with the plumbing it tells us what other plumbing companies are doing who uh and how they're doing it how they're you know they'll have like a grid okay right now the market shows this and they'll have an incline well they'll show some of these plumbing companies as to where they're at if they're above the line or below the line they're performing so that helps us up our game to hey okay we got to perform well here we got to perform better. You know it's like I don't look at it as competition towards the other of course it is but we got to look at what do we do let's keep doing what we're doing and let's not worry about well this plumbing company's doing this and this plumbing company's doing that. What good are they doing is what we want to know and how can we do better. We want to be kind of in a class of our own doing what we do and with Peakzi's help it helps us do better. It helps us shoot skyrocket. So again AI is just coin places and it's just it's it's phenomenal but when you can do it to your advantage which Peakzi does it's just and they share with us and that's just it puts us ahead of the game.

Julian Placino:

Yeah it sounds like it gives you a lot of insights into how others are doing business kind of like you know sports teams will study other sports teams plays that kind of thing right so you can kind of break things down but what would you say has been the most significant business outcome that you've experienced from using Peakzi Peakzi uh actually they what they did for us is just phenomenal and just uh since we were talking about the cured in place piping CIPP we were talking about that one day to them and they said well so what is your market as far as getting to doing the CIPP and I said well we're looking at at uh pre-AD homes because that's who's got all the cast iron and that's what we're after of course we can do PVC we can line it as well but your biggest ticket would be secure in place for older homes.

Speaker:

Well Peakzi did ai study okay and they say hey this'll help you out Rick here's all the homes that are pre-80 and you can market to them. So we did and we went and had some uh some uh uh postcards made and we sent them out to those areas and of course it helps and you know just stuff like that they did all that with AI what we'd have done without them you know we're it puts us behind if we're trying to figure it out when we got somebody that's all over the you know that knows what they're doing and knows how to do it I mean you can't go wrong. It's always again hang around with great people you do great things.

Julian Placino:

Well it sounds like it certainly has helped you from like a strategic marketing perspective like understanding who your customer is from these like innovative services I think that's really great. And it is very powerful what AI can do. So thank you for sharing some comments about that. So gentlemen we're about to kind of land the plane here for you and I want to close back um with with with Rick looking back in 36 years you know what moments make you the most proud and you know what do you hope for Metroflow's legacy to be in the Dallas community moving forward? And we'll start with you Rick and RJ you can close out with some thoughts as well.

Speaker:

Well it's just uh to me our future generation that's the most important because they're gonna lead and if they can grow with you and accept the changes again if you can build a culture and share with them where your vision is and what you want to do and what's going to help them it doesn't only help them it helps their clients and it helps the company so we believe in a win-win-win situation so the win-win-win would be the customer wins the tech wins and the company wins if you could keep that to heart and your culture if it's good enough and they see where you're going with it I think that's the key. They got to buy into what you're doing and if they do that if they buy into what you're doing and they accept the change as it comes to you if they can accept it with open arms then you know if they can believe in what you're doing and they see the results that you promised them I think that's going to take them to the next level. And we got to keep training that with our newer generations and we just from day one we just do that and we've been doing that. And of course we're not a huge company but we don't need to be huge. We just need to do what we do continue to do it and it grows on its own. It'll it'll do its own thing.

Speaker 1:

And right now with the crew we have they're just an awesome group and we just need to start getting more and as we get busier with state of the art and and uh pixies help marketing we do our marketing right I think things will start happening and then we'll pass the baton on to RJ and he'll just run with it and who knows he he'll uh pass it on as well well thank you thank you very much for that so Rick so RJ close us out with some final thoughts anything else you'd like us to know about metro just we're we're here for you uh we'd love to come help you your neighbors anyone in Dallas Metroplex like we like I said I just want we like to make friends help you out educate you show you our work we do great work our warranties are phenomenal um you know we've been in business 36 years and we ain't going nowhere so we just want the word out that we're here for you love to help so awesome and close us up plug us plug the website your social media how do they get in touch with you directly share all that yeah um we have a website for sure metroplumbing com and our phone number is 214 3287371 uh we are 247 so you call us at 2 a.m 4 a.m midnight we'll have the phone ready technicians on call so we're here for you awesome and we'll make sure to plug all of your your your contact information in the show notes so RJ and Rick it's been a pleasure to get to know your story and help share it.

Julian Placino:

So thank you so much for your time. This has been really wonderful. Thank you thank you good meeting you well everyone that's it for today's episode so thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time on the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi the number one AI platform for growing your home services business.