Where plumbing work actually comes from, once you ask

3 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Ask a plumber where the work comes from and the answer is usually a directory, a lead-generation site, or the van. Ask their customers and the picture is different: most of them were told about you by somebody, or you had been to the house before, or you were the one who answered the phone.

That gap matters because the money follows the belief. A plumber paying monthly for leads while two thirds of the work arrives by recommendation is funding the smallest part of the business and neglecting the largest.

The measurement takes thirty seconds per job and settles it within a month.

Where plumbing work actually comes from is answerable in a month

One question, asked the same way, written in the same place.

Ask on the first call. How did you get my number. Whatever they say, write it down before the job starts, because afterwards nobody remembers. A note in your phone is enough.

Push past the vague answer. Online usually means they searched your name, and they got your name from somewhere. That somewhere is the actual source. Ask what made them look you up today.

Record repeat customers separately. Work from somebody you have visited before is not acquisition and should not be counted as it. Mixing the two flatters whatever you are paying for.

Recommendation is nearly always the largest source

And it is invisible in every analytics tool.

Neighbours talk about trades constantly. A good job on one street produces work on that street for years. This is why local clusters appear in a plumber's job book. Look at your last fifty jobs by postcode.

Ask, once, at the end of a job that went well. Most customers are willing and are never asked. It costs a sentence. Ask while you are packing up rather than at the door.

Thank anybody who sends you work. A message saying it went fine is what produces the second referral. Almost nobody does this. Send it the same day you learn who sent them.

The trade and professional routes

Some sources produce continuous work rather than one job.

Letting agents and landlords. One agent with forty properties is worth more than any directory subscription, and they need somebody reliable more than they need somebody cheap. Turn up when you said and you will keep them.

Other trades. Builders, kitchen fitters, bathroom showrooms and electricians all encounter plumbing work they cannot do. Two or three of these relationships can fill a diary. Reciprocate where you can.

Estate agents and surveyors. Sales fall through on plumbing issues and somebody has to fix them quickly. That is well-paid, urgent, repeatable work.

Why answering the phone is a marketing activity

The commonest reason a plumber loses a job has nothing to do with marketing.

Most enquiries go to whoever responds first. A customer with a leak rings three numbers and books the first one that answers. Speed beats reputation at that moment. Answering within the hour wins most of them.

Call back the missed ones the same day. A voicemail returned within the hour still converts; one returned tomorrow does not.

Say when you can come, honestly. A customer told Thursday will wait. One told nothing will call somebody else.

Conclusion

Ask every caller how they got your number, write it down before the job starts, and push past "online" to find the conversation behind the search — a month of that will tell you where the work genuinely comes from.

Expect recommendation and repeat customers to dominate, and treat them as the channel they are: ask once at the end of a good job, and thank anybody who sends you work. Build two or three relationships with letting agents, builders and bathroom showrooms, because each produces continuous work rather than a single job. And remember that answering the phone first is the highest-return marketing activity in the trade.