How I'd Automate a Plumbing Company in 15 Steps
Summary
TLDRNick's video offers a comprehensive guide on automating a plumbing business using modern technology. He suggests leveraging project management systems like ClickUp, streamlining appointment scheduling with platforms like Cal.com, and utilizing AI for personalized customer interactions. Nick emphasizes the importance of automating tasks to multiply leverage, from sales processes to billing and invoicing with Stripe, while also highlighting the value of subcontractor management and follow-up systems for increased efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Takeaways
- 📚 Automating a plumbing business involves leveraging technology to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
- 🔧 Implementing a project management system like ClickUp is crucial for organizing tasks, scheduling, and tracking job progress.
- 📅 Streamlining the appointment scheduling process with calendar services can reduce back-and-forth communication and improve booking efficiency.
- 🔔 Utilizing appointment reminders can minimize no-shows and enhance customer experience by confirming service appointments.
- 💰 Focusing on sales through lead generation methods like pay-per-click ads and services like Bark.com can significantly multiply business leverage.
- 📝 Automating the sales process by obtaining all necessary customer information during the call can expedite quote generation and booking.
- 💳 Using a payment platform like Stripe for invoicing and payments can simplify the billing process and improve cash flow management.
- 👷♂️ Subcontractor management can be optimized by automating invoicing and payments, reducing the administrative burden on the business.
- 📊 Maintaining a dashboard for internal reporting helps in monitoring key business metrics such as revenue, cash collected, margins, and profits.
- 📝 Collecting customer feedback and managing online reviews through project management integration encourages positive testimonials and reputation management.
- 🔄 Automating follow-ups for completed jobs can lead to repeat business and increased customer loyalty, boosting both revenue and margins.
Q & A
What is the main goal of the video series presented by Nick?
-The main goal of the video series is to demonstrate, step by step, how to automate a local service business, such as a plumbing business, using modern technologies like AI automation and chatbots.
What is a 'whimsical' and how is it used in the context of Nick's video?
-A 'whimsical' is a mind map, used by Nick as a visual representation of his ideas for automating a business. It helps to organize and present the steps and ideas in a structured way.
Why is project management the first thing Nick suggests automating in a business?
-Project management is suggested as the first step because it involves a lot of time and energy that is often wasted on unimportant tasks. Automating it with a system like ClickUp can save time and increase efficiency.
What are the two main levers for streamlining the appointment scheduling process according to Nick?
-The two main levers for streamlining the appointment scheduling process are using appointment scheduling platforms and setting up reminders for customers.
How does Nick recommend integrating appointment bookings with project management systems?
-Nick recommends using calendar services like Calendly and integrating them with project management systems to automatically create a new record for each booking, including details like start time, end time, address, and person.
What is the importance of leveraging technology in sales for a service business?
-Leveraging technology in sales can multiply the business owner's efforts, leading to higher output with less input. It allows for more time to be spent on important tasks while technology handles repetitive or low-ROI tasks.
What are some of the platforms that Nick suggests for automating sales processes in a plumbing business?
-Nick suggests using platforms like PandaDoc for proposal automation and Stripe for payment management, which can be integrated with project management systems to automate sales processes.
How does Nick propose to handle customer billing and invoicing in an automated plumbing business?
-Nick proposes using Stripe for invoicing, which can automatically generate invoices for customers when a job status changes to 'job done' in the project management system, making the process efficient and transparent.
What role does social media marketing play in a local service business like plumbing?
-Social media marketing helps to establish legitimacy and trust with prospective customers, even though it may not directly generate a significant number of clients.
How can a plumbing business benefit from automated follow-ups after a job is completed?
-Automated follow-ups can help retain customers by offering discounts on follow-up jobs, checking in on their satisfaction, and potentially securing more business without additional lead acquisition costs.
What is the purpose of using an inventory management system for parts and supplies in a plumbing business?
-An inventory management system helps to anticipate demand, reduce lead times for parts, and ensure that there is always stock available for jobs, which can improve turnaround times and customer satisfaction.
How does Nick suggest managing subcontractor relationships in an automated plumbing business?
-Nick suggests using the 'assign' field in project management platforms to assign jobs to specific subcontractors, track their performance, and automate invoicing and communication related to their work.
Outlines
🤖 Automating a Plumbing Business with Technology
Nick introduces his video series focused on automating a plumbing business using technology. He shares his experience working with various local service businesses, including plumbing, and outlines his approach to creating a comprehensive guide. The goal is to provide viewers with a list of steps to automate their businesses, leveraging AI, chatbots, and other technologies. He introduces the concept of a 'whimsical' mind map to visually represent ideas and plans to discuss every step in detail, emphasizing the importance of technology in multiplying leverage and increasing efficiency in business operations.
🛠️ Streamlining Project Management for Efficiency
The speaker emphasizes the importance of automating project management in a plumbing business to eliminate time wasted on unimportant tasks. He suggests using a project management system like ClickUp, which is customizable and automatable, to serve as a single source of truth for the business. This system would handle scheduling, tracking time, and shift assignments, ultimately reducing the reliance on email and improving organization. The system's automation capabilities can generate assets, proposals, quotes, and invoices, while also integrating email communications into the project threads.
📅 Automating Appointment Scheduling and Reminders
The paragraph discusses the need to streamline the appointment scheduling process for plumbing services to save time and reduce errors. The speaker recommends using calendar services like Calendly for both emergency and regular bookings. These services allow customers to book appointments at their convenience, reducing the back-and-forth communication. Additionally, integrating appointment reminders into the system can prevent no-shows and miscommunications, enhancing the customer experience and ensuring that any issues are addressed before resources are committed.
📈 Leveraging Sales and Marketing for Business Growth
This section focuses on leveraging sales and marketing strategies to multiply business leverage. The speaker suggests using paid advertising and lead aggregators like Bark.com to generate leads at a sunk cost, which can yield multiple calls or inquiries. The goal is to spend a minimal amount of time setting up these systems, which can then provide ongoing benefits. The speaker also recommends collecting all necessary customer information during the initial call to automate the quote generation and booking process, streamlining the sales workflow.
💳 Streamlining Billing and Invoicing with Stripe
The speaker recommends using Stripe for payment management due to its simplicity and integration capabilities. By linking Stripe with the project management system, businesses can automatically invoice customers when a job status changes to 'job done'. This automation ensures timely payments and provides a clear overview of outstanding payments. The speaker also suggests automating follow-ups for payment collection, further enhancing the efficiency of the invoicing process.
🏢 Managing Subcontractors and Payroll Efficiently
The paragraph discusses the importance of efficiently managing subcontractor billing and payroll to reduce the administrative burden. The speaker suggests using payroll platforms for in-house employees and automated invoicing for subcontractors. This approach minimizes the need for a dedicated finance or accounting department, saving on labor costs and ensuring timely payments to workers.
📝 The Importance of Data Entry and Recordkeeping
The speaker highlights the significance of accurate data entry and recordkeeping for a smooth-running business. By using a centralized project management system like ClickUp, businesses can ensure that all information is entered correctly and completely through the use of forms. This method eliminates the need for a separate data entry role and ensures that the system is always up-to-date with accurate information.
🔄 Efficient Inventory Management for Parts and Supplies
Although not applicable to all businesses, the speaker touches on the topic of inventory management for parts and supplies. For businesses that find it necessary, using an inventory management platform can help track stock levels and integrate with project management systems. This allows for better anticipation of demand and faster turnaround times for customer service, potentially giving a competitive edge in the market.
🔄 Automated Follow-ups for Enhanced Customer Relations
The speaker advocates for an automated follow-up system to maintain customer relationships and tap into potential repeat business. By sending customized emails or SMS messages after job completion, businesses can check in with customers and offer follow-up services or discounts. This approach not only fosters goodwill but also increases the likelihood of repeat business and higher margins.
📊 Internal Reporting for Continuous Business Insight
The paragraph stresses the importance of having a dashboard for internal reporting to monitor key business metrics such as revenue, cash collected, margins, and profit. By keeping track of these metrics, businesses can make informed decisions and address issues proactively. The speaker suggests using built-in dashboards from project management systems or other tools like Google Sheets to maintain visibility into the business's financial health.
👀 Reputation Monitoring and Seasonal Promotions
The speaker discusses the importance of monitoring the business's reputation through alerts for brand mentions and reviews. Quick response to negative feedback can mitigate damage to the business's image. Additionally, the speaker suggests using seasonal holidays as opportunities for promotional offers via email or SMS to past customers, which can help maintain customer relationships and generate repeat business.
🤝 Automatically Managing Subcontractor Relationships
The speaker concludes with the recommendation to use project management platforms' 'assign' features to manage subcontractor relationships effectively. This automation can link assignments to payments, performance reviews, and notifications, ensuring that jobs are completed as promised and that the business maintains a reliable workforce.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Automation
💡Project Management System
💡Mind Map
💡AI Automation
💡Appointment Scheduling
💡Lead Generation
💡Leverage
💡ROI (Return on Investment)
💡Inventory Management
💡Dashboard
💡Subcontractor
Highlights
The video aims to provide a comprehensive guide on automating a plumbing business using modern technology and strategies.
The presenter has experience working with various local service businesses, including plumbing, and suggests a top-to-bottom approach for automation.
A mind map called 'whimsical' is introduced as a visual representation of ideas for business automation.
The common thread in automation is leveraging technology to multiply business efficiency and effectiveness.
Project management is identified as the first area to automate, with a system like ClickUp recommended for its automation capabilities.
ClickUp is praised for being highly customizable and suitable for integrating AI for further automation down the line.
Appointment scheduling and reminders are highlighted as key areas to streamline, with services like Cal.com suggested for efficiency.
Customizing service reminders can significantly improve customer experience and reduce no-shows.
Sales can be optimized through leveraging platforms like Bark.com for lead generation and ClickAds for advertising.
Capturing all necessary customer information during the call can streamline the sales process and integrate seamlessly with project management systems.
Stripe is recommended for its ease of integration and automation capabilities for invoicing and payments.
Subcontractor billing can be automated with templated invoices and digital signatures for efficiency.
Social media marketing is discussed as a means to establish legitimacy and trust with potential customers.
The importance of customer feedback and review management is emphasized for business reputation and SEO.
Data entry and recordkeeping are streamlined through centralized project management systems, reducing the need for dedicated staff.
Inventory management for parts and supplies is discussed, with suggestions for platforms like Sortly or Service Titan for larger operations.
Automated follow-ups post job completion can lead to increased customer retention and revenue.
Internal reporting and dashboards are essential for real-time visibility of business performance metrics.
Reputation monitoring through tools like Google Alerts is advised to quickly address any negative feedback.
Seasonal promotional offers via email or SMS can re-engage past customers and generate additional business.
Automating subcontractor relationships and task assignments can improve operational efficiency and job completion rates.
Transcripts
hey everybody Nick here and in this
video I'm going to show you exactly how
I would automate my Plumbing business if
I ran one I've worked with probably
three dozen local service businesses
over the course of the last couple years
uh Plumbing being uh one of them and
what I've decided to do is to create a
video series where I basically go from
top to bottom and show people exactly
what I would do in their shoes the goal
being at the end of this video you will
get a giant whimsicle with a list of
steps that you could take to start
automating your business and taking
advantage of some of the really cool
technologies that are available to us
like AI automation chat gbt and that
sort of thing so if you've never used
whimsicle before what this is is this is
called a mind map and I use this mind
map just as a visual representation of
my ideas I'm going to make a couple more
edits to this I mean I've already done
most of the heavy lifting here but I'm
going to make a couple more edits to
this and then talk you guys through um
basically every step and at the end of
it you will know what you need to do in
order to make way more money uh by
leveraging your time more effectively
and you'll see that there's a very
common thread between all of these uh
different steps and different things
that you can automate and that's
ultimately just multiplying your
leverage uh technology you know we we
like to talk all day about how technolog
is taking over our lives and stuff like
that and I think to some extent it is
but you can use technology intelligently
to work for you and that's what uh
basically my whole YouTube channel is
about about how to best apply human
leverage to points that technology
cannot currently do for you um while
letting technology take care of all the
rest of the stuff that's like really low
leverage or really low Roi or really
pointless so yeah I don't run a plumbing
business but I've worked with a few and
I've worked with many just like General
local service businesses so um
regardless of of you know whether you're
an HVAC company or whether you're I
don't know even if you're like in a
wedding photography business a lot of
what I want to talk about here applies
to you too okay so the very first thing
that I would to focus on automating is
project management basically so much of
a business um so much of the time and
energy that you spend on a business is
time and energy that you are currently
wasting on silly unimportant project
management tasks that a project
management system if you just set it up
right like literally once um can just do
for you forever and so what I mean by
this is you know you get a new Plumbing
inquiry you usually have to like you
know keep track of the job you got to
know when your employees are taking off
or if you're hiring subcontractors when
you're subcontracted plumbers are going
out there uh you got to be able to
schedule them you got to be able to do
shift assignments you got to be able to
track the time you know there there's a
lot that basically um the average
service business owner especially in
plumbing needs to keep track of at the
back of their head and unfortunately the
vast majority of them just do it all
through email so it's 2024 um let's put
the email away and let's start using
like you know dedicated project managers
to do most of that for us um my
recommendation is that you use a project
management system like clickup clickup
is just one of many there are probably
20 or 30 different ones you could use
some of which are actually dedicated
specifically for plumbing and so out of
the box are sort of put together I
prefer clickup just because it's a lot
more automatable and if you want to get
into using AI for stuff later on down
the line uh clickup is very very
powerful for it but what I'll clickup
really looks like is I'll give you an
example here from my content writing
business it's just like a big pipeline
essentially where are we
here uh it's just a big pipeline
basically where like a new job will come
in and then you will assign the job to a
particular person you will have statuses
that reflect where your job is in your
pipeline you'll have dates and times
that maybe subcontractors are sent out
you have a way to track the time and
that sort of thing and then you get to
customize all the stuff for you so like
you can every single column here you
don't really have to worry too much
about um uh it not being set up right
out of the box for you because you can
just change it however you want the
benefit of this is this ends up being
your single source of Truth in a service
business and the second you have a
single source of Truth you can automate
the hell out of your company you can
generate automatic assets generate
proposals generate quote forms generate
PDFs you could create invoices
automatically uh you can store all of
your communic with a client there using
like email Integrations so that every
time that they send you an email or you
receive an email it's like embedded in
the thread um you can do so much and I I
would recommend you guys if you guys are
always feeling disorganized always
feeling behind that you just get on
project management of some of some kind
because it just eliminates 99% of the
issue anytime you're sharing information
between people um and in a business you
should basically be using a project
manager so once you have a project
management system set up um what I would
then focus on is streamlining the
appointment scheduling or booking
process however much you can and the two
biggest levers that I would say for this
are appointment scheduling and then
reminders and the good news is just like
clickup was sort of a solution to the
previous problem there are a few
platforms here that basically solve
appointment scheduling and appointment
reminders just out of the box you know
as a plumbing business you usually get
two kinds of bookings uh the first are
emergency bookings and the second are uh
sort of like I'm just going to say
regular bookings or maybe you can book
somebody like a week or two out
depending on availability um the main
issue with appointment scheduling
especially for that second Camp is it's
just like really laborious um if you
think about the okay they're two issues
the first is that um sometimes let's say
you have a secretary or somebody in your
in your office that's just like your
office manager that takes these calls or
maybe it's just you uh you know the
conversation usually goes like hey how's
it going um you know I need X Y andz
service done okay great like you know
maybe you're you're quoting process is
already done maybe you do it just over
the phone right then and there how much
this is how much okay great that sounds
good to me um can we book in sometime
next week okay what days you available
next week Monday and Saturday okay well
I have Monday after 1 H I can't do after
1 I can do before 12:30
this is just complete unnecessary
basically and it's a a total
and utter waste of time we've already
solved the appointment scheduling
process like 10 times over and you just
use a calendar service instead so what I
would do is I would sign up to either
cenly cal.com or an alternative maybe
something specific to H um Plumbing or
HVAC or local service businesses that do
these sorts of things um and then I
would uh just send out the link probably
through SMS um unless you're
communicating with them over email and I
do it just while I was right there on
the call with them so i' have have like
a clipboard on my phone or my office
manager would anyway and then anytime
somebody is calling and it's like hey
this sounds great uh what I would do is
I would go to that contact and then I
would just send them the calendar
booking link and I'd say okay great just
sent you over a calendar booking link do
you mind booking right now and this just
has all of our availability for the next
month and then voila you know you turned
in this laborious process where there's
a lot of opportunity and room for error
into one where just both parties know
that they're available at such and such
time and it's basically like perfect
every time which is great so this is
basically a solved problem
um and the cool part is every time you
get a booking you can then integrate it
with your project management system and
you can create you know a new record in
your project manager basically that
represents the booking that has the
start time end time the address the
person all that stuff okay reminders for
customers this is in the same vein U but
essentially most calendar Services
nowadays have reminders built in um and
what a reminder is is like let's say you
book a 100 appointments or 100 calls um
like 100 service calls like maybe 10% of
them are just not going to be there or
there'll just be some miscommunication
and you know the customer won't be home
when they say they would what reminders
allow you to do is basically avoid this
from ever happening again so you don't
have to pay your subcontract
subcontractor costs you don't have to
pay hourly plumber costs you don't have
to do any of that stuff uh if the person
isn't there they're going to let you
know ahead of time and so the way this
works usually is they just have these
really shitty templated messages that
are like service reminder for X date um
and then the customer sees it and it's
like all right yeah yeah and then that's
how they're reminded but what I would
actually do is I'd go one step further
instead of like using the default
service reminders for Kenley or cal.com
or whatever I'd make my my own and the
way that I do it is I would try and
customize it and make it seem like I
just wrote this for them just to double
check that you know I'm everything is
good with the appointment and a very
simple language shift is just pretend
that you're talking to the dude next to
you with the bar as opposed to like you
know having a formal business
communicate um you could very quickly
set up an Automation and a lot of this
is built in as I mentioned where you
just say hey first name just letting you
know that we'll be there tomorrow at
blank time as discussed thanks and then
whatever your name is um this usually
leads to just much better reviews much
better client experience uh you know
from like a reputation POV is just way
better so I would do that wherever
possible but at the least you need to
have some type of service reminder and
you can do the service reminder however
you want um I I would just make sure to
like have at least one but if I were
like to do this like perfectly optimally
I'd probably have a service reminder for
a week out if you booked it over a week
out um a day before and then I'd have it
like a couple of hours before before
your plumber or whatever actually takes
off and this way if they have any issues
you'll know ahead of time before you
actually spend that sunk time energy and
cost uh you'll get to save time energy
and money and then your your mer will go
up a little bit also your customers will
just like it they appreciate it no more
misunderstandings about dates or
whatever okay so sales this is probably
one of the big ones um but in order for
that to go well you need these which is
why I put this
forth basically um the name of the game
that a lot of service providers I think
don't fully understand is um the the
idea of like Leverage multiplication and
so what multiplication of your leverages
is it's just like hey like if I spend
five minutes doing something and then I
get one unit of output um you know if I
have like a 3X multiplier on that then
if I spend 5 minutes I get three units
of output if I have a 50 times
multiplier it's 5 minutes and 50 units
of output and basically your goal is to
multiply your leverage however possible
and whenever possible and in sales there
are a couple really easy ways to do this
the first is um focusing on acquisition
methods that by default multiply your
leverage what I mean by this I mean
paperclick um ads uh bark.com is a
really big one I'll run you through that
right now umal these are all services
that you basically have a sunk cost
usually like once or maybe like once a
month or something and then you get to
benefit from that cost every single time
that somebody calls you it realistically
might take you or somebody in your
company like an hour to make an ad but
then that ad might get you 15 calls or
something like that um if you think
about like the the other ways that you
could acquire those calls I mean like
back in the day back when I was working
B2B which doesn't really super apply
here but I had to go cold calling I had
to go door knocking right and I'd knock
on God 80 doors a day in order to get a
few appointments it was brutal that that
took me all 8 to 9 hours of my day to to
to get the appointment right these
systems basically just advertise for you
to people that are already looking for
services and thus you could spend one
hour one day setting it up and then
benefit from it for the next six months
that's hyper leverage and it allows you
to use your time on things that are more
important anyway bark.com is basically
um paperclick ads but it's one that a
lot of people don't know about I I use
this when I ran my own videography
company and basically anytime somebody
was interested in videography within my
region which at the time was Vancouver I
could buy that lead for I think like 20
or 30 bucks so services like bark.com
and they're a bunch they're basically
lead aggregators um I would try using
these I'd try using paperclick ads I
tried using SEO um you know and I just
focus on these as my lead generation
methods because uh again they they
multiply your time now in terms of what
to do when somebody's actually generated
when a new lead calls you know if I were
setting up my own plumbing company I
would ask them for all of the specific
info that I need before the end of the
call and I'd like go like ahead of time
I'd make a list of all the that I
need from them so realistically you're
going to need their address if it's a
house call you're going to need their
first name their last name you're going
to need their phone number you should
also have their email to send them
receipts invoices communicate that way
and then maybe you'll need some more
information about the specifics of their
problem like a on line description or
whatever um the reason why I'd make this
list ahead of time is so that I could
then create a form and then while I'm on
the call with the customer what I would
do is I would say hey okay great let me
just get your info into the system here
what was your first name what was your
last name what was all this stuff
because then now you can add them into
your project management system and as I
mentioned earlier the second that
they're in your project management
system you can automate the hell out of
it what I would do is I would use all of
this information to template out a quote
and I would send it to them immediately
over SMS so that they could see it while
they're on the call with me um you can
do this using a variety of platforms you
do this using pandadoc if you wanted to
you could do this using another five
million like proposal automation
platforms but just type in pandadoc or
pandadoc alternative and you'll find a
bunch um you could also look up like
plumber proposal system or something and
there'll probably be a few and then
basically what what they do is they just
look at it while they're on the call
with you and if they agree to it they
click a button they maybe do some
signature analog with their thumb um and
then you can tie that into them having a
calendar booking and just dealing with
all that immediately ahead of time
and not having to worry about the back
and forth and not having to worry about
the follow-up not having to worry about
like 99% of the issues that usually
plague the sales process in your average
plumbing company uh so you you can do
this very easily you don't need to be a
no code or automation Pro in order to do
so um but you know this ties in with the
calendar system that I mentioned earlier
and then the calendar system um feeds
into the project management system I
mentioned earlier as well and this is
just the way that like a modern plumbing
company would do it okay then we go to
customer billing and invoicing uh what I
would do is I would like stop using
payment processors that like uh a lot of
the time local service businesses have
specific payment processors that they
use because it saves them a tiny bit of
money like uh I don't know it charges
them 2% instead of 3% or something I
would I would just use stripe stripe is
just the simplest and easiest to
integrate um payment management platform
out there it's usually for internet
businesses but but um stripe for for
in-person businesses makes perfect sense
as well and uh the reason why I would
use it is so that I can automatically
invoice people so when my project
management system has statuses and one
of those statuses changes to job done I
would then automatically use the
customer information that I have on that
person's file to send them um a stripe
invoice to their address that would then
be due today the next day or whatever
your payment terms are and then when
somebody pays then I would change the
status of the record to like you know a
payment received or payment completed
that way at a glance anybody in your
company would be able to see in seconds
what payments are still outstanding and
then if you have like a salesperson or
if you're I don't know sufficiently
motivated to do it yourself you now know
who to follow up with so you can get
your money you can obviously do those
follow-ups automatically by the way and
you probably should be striped as that
by itself um but yeah you know very
simple and transparent way to do things
and the cool benefit there uh as well is
then you can start tracking this data
adding it to dashboards and visualizing
your Revenue cash collected your margins
that sort of
stuff okay subcontractor billing an
invoice this is pretty similar um I mean
I said subcontractor here but really I
should have said like staff or payroll
or whatever um you know for in-house
employees you're going to want to use a
payroll platform that's already
developed for you so I don't know
payroll platform here there's like 20
probably uh you could use QuickBooks if
you want a deal is very popular ripling
is reasonably popular Gusto I didn't
know they had a payment platform
associated with them but they probably
do uh if you're in Canada you know use
wage Point that's probably the most
popular one if you're doing
subcontractors basically every time they
finish a job uh you can automatically
send them a templated invoice um that
they can then sign off on and then when
they sign off on it you could send them
money uh there are a variety of ways
that you could do this but basically I'm
just trying to approach this from like a
highest Ry perspective working my way
down um staff billing and stuff is such
a pain in the ass most plumbing
companies and local services companies
that I know of actually have full
departments that they call their Finance
or accounting department that deal with
this how cool would it be if you could
just do it all automatically and
eliminate your department entirely or at
least instead of having three people uh
have like one person that's at least
$100,000 a year in your pocket and in
addition to that you're probably going
to get paid more often and more on time
because you're now sending and receiving
funds immediately as opposed to Super
delayed so yeah I do that um social
media marketing and stuff like that I
don't really care too much about social
media marketing with them honest I think
social media marketing is kind of
uh for most businesses but what
what it does do is it it shows
prospective customers that you are a
real company and a lot of the time
people just need that in order to feel
safe and secure and actually want to
work with you so it's not like going to
change a game you're probably not going
to get too many Plumbing customers that
are like hm that plumbing company has
great design on their canva thumbnails
or something but uh you will get a
little bit of perceived legitimacy and
that's what matters so what I would do
is I would just have somebody on my team
like an office admin create 30 posts a
month using Ai and then I'd cycle them
using a tool like buffer which just
allows you to schedule your posts a
buffer is pretty cool because it um
allows you to go I think like a year out
or something but basically it's a way
that you just you know add your images
and design and the the text and whatnot
and then you can just schedule it for
next week let's say which is pretty
cool
okay um customer feedback collection
review management um on the same vein as
social media one of the number one
places people will go uh before they
they decide to work with you especially
if you're like a physical business where
people will like see the service
provider face to face shake their hands
and walk them through a job is uh is
your reviews Google my business reviews
your Yelp reviews your Facebook reviews
your um you know trust pilot reviews
that sort of thing and so a very simp
simple and easy way to solve this not
completely obviously like to solve it
you would just want to do an amazing job
every time which you're unable to always
do but a great way to like mostly take
care of this is use your project
management system and whenever a project
is marked as completed um send the
person a request through SMS or email
and basically just ask them for an
honest review on one of your social
media platforms and then imply or you
could just say directly although I think
that's against the terms of service for
a few of these platforms that they get a
discount if they um if they fill out
like an honest review uh if they want
the discount then they're going to want
to automatically work with you anyway so
if they want to work with you anyway
odds are they're happy with the
job um and then you know the review
you're going to get it's going to be
amazing um and then you could also gate
this based off how the subcontractor
felt about the job or your um your your
plumber felt about the job you could ask
your plumber or something and say like
hey like did that person like the work
that they got where they angry at you if
their answer is no you could like have
them fill out some other column in your
project manager and then trigger this
whole flow uh but yeah this basically
just ensures that you're always going to
have like roster of constantly cycling
reviews you could feed this into like
some SMS sequence something like active
campaign to like make sure that they
leave a review but it's not super
important just make sure that like you
know 20% of the people that you work
with leave a review and you'll probably
be fine okay data entry and
recordkeeping this is again another one
of those really big annoying things and
a lot of the time like plumbers or local
service businesses will literally hire
somebody to do this for them like
your whole job for I don't know usually
like two or three k a month like $36,000
a year is just to like make sure your
data is good uh if you just use clickup
or some centralized project manager for
everything out of the gate um you're
you're fine and most of this is going to
be taken care of for you um you just add
all of the info using a form just make
sure that you know if you want to add
info to your system use a form what do I
mean by this let's say you got a new
employee or a new staff member um the
staff member has to fill out a form and
that form will ask them all the
information that you need in order to
make sure that they're paid on time and
that they're now added to your system
stuff like um you know their their home
address their bank account information
their first name last name the social
insurance number employee identification
number whatever it's called wherever you
live um maybe every time you get a sales
call as I mentioned you'd have a form
that allows you to input their
information in um basically just make
sure the way that you communicate with
your system is through forms the reason
why is because forms um you can make
fields are required in forms um and then
using the required form data um you then
have all the information that you need
there's no like missing data in your
system so uh whoever fills out the form
it's their job to get the data right
then and there you don't need like a
separate high or a separate role for
that which is sort of a pain in the ass
all right so Inventory management for
parts and supplies this honestly doesn't
apply to most Plumbing businesses
probably the vast majority of businesses
that are watching this to be honest it's
not going to apply for you but I thought
I'd throw it in anyway the vast majority
of like local service businesses will do
just in time order management or when um
an order comes in and the order involves
like a specific part or something like
that they will then go ahead and buy it
right then and there and then there's
usually some lead time on the order
coming from the manufacturer maybe like
a week or something like that uh and the
the downside there is obviously the
customers to wait more but the upside on
your end is like you don't spend money
that you don't necessarily have yet
which is like a win um but if you scale
up or if you find that the vast majority
of your jobs are coming from a very
particular service like I don't know
what any Plumbing tool is but let's say
it's like a pipe fitting it's like a
very specific pipe fitting and you work
in an area where like most of the homes
had these pipe fittings installed like
40 years ago and this is like the end of
their lifespan so a lot of them are
screwing up and breaking um you know you
could buy a bunch of these ahead of time
um so that when you get a call you can
one of your value propositions can now
be um hey I can go do that call in the
next three days instead of like two
weeks right which will then obviously
make you seem better and uh will
increase demand for you it'll help you
stand out the market essentially because
turnaround time for local service
businesses is one of the main value
props it's like hey I can do this for
you today right that's pretty big a lot
of the time people are calling a plumber
it's because they need a plumber not
just because they think a plumber is
nice to have
this also allows you to anticipate
demand like if it's a seasonal thing
every season X problem happens in your
area so you just know okay well why
don't I have a few of these things on
hand um basically how most plumbing
companies do inventory management is
they just like I don't know they have
like some office with like a bunch of
tiny little bims bins with fittings and
parts and like that and uh they
don't really keep track of like how much
they have they just sort of like eye it
and when it gets to like zero left over
they'll um like when they no parts in
the box or bin or whatever they'll like
go buy a bunch more um but you can use
an inventory management platform
assuming you're at that size like sortly
or like service Titan or like one of the
other ones um that are pretty big uh and
these will basically make it so that
whatever the number in the computer is
is the piece of inventory that's that's
in your back end and you can integrate
it with the project management system
that I talked about earlier or you know
if you wanted to really nerd out you
could just build your own inventory
management system but I I wouldn't
really recommend it so most of you will
not um have to deal with that most of
that probably won't apply but I just
wanted to put that in there for
companies that may be a little bit
bigger or might have specific use cases
that I hadn't considered okay so
automated follow-ups and service
requests and completed jobs um one of
the number one issues with local service
businesses especially plumbers is uh
they leave so much money on the table by
not like following up or checking in on
the client X weeks or X months after um
you know when I purchased my apartment
uh my real estate agent um sorry not
when I purchased my apartment when I
helped my parents sell their apartment
um my real estate I had a couple real
estate agents my the real estate agent
that I recommended to them so I referred
one of my friends he um is is very
famous in the town that my parents sold
their apartment for like once a year um
baking a bunch of pies and then handing
them out and I think it's him and his
wife that bake the pies and they hand
them out like to people there in person
uh and you would not believe the amount
of business that this guy gets from just
like handing out hand-baked pies to his
old clients it's stupid um he spends
probably like a, $1,500 on the pie and
like a day of his time time driving out
uh but he probably gets at least like 20
or $30,000 a work every time he does
that so local Services business can
really benefit from some type of
automated follow-up system because most
of them don't do like that right
what I would recommend is X days after a
project is completed you send an email
or SMS that seems very customized asking
how things are going and offering a
follow-up job um I would offer some
discount on the follow-up job I would uh
have some specific information about
that job that I would have my
subcontractor plumber have filled out
you know X days before when they did the
job like oh you know there uh I don't
know these fittings seem a little bit
old and then I'd actually like reference
that in the automated email that I would
send out so the person thinks that it's
like some dude that's there texting on
the phone being like hey how's how's
everything going with that J fitting
yours whatever the heck they're called
forgive me plumbers um but but basically
I would just make sure this is automated
because if you don't automate this
you're not going to do it because you're
uh you're going to be focused on the
work that's in front of you not the
potential could be Dream Work that uh
isn't and by doing this you basically
like instantly double your margins maybe
not double maybe like time and a half
your margins because most of your uh
money in a in a local Services business
is going to be spent on the lead
acquisition using ads honestly it's
going to probably be like 15ish to 20%
of of all of your money is going to go
in there so if you can make money from
somebody that you didn't have to pay for
that time AK like a repeat retained
customer uh you are you are golden
baby internal reporting I would ensure
that you have like either a built-in
dashboard using click UPS built-in
dashboards or uh whatever your project
management system is you can also
integrate it with looker studio um most
most usually or you can just use a
Google sheet or something like that and
the benefit there is you're going to
want to be able to see your Revenue
you're going to want to be able to see
your cash collected you're going to want
to be able to see your margins both
gross and then um net and then you're
going to want to see your profit and if
you just know this at all times it'll
eliminate like so many issues that you
otherwise would have had come up uh
companies that like see this on a
day-to-day basis typically perform way
better because they know how much money
that they're making and uh there's
nothing that drives you to make more
money than seeing how little money you
are making uh cash collected is an
important determinant of obviously your
cash reserves revenue is like a bigger
determinant of you know how healthy or
successful your businesses margins are
obviously how much um is left over at
the end of the month some percentage
wise figure of that then profit is like
your your actual um but I would I would
have at least these and then I would
customize them specifically uh for a
plumbing business I probably do
turnaround time and I'd also do
conversion rate on on the calls that
come in for sure find a few additional
metrics that you think are high Roi um
but th those are definitely the ones
that I'd recommend so make sure you have
a dashboard some sometimes you have to
pay for this if you want like a
dedicated dashboard that uses your
particular Plumbing Service that you're
using for project management other times
you can just whip it up yourself using
clickup or something but yeah consider
yourself a business architect more so
than like a plumber at this point
because what you're doing is you're
setting up architecture that any
business can run and not necessarily
just a plumbing company I do some
reputation monitoring for sure I would
just set up some Google Alerts at the
beginning of my business um for my brand
um for my name for maybe some of my
plers names whoever's like big in your
company your partners that sort of thing
uh that way if somebody posts like a
shitty review for you or a shitty Reddit
post or something about oh I hate XYZ
Plumbing they screwed up my whole house
you'll know instantly and uh the sooner
that you know the quicker you'll be able
to take it down and take some type of
action to solve it this is one of those
higher Roi things that like it literally
take you three minutes to do right now
uh and then who knows it might save you
$50,000 over the next year because
you'll spot a really nasty review on a
platform that you didn't really
realize seasonal promotional offer of
email or SMS um this is basically like
every time there's
some SE like you know seasonal holiday
or something um which you know I think
there's about like four to six a year or
something I would just use that to send
everybody on who has worked with you in
the past some type of email just
checking in and offering some discount
or offering some service or or whatever
um you know if your business is
particularly seasonal if you're not
plumber but you're like gutter cleaning
or whatever you know this this is this
makes a lot more sense if you're like
snow plowing or something um but I just
make sure that like you're keeping in
contact with your customers cuz uh the
the downside of this is basically zero
there's no downside at all it's only
potential upside even if less than 1% of
your customer base takes you on this if
over five years you work with a thousand
customers let's say that's still 10
additional jobs done and if I don't know
your average job size is 500 bucks you
basically just made five grand
realistically your numbers are going to
be way better than that um so it's like
five grand at the minimum but it's
probably going to be closer to like 10
20 30 40 50 that sort of thing and it'll
only take you a few hours to set up
and then the last thing I'll say is
automatically managing subcontractor
plumber relationships um most of these
jobs um like most of these uh uh project
management platforms are going to have
an assign
field the benefit to having an assign
field is um you basically just get to
like if I go here you see how in the
assign field here for my own company my
my content writing company which is not
a local Services businesses at all but
you can you know apply similar
principles this assign field allows you
to see who is responsible for doing that
job what you can do in your plumbing
company is you know um you can have that
be related to uh tons of things you
could have that be related to their pay
you know you could use that to trigger
the automatic invoicing that I was
talking about earlier you could have
that be linked to
their um their score so maybe you send
everybody a review or something
afterwards you know as I mentioned a
week afterwards and then you could see H
you know Samantha usually gets a three
out of five but Peter gets a four out of
five and that might be able to inform
you as to like how good they are on the
job or how much people like them uh
basically you're just going to want to
make use of like the assign or the
people column as it's sometimes referred
to uh because that has a ton of built-in
Integrations and then that usually
allows um automatic notifications to
that ensure the person that's assigned
to the job actually does the job when
they said that they were going to do it
so yeah that is my bird's eye view of
how I'd automate a plumbing business
obviously there are multiple different
ways that you can automate a plumbing
business this is just my preferred
approach uh but what I'm going to do is
I'm going to take all of the info that
I've just provided and then I'm going to
um share the whimsical with you just
underneath in the uh in the description
here and then you or anybody else that
runs a plumbing business an HVAC
business just one business in the
similar local Services Niche I can use
this as just like a checklist of things
to go through and if you have any
questions about particular steps in this
process just leave a comment down below
and I'll get to it when I have time um
but yeah this is this is basically
everything that I would do keep in mind
there are a few specific things here
that I did not include because I don't
think that they're worth it for your
type of business I did not include AI
voice agents I did not include um AI
callers or anything like that uh this
stuff just does not make sense for most
businesses yet it might in like a year
or two but it definitely does right not
right now and I also didn't include too
much on like AI personalization um
although you can certainly AI
personalize all of this you could once
you have a project management system
just feed all of their information into
the AI every single time that an event
occurs like a new booking or whatever
and have that generate you a oneline
Icebreaker to then insert into your SMS
text email or or whatever um the thing
is most plumbers you know you don't
really necessarily need to be super
crazy customized any can usually just
get away with some simple quote
templates and whatnot um so just depends
on how far you want to take it any who
really appreciate you guys watching this
video I'm looking forward to reproducing
the same sort of video for all of the
different niches in the world if you
guys have a specific Niche you want me
to do leave a comment down below
otherwise like subscribe do all that fun
YouTube stuff and I'll catch you on the
next one bye-bye
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