How Automation Makes Your Plumbing Business More Effective

The plumbing industry might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about task automation, however, when it comes to running a plumbing business there a number of things you can do to streamline your internal processes and systems that will help it to operate more efficiently and considerably more profitably. (1)

A good place to start is to invest in business management software that is designed for the very purpose of supporting plumbing companies. Apps like this one from Jobber have a number of features that help with job scheduling, sales processing, customer communications, payments and even route optimization to save on journey times and fuel consumption. Smart technology such as this greatly helps to enhance the daily operations of a company which can often be complex with multiple technicians working on different jobs out in the field.

Some examples of where task automation can save you time, and therefore money, are as follows:

Using Auto Reply Technology To Respond To Queries

In a 2014 survey, 80% of respondents were okay with waiting four hours to get a response to their messages. In 2015, the same poll was conducted, but the respondents suggested one hour would be an acceptable time to wait for a reply. (2)

Fast forward to today, the expected response time of customers has tremendously shortened. Now, customers expect instant replies from the businesses they message or contact.

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Thankfully, clever automated software can help you do this. Auto reply messages don’t replace a response from a real person, but what they do successfully is send a holding message to customers (or potential customers) that they have contacted the right company, that their query is valued, and that they can expect a response very soon.

Research suggests that the first vendor or firm to reply to a lead often ends up getting the business. Around 30%–50% of sales made by a company, regardless of the industry, has been made just because they responded to a call or message first. This statistic makes having the opportunity to instantly reply to people when they message you a very attractive feature to have in your operational arsenal. (3)

Quick Estimates And Instant Quotes

Whenever your customer talks to one of your representatives or converses with one of your techs, they can request and receive an estimate instantly. In most cases, they can even acquire an estimate by themselves by visiting your website.

With task and e-commerce automation, your customers and leads can self-service on your website. They can get an estimate, schedule an inspection for a quote, and even contact you directly if they need to talk to a live human being.

Once someone from your team gets into the leads’ premises, they can immediately provide your customer with a quote with the task automation app they have. Traditionally, most techs will need to come back later to give the customer a quote as they need to compute first, make a draft, and get it approved by you or a supervisor. Your service techs can generate one on the fly—thanks to task automation—once they’re done with the inspection.

Automatic Follow-Up

When you enter the lead’s information into your automation database, you no longer need to worry about follow-ups. Task automation software can do the scheduling and following-up for you. You don’t even need to dedicate personnel to this task any more.

With automatic follow-ups, you inform all leads and customers about their pending quotes and delayed dispatches consistently. The amount of information your automated communication contains depends on how you set up the software, so it is completely customizable by you.

Job Tracking

Using a business management app can also help you automate job tracking. With it, you can easily have a list of the sites you visited and what you worked on. You can also check the associated estimates and quotes on those jobs. Informational notes and documents can be attached to ensure the job history is robust and detailed.

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Reduced Human Error

Using task automation software in your business can effectively reduce the instances of human error within systems and processes.

One way that task automation reduces human error is by decreasing the number of interactions your team and customers have in your records and operations. It can even help to reduce business costs by reducing the number of people required for administrative tasks, acting as a good way to utilize automation to save you resources.

Conclusion

Technological innovation in the form of automation software can greatly benefit your plumbing business’ internal processes and systems, saving you time and money. The time it would otherwise take to carry out these tasks manually can be better spent on other activities that actively promote business generation, increased revenue and ultimately greater profitability.

References

1. “6 Jobs That Automation “Might” Not Kill”, Source: https://tgdaily.com/technology/6-jobs-that-automation-might-not-kill/
2. “What Is An Appropriate Response Time To Email?” Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/3058066/what-is-an-appropriate-response-time-to-email
3. “13 Sales Follow Up Statistics All Sales Reps Need To Know”, Source: https://www.skillslab.io/sales/sales-follow-up-statistics/