It was a sun-filled Saturday morning in early May, when a call came in to my cell phone via text message reading, “Water heater is leaking, please call.”  A lot of plumbing businesses these days, including ours, are using an answering service to take any calls that come in from customers. If you’re not familiar with these companies, basically, when a customer calls your business line, the call gets forwarded to an answering service company. An employee picks up the phone and simply says, “Hello, thank you for calling XYZ Plumbing, how may I help you?” The customer will then explain to the individual on the other line what the plumbing problem is that they need help with. The man or woman from the answering company will do their best to understand the problem, get the customer’s name and number and then text the information to my phone. Pretty straightforward right? Well, not as helpful as one may think. So, I got the information and called the customer back and asked them what was happening and how many gallons was the heater? 

“I think it’s a 50-gallon heater, I’m not quite sure. Can you get over here ASAP because we are having our daughter’s christening this afternoon, and we need to all shower before the ceremony,” he said. 

"Okay, not a problem Bob, I’ll be right over,” I replied. 

So, I hopped in the truck and threw a 50-gallon heater into the back and raced over to the house. The couple answered the door and began to show me to the basement. 

“Well, here is the heater,” She said. “I knew right away that this was not a 50-gallon heater!” 

With 1-inch tapings and 4-inch flue piping, any plumber could distinguish that this was clearly a 75-gallon heater. At this point it was getting close to when the supply houses were closing at noon, so I needed to take action immediately. Long story short, we were able to get the heater installed in time for the family without any hiccups, however, if this was a little later in the morning, we would have faced some major issues. I thought to myself, “If only I had an inside look at that job before I got there, I could have nipped this emergency in the butt a lot quicker.” Three years later, the myPocketPlumber app was born…

Why EVERY company needs this app

Yes, using an answering service company to take your calls can be convenient. If it didn’t cost us $200 to$400 a month! There has to be a better way, right? Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you an app that will change the way you run your business today. And the best part about the app, is that it’s FREE! Simply, click install, and there ya have it! 

So, what is this app all about you ask? The myPocketPlumber app is an easier way for your customers to get in touch with your company, giving them access to emergency buttons andthe ability to take a picture or video of the plumbing issue at hand, or to text a brief message. Your phone will alert you of the incoming message, giving you access to everything in the palm of your hands.  

I can now call a customer back, pull up my GPS of the customer’s home address and even send a notification back to the customer saying, “We received your message and we’ll get back to you shortly.”All with one simple click! That’s it! 

And that’s not all; I can then forward the message to any of my technicians working out in the field. Now, my technicians have everything they need to know about the customer and the job at hand.

No changes necessary

So, I know you are probably thinking: “I don’t know if I can stop using the answering service or receiving phone calls directly to my phone. I don’t want to change how I’m currently running my company.”Don’t worry guys and gals, the beauty of this app is that you don’t have to change how you are running your company today.

The myPocketPlumber app is giving you so much more than those answering service companies, and it’s absolutely FREE! Trust me everyone, you need to get this app and start telling your customers to download and find your company right away!