How do I keep my plumbing company busy in the slow season?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
To keep a plumbing company busy in a slow season, stop waiting for emergencies and sell planned work to people who already know you. Contact past customers, chase every open estimate, and offer the jobs that do not depend on something breaking: water heater replacements, repipes, fixture upgrades and drain maintenance. Then put ads behind those same jobs.
Why does plumbing work go quiet?
It goes quiet because emergency work follows the weather and the calendar, and a business that only answers emergencies has no say in when they come. The plumbers with steadier weeks carry a second kind of work: jobs a homeowner chooses to book. Those can be offered at any time, and a quiet month is the time to offer them.
What should you do in a slow week?
Start with the people who cost nothing to reach. Your past customers already trust you, and your open estimates are jobs somebody already asked for.
- Pull the list of every estimate from the last few months that never got a yes or a no.
- Call or text each one, ask if the job is still needed, and offer two open dates.
- Contact past customers with an old water heater or a repair you flagged as due soon.
- Ask recent customers for a Google review, since new reviews bring calls from the map.
- Point your ads at planned jobs, such as water heaters, instead of emergency searches.
- Offer a drain or water heater check to customers you have not seen in a long while.
What should you not do?
Do not switch the ads off entirely and do not cut prices in a panic. Turning everything off means the phone is still quiet when the season turns. Deep discounts teach your best customers to wait for the next one. A plain message works better: we have openings this week if you were putting that job off.
How does Margin fill slow weeks for a plumbing company?
Margin can run a win-back campaign to your past customers, and Mia follows up by text with anyone who asked for an estimate and did not book, until they book or say no. Ads are run in an account you own, aimed at the jobs you want more of.
What it cannot do is invent demand, and texting waits on carrier approval of your number, which takes days to a couple of weeks. A win-back campaign is only as good as the customer list you have kept.
What Margin sets up for this.
- A win-back campaign to past customers
- Follow-up until they book or say no
- Ads on Facebook and Instagram, in an account you own
- Review requests after each visit
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for plumbersSee the portal with a sample business
Related questions
When is the slow season for a plumbing company?
It depends on your area and the work you do, so check your own calendar. Look at booked plumbing jobs by month for the last two years and the pattern shows itself. Plan your past-customer contact for the weeks just before it dips.
Should a plumber stop advertising when work is slow?
Usually not entirely. A plumbing company that stops all advertising in a quiet month can start the busy one with a quiet phone. Shift the budget toward planned jobs such as water heater replacement instead of switching everything off.
What planned jobs can a plumber sell in a quiet month?
Jobs a homeowner can schedule: replacing an ageing water heater, repiping, new fixtures, water filtration, and drain or sewer line checks. A plumbing company's own past customers are the first people to offer them to.