Roger Bisby gives some on the job tips on how to avoid common pitfalls when starting out as a jobbing plumber.

Of all the building trades, plumbing and heating is easily the most varied. This variety also means that it uses the largest range of goods and materials. In fact these days the choice is so vast that people known as &architectural technicians& specialise in specifying the right goods for the right application. If you work for a large company on big contracts then the goods and materials will have all been sorted out for you before you arrive on site. At least that is the theory. In reality there are a million different ways for things to go wrong in the supply chain. Getting the right goods and materials in the right place at the right time is for many plumbers one of the biggest challenges of the job.

Most self employed plumbers would be a lot richer if they could cut out all the time they spend driving backwards and forwards to merchants swapping things over or picking up additional materials for unseen problems.

Whose fault is this? These days we all need someone to blame. The customer will blame the plumber, the plumber will blame the merchant and the merchant will blame the manufacturer. The truth is that we are probably all to blame at some point or another but blaming people doesn’t solve the problem. In order to improve the situation everyone needs to look at ways in which they can strengthen their part of the chain. Forging better links is mainly a question of more effective communication. The following are my suggestions on how this might be done. I say might because there is no magic formula. When you are dealing with human beings all you can do is try. The key is to look at what went wrong and alter your approach or system (if you have one) to makes sure that it doesn’’t happen next time. It sounds obvious but it is amazing how many people blunder on repeating the same expensive mistakes over and over like Groundhog Day.

Supply And Fit

There are contracts that include supplying materials and there are labour-only contracts. If you supply the materials for a job don’t give away your trade discount. The 20% or so that you save on the list price of all materials supplied by you is not just a windfall, it is to cover you for the cost of estimating, specifying, shopping, putting the money up front and taking things back to the merchant if they turn out to be faulty. This requires your knowledge and experience so don’t just give it away lightly.

If your customer tells you that they can get the materials cheaper then let them. It is then up to them to specify the right materials and the right quantity and to make sure that they are there on time. It is also worth mentioning that if there are problems you will set the clock running on the time you waste in sorting the problems out. In the past I have sat drinking tea while a customer, who insisted upon buying a ›sold as seen› ex display so-called bargain from the local DIY shed, chased around all the merchants in the area trying to find the missing parts. In my experience once you explain what they could be letting themselves in for they generally consider the 20% a bit of a bargain.

Make A List

The way to make an effective list is to go through the whole job in your mind covering each stage. Too many plumbers (me included) think that we can remember everything we need. Once you get into the merchant and grab a cup of coffee and get chatting to a mate that you haven’t seen since college it is all too easy to forget things. Usually I remember something else I need the second after the bloke behind the counter presses the button to print my bill.

Checking The Goods

Reading instruction booklets and checking that all the parts are present is not something that comes easily to tradesmen. Women are generally better at it but men tend to regard the reading of instructions as a last resort. I am as guilty as the next man of wanting to get stuck into the job before checking that I have everything in place to proceed, but when you get half way through the job and find something missing or damaged it can mean the customer is without heating or water while the problem is being solved. Every plumber has a story of ripping out a boiler or bathroom suite only to find some reason why the new one can’t be fitted. There are even occasions when it takes weeks to get a replacement. You will soon discover that some manufacturers are a lot better than others at including all the parts in the box. Some also manage to hide vital components in obscure places so be very careful when throwing out the packaging.

Don’t Shop On Price Alone

Most plumbers have accounts at two or more merchants. This is useful if one is out of stock or your job happens to be nearer to one than the other. You can also make price comparisons and keep the prices keen by playing one merchant off against another but it doesn’t always help to drive too hard a bargain. The key feature that I want in a merchant is service. It sounds like a cliché but when things go wrong or you need an obscure part in a hurry then you need a merchant who is willing to pull out all the stops. If they have made a reasonable profit out of your custom and have built up a good relationship with you then they will want to keep your custom and be happy to hunt around for an item or a spare part which makes them hardly any money at all.

Similarly when shopping for goods and materials you need to be confident that what you are fitting is fit for the purpose. Over the next few years this country will be flooded (in some places literally) with cheap unbranded imports of plumbing tube and fittings which fall way below recognised standards.

If your item doesn’t have approval or isn’t a recognised brand it can turn out to be an expensive mistake. The little bit of money you save on the purchase price can be swallowed up in a single call-back. Some years ago I was sold some obscure make of foreign copper tube. I bought it from a merchant that I don’t usually use and the price was very cheap. it claimed to have a 25-year guarantee but when it developed a series of pin holes and flooded the flat below I had an eight month fight on my hands to try and get some compensation. The merchant didn’t know me and wasn’t willing to help and the manufacturer was in Yugoslavia which doesn’t even exist now. The guarantee outlasted the country and wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Stand Your Ground

Everyone needs a decent profit margin in order to keep trading effectively. If you cave in on a price and give your customer discount to get the work you may then try to claw it back from your merchant. The result is that you are both unhappy. If a customer tries to beat me down on price I almost always stand my ground. I tell them that I can lower the price by using lower quality materials or I can lower the price by cutting corners on quality but one thing I can’t do is give away my wages because that is the only reason I am doing the job in the first place. If they take that away then I might as well go and drive a minicab.

Having said this I recognise that some nationalities haggle and bargain as a matter of course. In fact it is deeply embedded in their psyche and not getting a discount is a sleight on their manhood. If you know that this is how your customer operates then the best thing to do is load the price so you have something to give them. Just don’t give it away without a struggle because you will spoil their fun.

Avoiding Theft

Even if you do manage to get all the materials to site on the right day there is still the problem of keeping them there. In some areas of the country this is more of a problem than in others. Scrap metal prices are now at an all time high and scrap collectors will go to extraordinary lengths to recycle your tube and fittings, even before they have been used.

You need to establish who is responsible for the security on a site. If your responsibility ends when the goods have been installed then you only have to worry about transportation and storage of goods. If you own the goods right up to the point of payment then you need to make sure that they are protected on site.

Dealing With Complaints

Even if your workmanship is perfect there are still customers who will try to find fault. Sometimes it is because they are very hard to please and sometimes it is because they want to extract a reduction in the price. Some contractors allow the customer to retain a small percentage for ›snaggings› and some will even build this in and let the money go in order to give themselves a quiet life.

If a customer makes a complaint show that you are taking it seriously by writing it down. The very act of you recording their comments tends to make them more cautious about what they say. It is a very effective way of stopping people ranting because you slow them down while you are writing. When they have finished, ask them politely if that is all. Push them on the point so they try to think of something else. You can then pointedly draw a line under their complaints and in most cases you will limit their tendency to moan. It is also worth asking a customer what they want. If for example they are complaining about a scratch on a boiler casing ask them if they want a new casing or some money off. The worst thing to do with complaints is to ignore them. If you complain to a merchant or a manufacturer and they ignore you then you will want to take your business elsewhere.

Getting Feedback

When you have finished a job it is a good idea to hand the customer a feedback form along with the bill. The form should ask for ratings rather than vague comments. Typical questions are:

• How do you rate punctuality?
• How do you rate cleanliness?
• How happy are you with the quality of the work?
• Will you consider using the plumber again?
• It is also helpful to have a small box for comments

The form will give you valuable feedback and it will also show the customer that you are serious about improving your quality and that will make them far more likely to recommend you. It is also worth remembering that building a good reputation takes years, losing one takes minutes.

Roger Bisby is a regular columnist in Professional Heating and Plumbing Magazine. He has also appeared on numerous television programmes as a plumbing expert including BBC Watchdog, Rogue Traders and ITV’s House Of Horrors.