PlumbingBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Winning Property Manager Plumbing Accounts: What Managers Want From the Plumber They Call

A property manager is not shopping for the cheapest plumber. They are shopping for the plumber who makes their week easier. They juggle owners, tenants, leases and a phone that never stops ringing, and plumbing is one of the few things that can turn a quiet Tuesday into an emergency. The plumber who takes that weight off them gets the call every time.

Start With the Big Picture

If you have not read it yet, Commercial Plumbing Software: The Complete Guide to Property Manager, Landlord and Restaurant Accounts covers how accounts differ from homeowners. This article is about the step before all of that: getting the manager to hand you the account in the first place.

Managers rarely switch plumbers because of price alone. They switch because the last plumber did not call back, did not show up when the tenant was home, sent an invoice nobody could match to a property, or did a repair the owner never approved. Fix those four things and you are already ahead of most of the field.

What Managers Actually Ask For

Talk to a few property managers and the same list comes up:

• A fast answer. Not necessarily a fast arrival, but a fast “we got it, here is when.” Silence is what drives managers away.
• Approval before big work. The manager has to answer to an owner. A surprise water heater replacement on the bill puts them in a bad spot.
• Proof the work was done. They cannot drive to every rental. Photos and a short note do the job.
• A bill they can sort. Each charge tied to an address, so they can pass it to the right owner.
• Someone who knows the buildings. A plumber who remembers where the shut-off is and which unit has the old water heater saves them time on every call.

How the Software Helps You Deliver It

Every one of those asks maps to something your office can do in PlumbingBossPro without extra staff:

• Fast answers come from two-way texting with the manager from the office. A quick “Got it, Mike is there Thursday morning” goes out in seconds and stays with the client record.
• Approval comes from estimates built from your service list. The manager approves online, and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job.
• Proof comes from before-and-after photos taken on the tech's phone and saved with the job, plus the inspection checklist when it is a maintenance visit.
• Sortable bills come from monthly account billing: one statement a month, each line labeled with the address.
• Knowing the buildings comes from equipment and access notes saved on every address, shown to whichever tech is on the call.

Photos get their own guide in Proof-of-Service Photos for Property Managers: Showing the Plumbing Work Was Done, and billing is covered in Monthly Statements for Commercial Plumbing Accounts: One Bill Covering Every Address.

Getting the First Call

Most manager accounts start with one job. Somebody's regular plumber could not come, and you could. Treat that first job as the interview. A few habits that help:

• Text the manager when the tech is on the way and again when the job is done, with a photo.
• Write down what you saw while you were there: the water heater's age, the shut-off location, the slow drain in the second bathroom. Save it on the address.
• If you found something that needs work, send a quote rather than doing it on the spot. Let the manager say yes.
• Send a clean invoice with the address on it the same day.

Then ask the simple question: “Do you have other properties we could take care of?” A manager who just had an easy experience will often say yes.

Setting Up the Account Once You Win It

When the manager sends you their list, resist the urge to enter each rental as a new customer. Create one client for the management company and put every property under it as an address. If they send a spreadsheet, CSV import brings it in and places each address on the map automatically.

Add a tag such as “Property Manager” so you can find the account fast, and use custom fields for the things you will need later, such as the manager's preferred approval limit or a PO note they want on every bill. Set billing to Monthly if they want one statement.

Then go back through the first few calls and fill in equipment as you learn it. Over a few months the account turns into a building-by-building record that nobody else in town has.

Keeping the Account

Winning a manager is the easy part. Keeping them means being as good on the twentieth call as the first. The habits that won the account — fast answers, approval before work, photos and clean bills — are the same ones that keep it. Software does not do the plumbing, but it keeps those habits from depending on who happened to answer the phone that day.

For the rest of the commercial side, from landlords and rentals to restaurants and backflow tests, go back to the PlumbingBossPro commercial plumbing software page.