CASE STUDY : Adam's Plumbing

Adam was frustrated … frustrated with his clients, his subbies and the way his business had taken over him.

As an experienced plumber, who was a perfectionist when he did the work himself, he had built his reputation to a point where he had too much work coming in ... even when charging top dollar and probably more than any other plumber or tradie in his region.

This allowed him to hire some juniors, and apprentices, and allowed him to grow his business.

He got comfortable. Bought a bigger house, bigger car. A few nice holidays. But then he started losing the regular clients. He noticed each month that the constant stream of referrals was diminishing.

When he did the work, he never received one complaint. Now they were coming in on a weekly basis. Basic complaints such as:

• your plumber said he’d be here at 10am, but didn’t show until 11
• my carpet was clean, but now thanks to your employee there is mud all over it
• my tap still leaks … even after two visits from your company … why should I pay your bill?

Adam knew that not all his employees were as detailed and careful as he was, and this was part of managing a team. However, he also knew his guys were honest and hardworking, some with families, and didn’t want to fire them.

He needed a way to see what was going on at the job sites.

That’s when someone suggested getting an App developed. An App that would allow Adam’s team to document each job and keep a record of it.

Could this be done? And cheaply he wondered ...

With the help of Sutherland Shire Apps, Adam was able to design a custom App that worked on his subbies’ phones (both Android and iOS)! It was designed to be simple, and allow the tradesman to do their job with a minimum of fuss.

Now when they arrive they follow this process:

• Open the App and “Check-In” to their client’s address.
• With the aid of the phone’s GPS, there is no doubt that the worker was at the correct address at the required time.
• Using the camera of the phone, the worker then takes a few initial photos of the work to be done.

Just by doing these simple steps, and working with the existing software Adam already had for his business ... and then following the above process for each visit to the client (checking in & checking out, taking progress photos), he was able to view the progress of each job.

Plus ... because his employees knew they had to follow this procedure, and the client knew this was being done … it resulted in a combination of the work being done better, and on time and the complaints ceasing.

All this thanks to an App … developed for far less than he thought was possible by Sutherland Shire Apps. He didn’t even have to purchase any additional devices … everybody already has their own smartphone!

Do you run a small business? We can probably help you get the same result!