Texting for plumbing
A burst pipe does not leave a voicemail.
Emergency callers do not wait. If you cannot pick up, they call the next plumber. A text from your number within seconds keeps them on the line with you.
Plumbing: a burst pipe does not leave a voicemail.
- 7:48 AMMissed call, water in the basement
- 7:48 AMYour number texts them back, automatically
- 7:50 AM“Water heater’s leaking. How soon can you get here?”
- 7:58 AMWater heater replacement booked$1,347
One caller, start to finish. An example, except the green figure: that one comes from the published averages in 02, with their sources.
No trap here
- No contract
- Prices on the site
- Set up for you by a real person
- Texts from your own number
Where the money goes
Four leaks in a plumbing company.
Emergency calls that go to the next plumber
Water on the floor means the homeowner calls until someone answers. If you are under a sink, a text back is your answer.
Quotes for bigger jobs that stall
Water heaters, repipes, sewer lines. The customer wanted a second opinion, then life happened. A follow-up brings them back.
Water heaters that die without warning
You know roughly when a heater is due. A reminder around year 10 turns an emergency replacement into a planned one, with you.
Nobody asks for the review
You fixed the leak at 9 PM and the customer was grateful. By morning they forgot. One text catches the moment.
What a job is worth
What the call you missed at 7:48 was worth.
An ordinary plumbing job is a few hundred dollars. A water heater is over a thousand. The person who could not reach you had one of those in their basement, and called the next company.
- $341
average plumbing job, in a range of $99 to $990
- $1,347
average water heater replacement, in a range of $882 to $1,826
- $170
an hour, the national average for an emergency plumber, before the trip fee
What one caller adds up to
- One job, at the average$341
- The same customer back for a water heater within a few years, at the average$1,347
Each line states its own assumption. The averages are the ones above.
A month of missed calls, at the average
$3,694
10 missed calls a week, one in 4 of them ready to book, at $341 each. Those are the calculator’s defaults, not your company’s numbers.
A week in a plumbing company
Five days, one phone
nobody could answer.
Every rust line is a call you could not take. Every teal line is your number answering for you. Every green line is the job it became, priced near the averages above.
One week, one company
ExampleMonday
- 7:48 AMMissed call, you are backing out of the driveway
- 7:48 AMText-back goes out from your number
- 7:50 AM“Water heater’s leaking from the bottom.” Replacement booked for today$1,347
Tuesday
- 9:00 AMSewer line estimate from seven days ago gets its follow-up
- 12:40 PM“Let’s do the camera first and see.” Inspection booked$341
- 6:30 PMYesterday’s water heater customer gets the review request
Wednesday
- 10:15 AMMissed call, both hands on a drain trap
- 10:15 AMText-back goes out
- 10:19 AM“Kitchen sink is backed up, can you come today?” Booked for 2:00$341
Thursday
- 8:00 AMNine customers whose heaters passed year ten get the age-check text
- 3:20 PMTwo reply. One flush, one “let’s talk about replacing it”$341
Friday
- 11:10 PMMissed call, burst pipe, you are asleep
- 11:10 PMEmergency text-back goes out: shut the main, here is how, we are calling you now
- 11:14 PM“Main’s off. Please come.” On your way, at the emergency rate$510
Booked that week, from texts
$2,880
Made up, like every ledger on this site, and priced at the published averages in 02 so it is a week you would recognise. Your dashboard shows the real one.
What your customer sees
In your words, from your own number.
We write every message with you during setup, in plumbing language. You approve all of them before a single one goes out.
Missed emergency call
ExampleFast text, straight to the point, from your number.
New caller- Missed call, 7:52 PM
- This is Ray at Clearwater Plumbing. Sorry we missed you. If it’s leaking, shut the valve under the fixture or your main. Tell me what’s going on and I’ll call you right back.7:52 PM
- Water heater is leaking from the bottom, I shut the valve7:54 PM
- Good. I can be there by 9 tonight or 7am tomorrow. Which?7:58 PM
- Emergency call booked
Stalled water heater quote
ExampleFollow-up a week after the estimate.
Janet P.- Hi Janet, Ray from Clearwater Plumbing. Checking in on the water heater estimate from last week. Your current one is on borrowed time, so I’d rather replace it on a Tuesday than a Sunday night. Want me to hold a slot?9:00 AM
- Yes please. Next week is fine.1:15 PM
- Replacement booked
Annual water heater flush reminder
ExampleSimple recurring work that keeps you top of mind.
Owen D.- Owen, it’s Clearwater Plumbing. It’s been a year since we flushed your water heater. Want us to do it again while we’re in your area next week?8:00 AM
- Sure, Thursday works10:02 AM
- Service booked
Every text, explained
Seven messages. Here is each one,
and why it is written that way.
When it goes, what it says, why it works in plumbing, and the one thing it will never do. You approve every word of every one before it goes live.
01
Missed-call text-back
When. Within seconds of a call you did not answer, during your working hours.
A plumbing caller has water somewhere it should not be and is dialing down the list until a human answers. A text in the same minute that tells them how to stop the water is the one thing the next company on the list is not doing, and it is the reason they wait for you.
Never. It never goes out when you answered. The shut-off line is the only advice it ever gives, because it is the advice every plumber gives first.
What they read
ExampleThis is Ray at Clearwater Plumbing. Sorry we missed you, we’re on a job. If something’s leaking, shut the valve under the fixture or your main. Text here with what’s going on and I’ll call you right back. Reply STOP to opt out.
227 characters · 2 segments02
After-hours emergency text-back
When. Within seconds of a missed call outside your hours, if you run an on-call plumber. Different wording from the daytime one.
An 11 PM burst pipe is the most valuable call of the week and the one you are least likely to pick up. The text buys the two minutes it takes you to wake up and call back, and the photo tells you whether to put your boots on.
Never. If you do not run on-call, this one does not exist: the night caller gets the 8 AM text instead, worded for a call that came in overnight. We never promise a plumber who is not coming.
What they read
ExampleRay at Clearwater Plumbing. We’re on call tonight. If water is running, shut your main (usually where the line enters the house) and text me a photo of what you’re seeing. Calling you in a minute. Reply STOP to opt out.
219 characters · 2 segments03
Stalled estimate follow-up
When. Seven days after an estimate for a water heater, a repipe or a sewer line, then once more a week later. Two texts, never a third.
A repipe or a sewer line is a second-opinion job. The homeowner called two other companies and then the week got away from them. The company that checks in, plainly, with the honest reason to decide, is the one that gets the Tuesday.
Never. It never discounts and never threatens. “On borrowed time” is said only when the estimate said it first.
What they read
ExampleHi Janet, Ray from Clearwater Plumbing. Checking in on the water heater estimate from last week. Your current one is on borrowed time, so I’d rather replace it on a Tuesday than a Sunday night. Want me to hold a slot? Reply STOP to opt out.
240 characters · 2 segments04
Water heater age check
When. Once a year to every customer whose heater you installed or serviced that is now between eight and twelve years old, in September, before the cold water arrives.
Tank heaters last eight to twelve years and almost nobody replaces one on purpose. A text at year ten turns a Sunday-night emergency, with a stranger, into a Tuesday replacement, with you, at the price you quoted sitting at a kitchen table.
Never. It never claims the heater is failing. It says how old it is, which is a fact you have on file.
What they read
ExampleOwen, it’s Clearwater Plumbing. The water heater we worked on is coming up on ten years, which is about when tanks start to go. Want us to look at it on our next trip through your area, before winter? Reply with a day. Reply STOP to opt out.
241 characters · 2 segments05
Annual flush reminder
When. Twelve months after the last flush or heater service, routed by neighborhood so the visits stack.
A flush is a small job that keeps you the plumber of record for the house. It is also how you see the heater at year nine instead of hearing about it at year eleven.
Never. One reminder a year. If there is no answer, it waits until next year.
What they read
ExampleOwen, it’s Clearwater Plumbing. It’s been a year since we flushed your water heater. Want us to do it again while we’re in your area next week? Reply with a day. Reply STOP to opt out.
184 characters · 2 segments06
Google review request
When. The evening after a completed job, to customers whose job closed without a callback.
Nobody shops for a plumber in advance. They search at 7 PM with water on the floor and call the first company with recent reviews. The 9 PM leak you fixed is the most grateful customer you will ever have, and by morning they have forgotten. The text catches the moment.
Never. Never to a job with an open callback or a dispute. Once per job, never twice.
What they read
ExampleThanks for having Clearwater out today, Owen. If we did right by you, a quick Google review helps a small company more than you’d think: g.page/r/clearwater-plumbing. Reply STOP to opt out.
189 characters · 2 segments07
Win-back
When. Eighteen months after a customer’s last visit, once.
People do not leave a plumber. They forget which one they used, and the next time there is water on the floor they search again. One plain text puts your name back in their phone before that happens.
Never. One text, ever. Nobody is nudged twice.
What they read
ExampleHi, it’s Ray at Clearwater Plumbing. It’s been a while. If anything’s dripping, running or slow, reply here and we’ll find a day. No charge to ask. Reply STOP to opt out.
170 characters · 2 segments
The year, already written
Twelve months in plumbing,
and what goes out in each.
Set once during setup around your seasons, not ours. Change any month by texting us. The quiet months stay quiet on purpose.
January
Burst-pipe and no-hot-water text-backs around the clock. Emergency wording after hours if you run on-call.
The coldest month is the busiest and the most profitable. The job this month is to not lose the call that is ringing while you are under someone else’s sink.
February
Follow-ups on January’s patched heaters and thawed pipes that need real repair.
A pipe you thawed and a heater you nursed are a repipe and a replacement in February, if somebody asks.
March
Sump pump check reminders before the thaw. Text-backs.
The first warm week after a hard winter floods basements. A sump pump that has not run since October is a flooded basement waiting for the thaw.
April
Review requests after every spring job. Follow-ups on sewer-line estimates.
Spring rain finds every cracked sewer line. The camera inspections you quoted in March get decided in April.
May
Win-backs to anyone quiet for eighteen months. Fixture and remodel quote follow-ups.
The slow months start now. May is for the list, and for the remodel quotes homeowners have been sitting on since tax season.
June
Text-backs. Outdoor spigot and irrigation backflow reminders where you do them.
Summer is slower in most of the country. The reminders keep the trucks moving on work you already know is there.
July
Text-backs. Review requests.
Quiet month, happy customers. The reviews land before the fall search season.
August
Follow-ups on every open estimate over $1,000.
The last slow month before the fall rush. Every stalled repipe and water heater quote gets one more honest check-in.
September
Water heater age checks to every unit past year eight. Annual flush reminders.
Cold incoming water makes an old tank work harder. September is when a planned replacement happens; December is when the emergency one does.
October
Winterizing reminders for outdoor lines and vacant properties. Text-backs.
The season starts. The first freeze warning is the first night of frozen-pipe calls.
November
Text-backs, with the day after Thanksgiving watched closely. Drain-cleaning review requests.
The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest plumbing day of the year, and every one of those calls is a kitchen drain the homeowner wants fixed before the guests leave.
December
Text-backs only. Holiday closed dates set so wording and timing respect them.
The phone rings on the 24th. The text should say when you are open, and should not try to sell a flush.
The standing reminders
The rules behind the calendar, each one a date the customer would otherwise have to remember.
- Water heater flush
- Every 12 months
- Water heater age check
- Years 8 to 12
- Stalled estimate follow-up
- 7 days after the quote
- Sump pump check
- Before spring thaw
- Review request
- Same day the job closes
An example month
What a month of this looks like.
Every line is a booked job that started with a text, priced near the averages above. Your dashboard shows yours, not this one.
Plumbing
Example- 6 jobsMissed-call text-backs$2,050
- 3 jobsEmergency call-backs$1,620
- 2 jobsWater heater reminders$2,690
Recovered this month
$6,360
Made up figures for a plumbing company of average size. Not a promise, and not another shop’s results.
The first week
Set up for a plumbing company, by a person.
About an hour of your time, once. We do the carrier paperwork, the number, the list and the writing. Here is what that week looks like for your trade.
Day 0
Kickoff call, 30 minutes
We ask what you work on (service and repair, remodel, new construction, drain and sewer), how many trucks, whether you run on-call and what the trip fee is, what you charge for a service call and a camera inspection, and which months bury you. We ask for your customer list, and whether your software keeps the water heater install dates.
Days 1 to 3
Your number, made text-capable
We register your business number with the carriers under your company’s legal name. Calls do not change. If the trucks carry a different number from the one on the website, we talk about which one customers actually dial at 11 PM.
Days 2 to 4
Your texts, in your words
We draft the seven messages above with your company name, your plumber’s first name, your real on-call hours and your review link. You read every one on your phone, change what you want, and approve. The shut-off line gets rewritten the way you actually say it; that is the point.
Days 4 to 7
Go live, and the inbox on your phone
We turn on the text-back first and watch a day of it with you. The water heater age checks go out the following week, in a small batch, so you see what the replies look like before thirty of them land. A 20-minute call shows you and whoever runs the phone the inbox.
Every month after
The dashboard, together
Before the fall season we look at what went out and what came back, move the age-check batch if your calendar moved, and set the holiday closed dates. If the number is not comfortably above what you pay us, we say so.
What it costs
Three plans. Which one
is yours, by the size of the company.
Every price is on this site and there is no contract. Here is how the three plans map onto the way this trade is usually run.
Starter
$249 /month
One truck, you are the plumber and the office
The text-back is the job you were losing while your hands were wet. Add the rest once you have a list worth texting.
Pro
$449 /month
Most plumbing companies
Two to five trucks, someone on the phone, a stack of open water heater and sewer quotes
The estimate follow-ups and the age checks are where a plumbing company’s money sits. This is the plan most plumbing companies run.
Full
$649 /month
Running ServiceTitan or FieldEdge, equipment records kept, financing on the big jobs
Install dates and job status are read from your software, so the age check fires itself, and the financing offer goes out on repipe and sewer quotes automatically.
Software we commonly connect
On the Full plan. Names only; what we can read depends on what your software allows, and we confirm yours on the call.
- ServiceTitan
- Customers, completed jobs, estimates and their status, equipment with install dates.
- Housecall Pro
- Customers, jobs and estimates. Reminders key off the last completed job.
- Jobber
- Clients, jobs and quotes.
- FieldEdge
- Customers, work orders and the equipment record, which is where the heater’s age lives.
- Service Fusion
- Customers, jobs and estimates.
Why not just…
The other ways a plumbing company handles a missed call.
Each one is a real option, and some are the right one at a certain size. Here is what each costs and where it falls down, as plainly as we can put it.
Keep letting it go to voicemail
Nothing on paper.
The 7:48 caller with a leaking heater does not leave a message. They call the next plumber, and that replacement never shows up on any report of yours, so nobody adds it up.
An answering service
Roughly $200 to $500 a month, more for nights and weekends.
A stranger with a script who cannot tell the caller where the main shut-off is, cannot say whether you are coming tonight, and takes a message. The message does not stop the water.
A dispatcher or an office person
A salary.
The right answer at a certain size, and the texts still help them: the text-back covers the two calls that ring at once at 7 AM, and the age checks are a day of calls they do not have to make.
A big texting and reviews platform
Typically $300 to $600 a month, on an annual contract, from a number that is not yours.
You set it up yourself, the account manager goes quiet after the sale, and cancelling takes ninety days’ notice. The 11 PM caller gets a text from a number they have never seen.
Do it yourself from your cell phone
Your evenings.
It works until the first cold snap. Then it is the day after Thanksgiving, you are on your fourth drain, and the one text that mattered is the one you did not send.
Questions plumbing owners ask
The ones specific to your trade.
The contract, the number and the cancel-by-text answers are on the FAQ page. These are the ones that only come up on a call with a plumbing company.
If you tell us you run on-call, the after-hours text-back goes out at once: how to shut the main, send a photo, we are calling you now. Then the call rings your on-call phone the way it always has. If you do not run on-call, the night caller gets a text at 8 AM worded for a call that came in overnight. We never promise a plumber who is not coming.
It says to shut the valve under the fixture or the main, which is the first thing every plumber says on every leak call. It never says anything else technical. If a customer asks how, the reply lands in your inbox for a person to answer, and the on-call version asks for a photo so you can tell them.
From the install or service date in your software, if you keep one; from your invoices, if you can export them; or from a list we build with you on the kickoff call. A heater with no date on file gets no age check. We do not guess.
A text that says “I’d rather do this on a Tuesday than a Sunday night, want me to hold a slot” is the check-in a good estimator would make if they had the time. It is calm, it comes from the name they met, and it is usually the only follow-up they get from any of the companies they called. For a job that size the second text can say “happy to walk through the financing option” if you offer one.
Yes. The inbox is on as many phones as you want, and every reply shows who answered it. The on-call plumber sees the night’s thread in the morning, and the office sees it at the same time.
They get the text-back and the estimate follow-ups, which property managers tend to like because they are judged on response time. They do not get the age checks or flush reminders unless you want them to: a building is usually on a maintenance schedule already.
Yes, and most do. If you run two numbers, say one for drains on the trucks and one for plumbing on the website, we text from whichever one the customer dialed, so the reply thread is with the number they know.
The text-back still goes out, and it tells the truth: “we’re booking into tomorrow, text here with what’s going on and we’ll get you in line.” Being honest about the wait keeps the customer who would otherwise call four companies and take whichever shows up first. You can change the wording from your phone in a minute.
No. Every reminder keys off what you actually did for that customer: a flush reminder for a heater you flushed, an age check for a heater you installed or serviced, a sump pump check for a sump pump you touched. Someone who called once about a drain gets the review request and, eighteen months later, one win-back.
Lines we do not cross
Six rules, written for plumbing.
They are not settings. They are how it is built, and no plan or request turns them off.
Nothing goes out between 8 PM and 8 AM, the customer’s time, except the on-call text-back to someone who just called you.
A plumber who texts a flush reminder at 11 PM is remembered for the 11 PM, not the flush.
One age check a year. One flush reminder a year. One follow-up pair per estimate. One win-back, ever.
The point is to be the plumber who checked in, not the one who keeps checking in.
STOP means stop, in English or Spanish, instantly, on every message type.
It is the law, and it is also just what you would do if someone said it to your face.
No price, no diagnosis and no promise ever appears in an automated text. Shutting off the water is the one instruction, because it is never wrong.
A text cannot see the pipe. The person who can is you.
Review requests go only to jobs that closed clean, once.
Asking the customer whose basement is still wet for a review is how a company earns its first one-star.
Imported lists get no marketing texts until the customer has heard from you another way.
A water heater age check to someone who last called you in 2019 is, to them, a stranger who knows how old their heater is.
Book a demo
Fifteen minutes, about
your company.
A phone call with the person who would set it up. We look at how many calls you miss, what plumbing jobs are worth to you, and whether this fits. If it does not, we will say so.
- No contract
- Prices on the site
- Set up for you by a real person
- Texts from your own number