Plumbing has the widest ticket spread of any residential trade. A drain clear is $180. A repipe is $12,000. Both start with the same phone call, and the difference between a company that grows and one that stays busy is usually whether the small job leaves behind enough information to see the large one coming.
That makes the configuration question specific: what has to be on the record after a $180 visit so that the $12,000 conversation is possible later?
Speed to lead is the first thing to configure, not the last
Before any field or stage, deal with the phone. Plumbing demand skews urgent and urgent callers do not wait.
Which means missed-call text-back is not an optional nicety in this trade; it is the highest-return switch available, and it should be live before you have finished tidying your customer list. A burst pipe at 9pm is a lead that is being awarded within minutes, by whoever replies.
The property fields that create the next job
Plumbing is a property trade — the pipes stay when the owner moves — so the record should describe the building, not just the person.
- Water heater make, model, and install date. The single most valuable field in residential plumbing. A heater installed in 2013 is a replacement conversation, and you are the only company that knows.
- Pipe material and age — polybutylene, galvanised, cast iron. Each is a repipe forecast with a known failure curve, and each is a reason the customer will one day get a very large quote from somebody.
- Main shutoff location — trivial to record, and it turns the next emergency visit into a faster one.
- Fixture inventory on larger properties, and for commercial accounts, the equipment you maintain.
- Prior work with photos — what was replaced, what was patched, and what you told them was going to fail next.
That last one is the quiet money. Every plumber tells customers "this will need doing within a couple of years" and almost none of them write it down anywhere a reminder can be attached.
Stages, and the one everyone leaves out
| Stage | What it means | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| New / triaged | Arrived, urgency assessed | Separates the 11pm burst pipe from the Tuesday quote enquiry |
| Dispatched | Assigned, customer notified | The window promise is the most common complaint source |
| On site / diagnosed | Problem identified, options being priced | Where the small job becomes a large one |
| Quoted — awaiting decision | Options given, no answer yet | The stage most companies do not have, and where repipes die |
| Approved / scheduled | Booked in | Parts and crew get planned from here |
| Complete / invoiced | Same-day invoice | The cash gap in plumbing is mostly small jobs ageing |
The stage that matters is "quoted — awaiting decision." A homeowner given a $9,000 repipe number needs a fortnight and two conversations. If your board only holds work that is scheduled, that quote exists nowhere, and the follow-up depends on someone remembering during a busy week.
Price with options, and record which one they took
Good–better–best pricing is standard in plumbing for a reason, but the version that compounds is recording which option was declined. A customer who chose the repair over the replacement in March is a warm replacement lead in the autumn, and the note takes four seconds.
Service plans are the retention layer
Plumbing has weaker natural recurrence than HVAC or pest control — nothing brings a customer back on a schedule. Membership or service plans are how the trade manufactures it: an annual inspection, priority scheduling, no callout fee, a discount on work.
For configuration, that means the plan needs to be an object on the record with a renewal date and a visit history attached, not a note in a field. Otherwise renewals depend on someone running a report they will not run in July.
Commercial and property management accounts
Most plumbing companies have some commercial work, and it behaves differently enough to warrant its own handling: purchase order numbers, net terms, multiple properties under one payer, and a named contact who is not the person at the site.
- Separate the payer from the property, or a management company with thirty units becomes thirty confused records.
- Capture the PO requirement up front. An invoice without a PO number is an invoice that will not be paid, and you will find out at day forty.
- Give the account an owner and a check-in cadence. Commercial relationships are lost silently, between invoices, and the loss is large.
The $180 drain call is not a small job. It is the first appointment in a relationship that eventually includes a water heater and a repipe.
Common questions
What should a plumbing CRM record about the property?
Water heater make, model, and install date; pipe material and age; main shutoff location; prior work with photos; and anything you told the customer would need doing soon. Heater age and pipe material are replacement forecasts, and you are the only company holding them.
What pipeline stages does a plumbing company need?
New/triaged, dispatched, on site/diagnosed, quoted — awaiting decision, approved/scheduled, and complete/invoiced. The one most companies leave out is "quoted — awaiting decision", which is exactly where large jobs like repipes die when the board only holds scheduled work.
How should a plumbing company handle after-hours calls?
Automatic text on every missed call, a reply that separates emergencies from enquiries, real emergencies escalated to whoever is on call, and everything else queued for the morning. Plumbing demand skews urgent, and urgent callers book whoever responds first.
Do plumbing companies need service plans in the CRM?
If you sell them, yes — as an object with a renewal date and visit history, not a note in a field. Plumbing has weak natural recurrence, so plans are how the trade manufactures repeat business, and renewals that depend on someone running a report do not happen in July.