These guides are for the people who actually run a plumbing office: the CSR, the dispatcher, the office manager and the owner who still picks up after hours. Each one teaches a skill you can use this week, whether or not you ever work with us.
We wrote them because the same three questions come up in nearly every first conversation. How do we know if we are booking well? How do we coach without making people defensive? And can we record calls for training? The guides answer each one in detail.
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How to count your plumbing booking rate honestly
Your booking rate is booked jobs divided by bookable calls, counted the same way every week. This guide shows how to define a bookable call, where missed calls belong, and how to turn a change in the rate into dollars you can check.
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A call scoring rubric for plumbing CSRs
Score five to ten calls per CSR each week against the same six moments: greeting, listening, questions, price, time offer and confirmation. This guide gives you a 20-point rubric, a calibration routine and a way to coach from the results.
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Recording customer calls for training: the privacy basics
If your plumbing office records calls for coaching, the federal privacy commissioner expects you to tell callers, explain the purpose, get consent and offer an alternative. This guide summarises the official guidance in plain language; it is not legal advice.
The booking rate math
How to count your plumbing booking rate honestly explains the single most useful number in a plumbing office. It covers what counts as a bookable call, why dividing by all calls hides the truth, how missed calls fit in, and how to turn a booking-rate change into dollars.
You will learn to build a four-line weekly scorecard and to read it without fooling yourself. The guide includes worked examples for a small shop and a multi-CSR office, plus the common mistakes that make a booking rate look better than it is.
The call scoring rubric
A call scoring rubric for plumbing CSRs gives your office manager a fair, repeatable way to review calls. It breaks a call into the moments that decide whether the caller books: the greeting, the listening, the questions, the price answer, the time offer and the confirmation.
You will learn how to score five to ten calls a week in under an hour, how to calibrate so two scorers agree, and how to turn scores into coaching that people welcome rather than dread.
Recording calls for training
Recording customer calls for training in Canada summarises what the federal privacy commissioner says about recording customer calls: notice, a clear purpose, consent and an alternative for callers who decline. It also explains, in plain terms, which provinces have their own private-sector privacy laws.
You will learn what to put in your greeting, how to store and limit access to recordings, and what to ask your own adviser. It is a summary of official sources, not legal advice.
How to use the guides with your team
The guides work best read in order and discussed together. A simple plan for a small office:
- Week one: the owner and office manager read the booking rate guide and start a tally.
- Week two: the team reads the scoring rubric, and the manager scores five calls.
- Week three: decide whether to record calls, using the recording guide, and update your greeting if you do.
- Week four: hold a 30-minute team meeting to look at the scorecard and pick one habit to improve.
If you want help running that plan, the booking rate tracking service does it with you, and the call handling workshop trains the habits the scores reveal.
What the guides won't do
The guides are deliberately narrow. They cover the office side of a plumbing business: answering, booking, scoring and recording calls. They don't cover how to diagnose a leak, which permits a job needs, or how to price a water heater replacement, because those questions belong to your licensed plumbers, your regulators and your own pricing decisions.
They also don't promise a particular booking rate. Every office starts somewhere different, and the honest goal is to beat your own baseline. If you want examples of what the method did in another trade, the results page shows results from our HVAC work, labelled as such.
Why we publish these
Publishing the method is the honest way to show how we work. If the guides help you fix your office alone, that is a good outcome. If you want a coach in the room, see services or call, text or email.
Frequently asked questions
Can we use these guides without working with you?
Yes. They are written so an owner or office manager can apply them alone. If you get stuck, call, text or email and we will point you in the right direction.
Which guide should we read first?
Start with the booking rate guide. Until you know your number, it is hard to tell whether scoring or training is changing anything.
Is the recording guide legal advice?
No. It summarises official guidance from the federal privacy commissioner and links to the sources. Confirm your approach with your own adviser.