No one knows when disaster will strike. All of a sudden, one of your customers might be calling you with a massive sewage leak on their hands and your services are needed in a hurry.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team found out incidents like that can happen at anytime — and they can be quite messy.
The Dodgers were facing the Angels in the final game of spring training in late March when the game was cut short because of a backup that spilled sewage onto the field in the fifth inning. The game was delayed as crews tried to find the problem, and then the game was called after 32 minutes.
“Apparently, there was a pipe backup on two different levels of the stadium,” Stan Kasten, Dodgers president and CEO, told the media following the game. “We don’t know exactly where the backup was or what caused it. It had something to do with a main pipe here, as well as a main pipe outside the stadium.”
It’s times like this when you need to be ready to hit the road running and be prepared for any call that might come in, no matter the size of it.
BEING PREPARED
For Joseph Wood, owner of Boston Standard Plumbing and Heating in Boston, being ready for any job and location is a must being in city that is filled with old historical buildings.
The company, profiled in this issue, has taken on jobs installing boilers and water heaters in tight-fitting Boston homes and apartments.
Plumber profiled one of those tight-fitting jobs in the January issue.
Wood started Boston Standard with a strict focus on plumbing but soon realized that he needed to expand in order to make his company more attractive to customers. By the summer of 2009, Wood started to offer cooling services to complement the plumbing and heating side of the business.
To help him be prepared for any situation, Wood has a fleet of various service vehicles but is slowly transitioning to full-size Ford Transits as the core workhorses. The trucks are outfitted with cargo kits and trays and compartments geared to meet technicians’ needs.
The In the Shop feature this month also highlights what other plumbing firms are doing with their service vehicles to get the most out of storage. You don’t want to go into a kitchen or bathroom remodeling or repair project not being able to find an important fixture or product, do you?
KNOWING YOUR PRODUCTS
When working on kitchen and baths — one of the editorial focuses of this issue — it’s always good to know what you are walking into. Does the customer need something repaired or is it a complete remodeling project?
Either way, you should come prepared to offer suggestions to the customers on products that they might need or want for their kitchen and bathroom projects this summer.
Check out the Product Focus feature where we highlight items from fixtures to bathtubs to grease interceptors and more. Everything your customer might want is found in this section.
WHAT PROJECTS DO YOU HAVE?
Do you have a big kitchen or bathroom project coming up that you are handling? How about other plumbing projects your company has been hired for? We’re looking for projects to highlight both in print and online. Contact me at editor@plumbermag.com or 800-257-7222.
Enjoy this issue!
