When Oatey, a leading plumbing products manufacturer, asked Colin Luttrell to join its Ambassador Program, he didn’t hesitate to say yes. And doing so made him a better and more informed plumber and drain cleaner, he says.
The owner of Colin the Plumber in Rochester, New York, Luttrell says Oatey representatives contacted him after seeing the plumbing-related videos he posts regularly on Instagram and Facebook.
There are many benefits to the program (which plumbers can apply for at www.oatey.com/interested-becoming-oatey-ambassador). One perk is an all-expenses-paid trip to the Oatey headquarters and training center in Cleveland, Ohio, for Ambassador Fest, where participants get to meet other ambassadors, receive training and get time to talk shop with Oatey employees.
In return for posting videos multiple times a month to show how they use Oatey products, ambassadors also receive Oatey products and other gifts and get to test new products and provide feedback during one-on-one conversations with members of Oatey’s product development team. They also could get invited to join the Oatey team at trade shows and other events.
The time commitment is fairly low, Luttrell says, especially since he already had been regularly posting videos on social media.
“We participate in a similar ambassador program with Fernco,” he says. “We get to tour their plant in Detroit and represent their products in a positive way.”
The in-depth knowledge gained about the products pays dividends when Luttrell talks to customers.
“With Oatey, for instance, being an ambassador has changed how I explain things to customers because I’ve seen how their products are made and how they’re different from other products in terms of quality,” he says. “I also am confident that I’m explaining things properly to customers. The same is true for the Fernco ambassador program. The more training and knowledge you receive about products, the more valuable you are to customers. It’s really crazy how much you can learn.”
Luttrell notes that other equipment manufacturers also have similar ambassador programs that are worth investigating.
“It’s 100% worth it to join them, a great opportunity,” he says.
