When Lindsey Rushing, president of Peerless Plumbing-NuDrain Phoenix, was notified in 2021 that the company had been nominated for a Better Business Bureau Torch Award for ethical business practices, she was surprised. She believes that’s the way it ought to happen.
The Arizona company turned out to be a finalist for the award, rather than the actual winner, but the nomination alone meant everything.
“A lot of companies nominate themselves,” Rushing says. “Because a customer nominated us, it was a big surprise. It was a great experience. I got to tell people why I believed we deserved the award and how we run our business. We’re not going to be dishonest with our customers.”
Rushing says the company philosophy is that the business won’t try to hard sell anything to customers. Rather, it is going to educate customers about options.
“A lot of time that pays off,” Rushing says. “But whether they go with us or not, they are better educated. We have gone into greater depth to make sure they understand what is involved.”
She says Peerless representatives who go into customer homes to estimate a job “actually have done the work before. They know the process. Customers know the person talking to them has done the work. It is a better experience for customers than someone just giving them a number.”
Feedback from emails and Google reviews seems to support that conclusion.
“A lot of them say our techs are very knowledgeable and able to explain the process thoroughly, that they are honest and genuine,” Rushing says.
She says this approach to estimating jobs is far more to her liking than a hard-sell approach.
“I don’t like salesmen. I don’t like being pressured into something.”
