Confused by what key predictive indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking in your plumbing business? In this Potty Talk episode, Richard shares the 3 KPIs you know and understand that are vital to your success.
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3 Golden Nuggets
- Number of calls a tech runs per day.
- Number of calls that a tech can’t run same day.
- Number of hours sold per day.
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Show Notes
Number of calls a tech runs per day
The phone’s ringing off the hook, and your techs are consistently booking around eight calls a day. Eight! That’s good, right? It means business is booming…right?
Wrong. If your techs are running eight calls a day each, they’re going to rush through the jobs too quickly, and Mrs. Jones won’t be getting the quality of service you want her to get. Keep track of how many calls your techs run per day; you want no more than three calls per tech, per day.
This might seem like a low number, but the plumbers who make the most money—not only for the business but for themselves, too—run no more than three calls a day. If you’re constantly scheduling more than three a day for each plumber, it’s time to hire more plumbers.
Number of calls that can’t run same day
Here’s another number that matters: how many calls are you unable to run today? Keep track of these! If you have to move jobs to the next day, hopefully, it means your tech has provided Mrs. Jones with options, and she’s chosen the higher option which takes more time. During Richard’s time in plumbing, he often prayed he’d have to move at least three jobs to tomorrow.
Keeping track of this number helps you know how to move forward, too. If you’re constantly having to move calls, it’s an indicator you need more plumbers—because you don’t want to work your guys till 8 p.m.
Get over the emotion of “but I’ll make Mrs. Jones mad if I have to move her slot.” This is a business, and you’ve got to run it like a business. Your customers might be slightly annoyed, but if you communicate with them clearly, they will usually understand. Say something like, “We had some emergencies come up, but I’d love to schedule you for tomorrow.”
Number of hours sold per day
The most important KPI is hours sold, not revenue. So what if you made $27,000 today? Your expenses might be $28,000! Keep track of your hours sold per day, because you want to know your profit.
As your business grows, other KPIs can be valuable in helping you make decisions or identify issues with certain plumbers. But these numbers above—the number of calls a tech runs per day, the number of calls you’re moving to tomorrow, and the number of hours sold—are the vital ones that can tell you, right now, if you’re making money. At the very least, they’ll point you toward how best to make money.
Bonus: Daily Dash
Here are some numbers Richard also kept track of daily.
- Number of total calls per day: This told me how my marketing was doing. If it dipped down, I’d ask why.
- Number of hours sold: This helped me know if I’d make payroll. My minimum was 7.2 hours a day.
- Cash in the bank: Cash flow is king. If I sold the hours, did my bank account go up? If not, why not? Was I getting paid on the same day?
- Number of recruits: We’ve said this before “always be recruiting”! Each day we’d ask, did we have any applications/interviews? If not, we knew we needed to step up our job ads or use services like ApplicantPro.
Richard’s Call to Action
If you want to learn more about numbers that matter and how to best run your plumbing business, why not schedule a free 30-min strategy call with us? Let’s talk about your goals and where you want to be this time next year, and we’ll help you create a path to make that happen. Schedule your free strategy call here today!
