How do you prove you're #1?

I recently experienced what I can only describe as?"extraordinary customer service" from a tech company. Sorry, did I say "tech" company? How many of you would qualify a plumbing company as a "tech" company? For an amazing tale (and a fitting companion piece to my bathroom remodel story), read on.

What, pray tell, is your question... and answer?

Can you guarantee a consistency of high-level, personable, proactive, customer service when you have different departments, with different personnel, interacting at different times, about different things, with different customers? Amazingly, I found a plumbing company with 400+ employees that does exactly that.

What we see versus what we get

We've all seen TV commercials that show smiling, professional, company reps, speaking to "you" on the phone, welcoming "you" to their venue or showing up at "your" door, with a great attitude and helpful demeanor, ready to handle anything you could possibly throw at them. And then you engage with the company and discover (or, if you've been around the block more than once, you "confirm") that their customer service is actually nowhere near what their TV commercial says it will be.

I've found the exception, and it's a plumbing company

Yes, this plumbing company also claims to be number One. The difference is, they can back it up.?Now, before you think to yourself, "Of course he'll say that after one great service call", you should know that I had the great misfortune of having to rely on their service four times in the span of a month. The first call was on Thanksgiving Day, and the last call was on Christmas eve (thankfully when they say they are 24/7/356, they mean it). I think I may have single-handedly kept that company financially afloat for the Holidays. All I can say is that, for all four times I called on them, I received the same high level of service: from phone call to onsite visit, to post-site visit.

The 'tech" in "Plumb-tech-ing" Company

The first time I called the company I spoke to a very helpful, positive, and proactive phone rep who quite sincerely expressed sympathy for the situation we were going through. It warmed my heart. She confirmed my address and phone number and told me I would be seeing one of their reps that night. Within seconds of hanging up, I received a text from the company confirming the same thing. Okay, I thought, he really must be coming if they told me and sent a text (I mean, it was Thanksgiving Day). Thirty minutes later, I received a text containing the formal company headshot of the plumber that would be arriving at my house, together with his name and mobile phone number. Okay, this guarantees I won't be letting some false pretender into my home. Then the plumber himself called when he was leaving his last service location and about to head in my direction. Minutes later, I received a text confirming that he really was on his way to my home. Huh... I've never received this many checks and balances for just a plumber coming to my home before. Fascinating.

When he arrived, he slipped protective covers over his shoes before entering our home (this is important as you'll see later). During the job, he used his company-issued tablet to take pictures of what he was seeing and recommending. I received those pictures via email within minutes, together with his notes on what each photo showed and what was required, all while he was still there. When he was done, he took my credit card information and, after signing on his tablet, I immediately received an email and text thanking me for being a customer. That email was accompanied by a copy of the invoice and the job details. The plumber was courteous and helpful the entire time and, in addition to taking care of what he needed to fix, he offered tips on a couple of things that he noticed but were not under his purview for the job he was there to do.

Keep in mind, it was a chilly night (for Atlanta, Georgia). It was 9 PM on Thanksgiving Day. He happened to be the plumber on call that day, and he had been going since 7 AM that morning but you wouldn't know it from his great attitude and courteous manner. The only giveaway that he had been through a busy on-call day, were the large smudges of dirt and dust on his company uniform and, for the type of job he was responsible for, it was understandable.?

I don't tend to complete service feedback forms because I find them to be more like a chore

Within thirty minutes of each job completion, I received an email asking me to provide feedback on their service. The email had a button on it that said, "Rate Our Team". I wanted to. I was happy to do so: every, single, time. When I clicked "Rate Our Team" I was taken to the survey which, among other things, wanted to know about the tech's "Personal Appearance", "Overall Knowledge", and Communication Skills". There was nothing in the survey about the actual plumbing issue that had to be fixed. They were clearly confident in the technical skills of their rep, and instead, wanted to balance the technical with the interpersonal. The survey was also short and sweet.

Hitting the "submit" button gave you one last screen with the photo and first name of the tech, plus an invitation to rate him. It literally says, "This encourages our team members to provide excellent service", followed by, "Thank you for helping (tech's name) career!" Of course! Why wouldn't I want to help (tech's name) career? He was great! At the company website, every single tech is listed by their first name under their photo, with their five-star rating featured prominently, and customer comments visible below. Wow.

You should see the things people write about the techs. None of it is about the technical aspects of the job they did. Everything is about the individual's professional interpersonal experience, and all of them are glowing. Thousands of customer ratings and reviews. Did I say they're a plumbing company with some serious tech-tool support to back up their equally serious interpersonal customer interaction skills?

To top it all off, I received a follow-up call from a live person who wanted to make sure that their techs had done a great job for me. They also wanted to know, did they use protective covers over their shoes before entering our home. Interesting level of detail but totally understandable when you're trying to maintain consistency with a large workforce (kind of reminds me of something similar I put together back in my hotel AV days, called the White Glove Audit).

They are #1 in my book

Being that my specialty is helping organizations, teams, and individuals reach and maintain a consistently high level of professional customer interaction, I can confirm that this tech-equipment-manual-labor company walks-the-walk, and talks-the-talk. They can truly claim to be number one because their technical ability is balanced by their high professional level of interpersonal customer interaction, and it's backed by thousands of glowing customer reviews.?

The question I would ask you is this: would you feel super confident enough to put the names and photos of your techs on your website, and ask your customers to rate them once a job is completed, for all to see? Whether your answer is 'yes' or 'no', consider your answer and what, if any, your next move should be. If you already provide space on your site to rate your techs, I'd love to hear what the pros and cons have been.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. I've also got a go-fund-me page to help pay for all the plumbing calamities I've gone through over the past four weeks. Just kidding! ??