PLUMBING
The repipe you quoted in March: where approved plumbing work goes to die
The Westchester homeowner approved the repipe in March. Then the water heater on Bird Road blew, the tech got pulled, and the repipe became a row in Jobber with a status nobody looks at. It is still there. So is the customer.
A note on what this is. We have not measured how much approved plumbing work a company gets back by following up. This is where it sits and how to reach it.
Why plumbing has the biggest pile
Plumbing is the trade where emergencies steal the calendar. Every burst pipe pushes a scheduled repipe back a day. After three pushes the customer stops calling to ask. After five, the office assumes he went with someone else. He did not. He is waiting.
Pull the list
- In Jobber or Housecall Pro, go to estimates, not jobs.
- Filter: approved, no job attached.
- Quoted between six and eighteen months ago. Recent enough that the price holds, old enough that it fell off the radar.
- Sort by value. Work by age.
APPROVED, NOT SCHEDULED
The message is different
This is not marketing. The customer already decided. The text reads like a reminder about something agreed: "Hi Carlos, we still have your repipe approved from March. We have a slot open the week of the 12th. Want it?" In Spanish if he speaks Spanish. Sent at 10 AM, not 9 PM.
One message. One reminder a week later if no answer. Then it stops. A customer who is not ready will say so, and that is a better answer than silence.
Quiet hours matter more here than anywhere. This is already-approved work landing in someone's text messages. 8 PM to 8 AM, nothing goes out.
What the office sees
Every reply lands in the same inbox as new calls. Anything that books goes on the same job board. Nobody works a second system for old customers, and nobody has to remember the repipe from March.
Questions we get asked about this
Is this legal?
You quoted the work and the customer approved it. That is a relationship, not a cold list. The message includes STOP, respects quiet hours, and stops on the first reply.
What if the price has changed?
Say so in the message. "Materials went up since March; the new number is X." A customer who approved once will usually approve again if you are straight about it.
How do I get the list out of Housecall Pro?
Estimates, filter by approved, no job attached, date range you choose. Export it. We load it and set the language per customer.
Related
Run the report before the call
Pull approved-with-no-job from your own system, sort by value, and bring the total to a 30-minute call. We start from your number.