PLUMBING
The high water bill call: the photos the customer sends are half the job. Keep them where the plumber can see them
The call starts calm. "My water bill doubled, and nothing looks wet." No water on the floor, no burst pipe. Just a number on a bill. These calls are easy to put off, and they are often a hidden leak: a toilet that runs, a line under the yard, or a leak under the slab. The customer is ready to help. They send photos. Then the photos get lost.
A note on what this is. It is about one kind of call and the things the customer sends you. You can fix most of it this week with the phone you have.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Why is the high water bill call different?
Because nothing is on fire. A burst pipe is a race. A high bill is a mystery. The customer does not know where the water goes, and neither do you, yet. What you have is clues, and the customer holds most of them.
What should you ask the customer to send?
- A photo of the bill, with the usage line showing, so you can see how much it jumped.
- A photo of the meter face, so you know the reading and the meter type.
- A second meter photo after about an hour with every tap, toilet and sprinkler off. If the number moved, water is going somewhere.
- A short note: when the bill jumped, any warm spot on the floor, any sound of running water, any wet patch in the yard.
Many meters have a small dial or triangle that spins when water is moving. Ask them to look at it with everything off. That one photo can point to inside or outside before anyone drives over.
Sample. EN: Hi Mr. Pérez, this is Rosa from Tubo Rápido. To get ready for the visit, can you text us a photo of the bill and one of the meter? Then turn off every tap for an hour and send one more meter photo. ES: Hola señor Pérez, le escribe Rosa de Tubo Rápido. Para preparar la visita, ¿nos manda una foto de la cuenta y otra del contador? Después cierre todas las llaves por una hora y mándenos otra foto del contador.
Where do those photos end up today?
Check this week. Think of the last high bill call. Who got the photos? Were they on the office phone, the owner’s cell, or an email? Did the plumber who went out see them before they knocked? If the answer is "I would have to look," that is the gap.
When photos live on one person’s phone, the tech arrives cold and asks for the bill again. The customer did their part, and it feels like nobody listened.
How do you keep it all in one place?
By hand, make one rule: every photo and every note for a job goes in one place, by customer name. A shared photo album per job works. So does a group text with the tech on it. It is not pretty, but it beats five phones.
This is the job of one shared inbox. The customer’s texts, the photos, the emails and the call all sit in one thread under their name. The office reads it. The plumber opens the same thread before the visit and sees the bill, both meter photos and the note about the warm spot. The thread stays in the language the customer chose, so a Spanish speaking owner gets every message in Spanish.
If you are one plumber and every text already comes to your own phone, you do not need this. Your phone is the one place. The inbox matters once a second person answers or goes out.
What about the slab leak?
Some of these calls end at a running toilet. Some end at the slab, and that is a bigger talk. Many insurers ask for photos and dates. The thread already has them, in order, from the first text. Do not tell the customer what insurance will cover. Give them the record and let them ask their insurer.
Related
Want to see where your photos would land?
Book a 30-minute call. We walk through your last high bill call, show you one thread with the photos, the texts and the notes together, and write the photo request with you in both languages.
