CHECKING OUT YOUR PLUMBER BEFORE YOU SCHEDULE
While it’s probably true that you can only believe about half of what you read on the internet, it can be a valuable resource when checking out your prospective plumbing contractor.
So here’s the quick step by step guide to checking out your potential choices.
1) If he’s not on the internet, he’s probably not worth hiring. Well run plumbing companies are aware that today’s consumers want to educate themselves about their home service providers prior to scheduling their services. If you don’t find a professionally done, well built website when you search a prospective plumbing contractor on the web, then the contractor is saying he just doesn’t feel the need to spend the money it takes to show how professional his company is! The question to ask yourself is: do you want to ask a plumber into your home who doesn’t feel you are worth a professional website? Also, if he’s that far “behind the times” on the internet, how does he do with keeping up with technical advances in the plumbing field? At Yes! Plumbing we feel it is of vital importance to maintain a professional, up to date website which is educational, informative and helpful to our clients.
2) Look at review sites—especially review sites which do not charge the contractors for membership. Check out ratings on the Better Business Bureau (what’s his rating, how are his reviews and is he a BBB accredited business?) and Google plus for a start. Neither requires the contractor to pay money to have reviews listed and unlike some other sites, they have never been accused of trying to extort money from contractors in order to show “improved” reviews. Yes Plumbing reviews from Tinley Park to Orland Park and many towns in the Illiana area.
3) Read the good and bad reviews. As they say, one man’s garbage is another man’s bread and butter. Read all the reviews keeping in mind that poor reviews are super easy to come by but good reviews require stellar service and above average effort on the company’s part to earn. Yes! Plumbing is proud of it’s reputation in Illinois and Indiana in towns like Munster, Dyer, Homewood and Frankfort as well as many others.
4) Smaller companies have a harder time getting good reviews because they service fewer clients. Yes! Plumbing can garner more reviews the more service calls it runs, so the number of reviews has far less to do with what to expect than the quality of the reviews. By the same token, a large company running 4000 service calls a year has a much greater chance of having more negative (and positive) reviews than a small company running 200 or so per year.
5) Take all negative reviews with a grain of salt. Most of them are written when the author is frustrated or mad about some stressful situation. Perhaps they didn’t have the money for a major repair and are mad at the plumber for not being able to fix their problem for what they thought it should cost. Maybe a well meaning relative told them after the fact that they could have gotten it done by “their plumber” at half the cost. (Even plumbing contractors cannot price work over the phone so it’s pretty impossible for a relative or friend to do so with absolutely no plumbing ability. Remember—that will not stop them from doing so). Good skills and an objective mindset are the best ways to approach the negative reviews when evaluating reviews you find on the internet.
6) Be aware that some sites will only post negative reviews unless the contractor “joins” their service (meaning pays membership fees). They will list positive reviews which can be found only as “filtered” or “not recommended” reviews requiring you to find a hardly visible link on their website that you have to click on to be shown any good reviews. These sites (yes there are more than one) attempt to extort “protection money” from contractors under the threat of using one or more negative reviews to reduce the number of people who will continue their research. These are very well known and highly regarded sources of contractor reviews but as you can see with a little research, they are reminiscent of the extortion that criminals used to use to provide “protection” from bad things (them) happening to the contractor. Internet law has not matured to the point of providing protection to the contractors from this type of behavior so until it does, it’s up to the educated consumer to vette them on his/her own.
7) Lastly, when you have satisfied yourself that you have found a good plumber or two, call them and speak to their call takers to see if their internet reputation extends to their actual operation. Do they answer the phone live 24 hours a day? Are their phone personnel knowledgeable and courteous? Do they follow a standard, repeatable procedure on the phone to insure you are taken care of in a timely manner? Do they accept credit cards? Can they provide financing when needed? What kind of guarantee do they provide? (Yes! Plumbing provides the best guarantee in the business!). Do they do criminal background checks on all employees? Have they won any awards for service professionalism? Do they guarantee price using a national pricing guide or do they make up pricing based on “experience”. If they charge by the hour, how do they insure that the price you pay with their plumber X (a really slow guy) is the same price your neighbor paid last week when they sent plumber Y ( a really fast guy) to do the same job? Shouldn’t you both pay the same amount for the same job?
We all fear being taken advantage of. Reputation is very important. You can read actual reviews of Yes Plumbing from around the web and see what our clients have to say! (708) 847-7045