Case Study: Dartford Plumbing
As a relatively small plumbing company, Dartford Plumbing approached Miss MPS after learning about our administrative support and call-answering services for other local businesses in Kent. Since we began working with them in 2019, Dartford Plumbing has grown significantly, having successfully completed work for over 1,000 customers across West Kent.
Read on to discover how we helped provide the support necessary for Dartford Plumbing to advance to the next level.
The problem
As with most trades, plumbing businesses often start as sole traders, often working from a mobile phone and jotting down jobs on a piece of paper. After all, plumbers are likely to be either in their van or at a client’s premises – there’s no time for them to be sitting at a desk!
This is a frustrating position for plumbing business owners – the work is out there for them, but they may not even be able to answer the calls necessary to expand their business. Likewise, after a busy day, it’s difficult to find the time to even begin thinking about proactively calling existing customers.
Dartford Plumbing was becoming increasingly frustrated by missed calls and lost business opportunities. But they’re definitely not alone—many businesses face the same challenges! According to our research, 50% of small businesses do not answer calls. To make matters worse, the company was investing funds in advertising on Checkatrade, which was being poured down the drain.
So, with aspirations to grow the business, Dartford Plumbing found Miss MPS on Google while searching for a
reliable call-answering service to enhance customer support.
The solution
At Miss MPS, our dedicated team ensures that every call is answered professionally, giving our client’s business the polished image it deserves.
For small businesses, we think this is an important baby step in giving a ‘big company’ feel and to leave a reassuring, positive first impression.
However, with Dartford Plumbing being so busy, a message taking service wasn’t enough. Rather than just having missed calls, they were just being flooded with our messages! If anything, this was even more frustrating as they knew the opportunities were being left on the table.
The answer was for us to be more than just a call-answering receptionist who took down their customers' messages and passed them on. Instead, our staff underwent training on an engineer-friendly system called Gas Engineer Software so that we could proactively book the engineers in for work.
Having access to a system like this allowed us to go a step further. By using Dartford Plumbing's customer database, alongside the system's features for reminders and reports, we developed an effective method for scheduling our customers' annual gas services.
The success story
We soon learnt the key common questions in order to quickly and professionally deal with almost all queries customers had when calling Dartford Plumbing. From having missed calls and huge gaps in their diary, we were able to book more plumbing and heating jobs in an efficient way to maximise Dartford Plumbing’s time. All they had to do was turn up for the job and do what they did best, while we took care of everything else!
From its beginnings as a sole trader, Dartford Plumbing has taken on three more staff members to cope with the additional work and the expansion of its business. We’re proud to have worked closely with them for four years and counting.
Success by numbers
By using Miss MPS, since we've worked for Dartford Plumbing we have saved them more than £70,000 over hiring a full time receptionist (without the sick days, or holiday!)
8,000+
Calls taken
99%
Calls answered first time
4,160
Appointments booked
Support for plumbers
Join the others like Dartford Plumbing who are growing with support from the team at Miss MPS.
More Case Studies
Take a look at how we have helped other growing businesses around Kent and beyond by clicking on the individual case studies.
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