When your plumbing company’s phone rings, do your customer service representatives know how to make a great first impression and skillfully convert calls into booked jobs?
An effective plumbing call center script helps your CSRs:
Increase booking rates
Build customer trust and confidence
Enhance the customer experience
ServiceTitan’s call booking software has helped hundreds of plumbing businesses operate more efficiently and increase revenue. In this post, we share what to include in a plumbing call center script, along with a customizable sample call script, to help you boost the profitability of every phone call. We also explain how our plumbing software can help optimize the entire booking process.
Table of Contents
Want to discover how ServiceTitan can help you optimize your plumbing call center? Book a free, personalized demo.
What is a Plumbing Call Center Script?
A call center script is a document that helps customer service representatives communicate professionally and effectively with customers. A call center script gives your customer service reps the proper wording for inbound and outbound calls, and guides the dialogue with prompts to handle a variety of situations (for example, emergency calls).
Call center scripts for plumbers, HVAC, and other trades in the service industry ensure your CSRs converse with customers in a consistent manner, provide superior customer service, and convert more phone calls into booked jobs.
Let’s take a look at how scripts benefit the call center in your plumbing business.
5 Benefits of Using a Call Center Script in Your Plumbing Business
Your CSRs do a lot more than simply answer the phone.
“As CSR, you are the voice of the company,” says ServiceTitan Principal Industry Advisor Angie Snow. “You have a great impression to make for the company.”
ServiceTitan’s call booking and Phones Pro software speeds up the booking process for companies in the plumbing industry, and equips CSRs to collect critical information, identify additional sales opportunities, and deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Throughout this article, we’ll explain how our software helps plumbing businesses.
Here are five benefits of using a plumbing call center script:
Benefit #1: Consistency
Whether your in-house CSRs or an after-hours call answering service agent speaks to customers, call scripts ensure consistency no matter who picks up the phone or answers the online chat. Customized scripts give CSRs a uniform dialogue, so they collect necessary information to properly prioritize calls and give the same answers to customer inquiries.
Benefit #2: Better First Impression
When your lines are busy with customer calls, do your phones turn over to voicemail or do potential customers get the help they need with a live plumbing answering service?
Since 65% of people contact businesses by phone, according to an Invoca consumer survey, first impressions matter. Plumbing call center scripts ensure that CSRs ask the right questions, provide the right solutions, and deliver a great first impression.
Benefit #3: Improved CSR Performance and Productivity
When customers call your plumbing company, they need solutions to their plumbing problems, whether it’s a broken water heater or leaky faucet. By asking the right questions, CSRs gather the most important information in the shortest amount of time, increasing their performance and productivity and improving customer satisfaction.
ServiceTitan Phones Pro improves your CSR team’s performance by increasing efficiency and boosting booking rates. Since calls automatically connect to jobs, your CSRs spend less time on job bookings and reclassifying abandoned calls.
With Phones Pro, you can even tie phone numbers to specific marketing campaigns, so you see exactly what’s working, in real-time (we'll discuss marketing later in this piece).
Benefit #4: Reduced Training Time
Plumbing call center scripts reduce training for your part-time or full-time CSRs, because they can learn on the job more quickly.
ServiceTitan’s Phones Pro provides live call transcripts to assist your CSRs, enabling them to quickly answer customers’ questions, even if they may not initially know the answer. This also helps the conversation stay on track when a customer asks about the price of a service or product.
Benefit #5: Improved Customer Satisfaction
When your CSRs quickly provide solutions to customers in a professional and friendly manner, they deliver a great customer experience. Plumbing call center scripts ensure that your CSRs gather the right information, accurately answer questions, and efficiently book the job, without keeping the customer waiting on the line.
ServiceTitan’s call booking software automatically records every incoming call, so you have a complete record of how your CSRs are handling the calls and can flag a great sales call and use it as a CSR training tool.
And, with Phones Pro, you can access call recordings from anywhere so your plumbing techs can listen to them to check job details before arriving on site so they come fully prepared.
The job of a CSR comes with its own set of challenges. We’ll discuss these next.
Common Challenges CSRs Face When Using Scripts
A call center script can’t teach CSRs everything. If you want your CSRs to achieve more booked calls, training is key.
“As business owners, we invest so much money in marketing to get the phone to ring, but if your CSRs are not capturing those calls and seizing those opportunities, you’re wasting your money,” Snow says.
Here are some ways to overcome common challenges and set up your CSRs for success.
Challenge #1: Limited Flexibility
While plumbing call scripts offer numerous benefits, your CSRs need to know how to listen, remain empathetic, and create lasting relationships with customers when answering calls.
Call booking software gives CSRs customer information to individualize each conversation based on the customer’s needs and gives CSRs the knowledge to ask the right questions.
For instance, ServiceTitan’s call booking software automatically populates with customer data, such as property age and size, so CSRs can pinpoint bigger sales opportunities.
Complete background data gives CSRs the flexibility to provide a personalized customer experience and handle the call in a way that provides complete customer satisfaction.
Challenge #2: Lack of Information
To provide the best customer experience, CSRs must be fully prepared. This includes knowing customer information and property data, answers to customer questions, and current schedule openings.
Customers don’t want to listen to dead air, wait on hold, or be passed around to other departments only to repeat their question. With ServiceTitan call booking software, CSRs can see who’s calling before they pick up the phone, whether they are a new or existing customer, and access customer data (such as job and technician history) instantly.
ServiceTitan’s software lets you store notes with customer records, too. For example, if English isn’t the customer’s first language, this can be noted so the CSR understands how to handle the call.
Live call scripts help your CSRs answer questions accurately and knowledgeably, without making the customer wait. Provide your CSRs with comprehensive information and the right digital tools to optimize performance.
Challenge #3: Asking the wrong questions
When CSRs ask the wrong questions, they may fail to capture valuable information.
ServiceTitan’s call booking software prompts CSRs to ask and answer questions in the summary box on the customer’s account. Call scripts containing specific questions about customer information and the plumbing issue ensure that your CSRs follow best practices and collect needed information from every call.
The software’s simple drop-down menus make it easier for CSRs to collect information and keep the conversation moving in the right direction.
Equipping your CSRs with the right tools (such as a clear call center script and call booking software like ServiceTitan) makes their job easier and improves the overall performance of your service company.
We’ll explain how ServiceTitan’s software helps your CSRs schedule and dispatch plumbing jobs below, but first, we’ll show the components of an inbound plumbing call center script, so you can create one for your plumbing company.
What to Include in a Plumbing Call Center Script
While each plumbing call center script varies depending on whether it’s an inbound or outbound call, the best scripts contain key elements to ensure CSRs collect the right information. Effective call center scripts help your CSRs book more calls, generate more plumbing leads, and improve the customer experience.
Want to optimize your call center practices? Visit ServiceTitan’s Contractor Playbook for more call center tips and examples.
1. Opening
Your company’s greeting should include your company name, and "Thank you for calling.” It’s also important to ask, "How can we help you?"
Keep in mind: Your greeting should be friendly but short, because the customer is waiting to tell you about their plumbing problem.
2. Gather Information
Gather essential client and plumbing system information. We’ll share specific questions in the example below. Required information, included in ServiceTitan call booking software, includes customer contact information, questions about the plumbing system, and the customer’s specific plumbing problem.
3. Set Expectations
After the customer schedules an appointment, clearly set expectations and explain the process for the day of the appointment. This depends on your company’s procedure, but let them know they’ll be notified when a technician will arrive and what will happen on the day of the appointment.
The #1 newsletter for the trades.
4. Pitch
A short pitch informs the customer that your company offers a membership program and how it benefits them. Customer data is key, so you know whether they already have a membership, or if it’s getting ready to expire.
5. Closing
Thank the customer, using their name. Confirm their address, appointment day, time, and job type. Make sure you validate the customer’s concerns, showing you listened and care, which works to create a lasting customer relationship.
Below, we share an example of a plumbing call center script that can be customized for your plumbing company. Then, we explain in detail how ServiceTitan’s plumbing software further supports your CSRs, helps speed up the booking process, and increases profit with our scheduling, dispatching, and marketing features.
Example of a Plumbing Call Center Script Template
To create your own plumbing call center script, follow the example below.
Opening
“Thank you for calling Titan Home Plumbing. How can we help you today?”
Gather System Information
“What is the problem or issue?” (Ask specific questions, so you can properly determine the issue.)
“How long have you been experiencing this problem [or issue]?” (This helps you figure out the urgency of the problem.)
“How old is your equipment?” (You may want to consider sending a higher level of technician for an older system.)
“Where is your equipment located?” (Access restrictions may dictate which tech to send.)
“How many units or systems do you have?” (Depending on the type of equipment, multiple units or systems may require additional techs at different levels.)
Gather Client Information
“Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” (If you don’t have contact information, ask for first and last name, location address, phone number, email, and primary and additional account contacts)
“Are you the owner of the property?” If not, “Who is the owner?”
“Is this a residential or commercial property?”
“Who is responsible for payment?”
Set Expectations
“[NAME], I just wanted to go over what to expect. While we’re en route, you will receive a notification with a technician bio and a link to track the technician on the way to your home. It’s important to us that we do a quality and thorough job, so our technician will be doing a comprehensive evaluation and will provide you with a detailed report on any plumbing issues or opportunities that may exist in your home. Don’t be afraid to share any issues or concerns with your technician. If you think of any questions or additional things for him to check out, please be sure to let him know.”
Membership Program Pitch
“To ensure you are getting the most from our company, we offer a club program where for just [$X] per year, we will come out to do a full annual plumbing safety inspection and [mention the services you offer]. You will also save 10% on today’s service. Can I get that membership set up for you?”
Closing
“Thank you, [NAME]. We will see you at [ADDRESS, DAY, TIME to JOB TYPE].”
ServiceTitan’s Plumbing Software
As well as optimizing the call booking process, ServiceTitan’s software helps automate scheduling and dispatching so you can efficiently deploy your plumbers to service calls.
Our software also helps you create, implement and track marketing campaigns so you can attract more customers to call your business. And it also integrates with many other business operations (like estimates and billings), so you have a single, cohesive system for managing your entire plumbing business.
Here’s how it works and how it can improve your incoming call operations:
Optimize Scheduling & Dispatching
Your CSRs don’t just answer the phone and book service calls; they need to plan a full schedule each workday for every plumber so that their drive time is optimized, every plumbing job is fulfilled, and revenue is maximized.
ServiceTitan’s scheduling and dispatching software lets you automate the entire process. CSRs can see the available slots for each technician without leaving the original call booking screen. So, once they’ve collected all the pertinent information from the call, they can book the work immediately.
Plus, using the dispatch board is easy. CSRs can see the status for each job (e.g. scheduled, unassigned, canceled, on hold, etc.), and our intelligent schedule optimization lets CSRs and dispatchers respond to any schedule changes, shorten or extend the duration of a job, and reassign to a different tech, if needed.
Color-coded tags are used to see which techs are scheduled for each job, while live GPS tracking shows the exact location of every truck, so dispatchers can group nearby jobs and utilize the most efficient route.
Jessica Smith says she’s a big proponent of using ServiceTitan’s dispatching board to streamline scheduling and routing in her role as business operations manager for Hurley & David, an HVAC and plumbing company that serves western Massachusetts.
“I love organizing the board, making sure guys are going on the right calls, people aren't passing each other on the road, and getting the right tech in the right place for the right calls,” she says.
Note: ServiceTitan’s add-on product, Scheduling Pro, provides a 24-hour online booking service via a Live Chat feature with industry-trained agents so you can operate out of normal business hours, and no calls are missed.
Keep Customers Informed
Because ServiceTitan’s dispatching software tracks plumbing techs and job progress, dispatchers know when technicians are driving between jobs, when they arrive, and when they’ve completed a job and are ready to move to the next one. This level of detail means that dispatchers can text customers the technician’s photo and profile, and even a locator map, so they know who’s en route and where they are.
Plumbing businesses can use this information to automate appointment reminders, job confirmations, and changes to appointment times. They can also receive texts from customers who may have a question about a job or wish to reschedule.
The ability to give a precise arrival time and be in text communication is convenient for customers who may need to leave work to meet plumbers at their property.
Dispatch for Profit
With ServiceTitan, you can dispatch the most suitable technician to each job. The software records the complete service history, the techs who conducted previous services, existing parts and systems, and any current memberships or service agreements, so dispatchers can assign the right tech to the right job, every time.
The software also provides technicians with essential information to grow the average ticket size, such as upsell opportunities or outstanding estimates. Having this information on hand (via our Mobile App) enables technicians to discuss the options on the spot, confirm the sale, and increase revenue.
ServiceTitan offers an add-on product, Dispatch Pro, with more advanced dispatching features. Using machine learning, Dispatch Pro’s algorithm runs thousands of scenarios to find the best technician for every job. This, plus its intuitive dispatch board automations, saves your dispatchers time, improves customer service, and maximizes profit.
Learn more about how to sell maintenance agreements for profit and how to grow your plumbing business.
Attract Customers with Effective Marketing Campaigns
You need to have a strong marketing strategy in place to encourage customers to call your plumbing business.
ServiceTitan has a range of tools to manage advertising and marketing campaigns, attract new customers, and track the ROI of every campaign (e.g. Google Ads and Google reviews).
Here are just some of the marketing activities ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro tool can help with:
Email Marketing: Build hyper-targeted audiences, automate email campaigns, and track true ROI.
Direct Mail: Send automated direct mail campaigns to your existing customers and prospects for one flat-rate.
Lead Tracking and Reporting: Use Dynamic Call Tracking that ties unique phone numbers to each ad source and attributes campaigns to calls, jobs, and revenue.
Reputation Management: Generate more quality reviews via automated review requests.
Integration with Google Local Services Ads: Connect your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts to ServiceTitan and match campaign performance to actual jobs and revenue for true ROI.
Analyzing Results: Reports on the whole marketing funnel, from impression to revenue, across all your marketing channels.
You can learn more from our plumbing marketing guide.
More marketing resources can be found in these posts:
Integrate with Other Business Operations
As well as optimizing your call booking process, scheduling and dispatching, and creating and implementing your marketing activities, ServiceTitan’s software has features that help you manage all your other business operations, too.
These features include:
Tools for pricebook management
Estimate and proposal templates and builders
And more
All of these features are fully integrated and communicate with each other — so you never have to transfer any information from elsewhere and you can manage every process from one cohesive system. This saves time and reduces the likelihood of errors.
Ready to Try ServiceTitan’s Call Booking Software?
Your CSRs are the voice of your plumbing company. Providing them with a clear call center script alongside a comprehensive call booking software solution like ServiceTitan that also helps manage all your other business processes, will help optimize every phone call to increase bookings and improve customer satisfaction.
Book a free demo to find out more about how ServiceTitan can help you optimize your plumbing call center.
ServiceTitan Plumbing Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive plumbing business software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
