This podcast episode features Greg Michelman and Mitch Smedley, two plumbers who have been in the business for over 20 years. They discuss the importance of customer experience, having a professional appearance, and cutting out negative influences. Mitch Smedley runs a family-run plumbing company and has a podcast called The Void which focuses on crossing the void from employee to self-employed. They emphasize the importance of having a clean and professional work environment, treating employees as family members, and wearing button-down shirts for the first impression with customers. They also discuss the importance of having conversations to further enhance the customer experience and the need to surround yourself with good people.
Episode Outline:
(00:06:07) Employee Relationships
(00:00:26) Leadership Through Example
(00:00:05) Trading Life for Business
(00:00:53) Customer Experience Focus
(00:08:42) Plumbing Career Accident
(00:33:05) Customer Experience
(00:28:23) Creating a Culture
(00:13:55) Working with Family
(00:00:47) Family-Run Plumbing Business
(00:00:53) Plumbing Business Challenges
Quotes:
(00:37:35) Our whole business is built on the customer experience. It's built on the ability for my customers to communicate with me, feel confident in communicating with me. Not only feel confident communicating with me, but then I'm going to follow through and take care of whatever they need.
(00:25:03) It's always teaching moments.
(00:43:06) It is a true statement, but when you stick one guy with a sour point of view, it can just spread like wildfire. And you got to cut that cancer out really quick, because if you don't, I've seen what it does. It breaks down whole crews.
(00:03:18) I always had aspirations of having my own plumbing company at one point. So I started plumbing at 19, and within like a year I bought my first house.
(00:11:59) And that's one of my favorite parts, because for me, I work in high rise buildings. So if I have 100 family buildings and on average, maybe two to four people live in those apartments, you could be taking care of upwards of 400 people in a building when they don't have heat and hot water. So there is a personal side of it that I always loved and I always enjoyed, and I take it personal when there's issues in these buildings, and I learned to take it personal, so it really helped change my life and the way I look at things, too.
(00:28:43) You can't grow without listening to people. You can't grow with the people inside of your organization feeling like they can't come to you and talk, right? Because then you're not building that trust and the feeling that you're trying to create inside your organization.
(00:40:50) Focus on that customer experience you want to deliver and then you just have to work the back end to make it happen.
(00:07:10) Half the reason we're at your house is so we can pet your dog.
(00:16:37) It's definitely not something I'm pushing on them. So I'm big about finding what you like to do and enjoying that. And if that's this, then great. But if it's not, then how can I help you do whatever else you want to do?
(00:18:45) My motto is basically; I will never ask you to do something that I'm not willing to do or haven't done already. I never ask you to do that. And I'll be the first one there. It's like going to battle. I'm on the front line. I'm the first one running into the fire, whatever needs to get it done.
Blog Post:
Are you looking to learn more about the customer service side of plumbing? Greg Michelman and Mitch Smedley, two plumbers with over 20 years of experience in the business, have some great advice on the topic.
In their podcast episode, they discussed the importance of having a clean and professional work environment, treating employees as family members, and wearing button-down shirts for the first impression with customers. They also talked about the need to have conversations to further enhance the customer experience and the need to surround yourself with good people.
Greg and Mitch both agree that everyone in the groups they are in have the same path and goals. Greg used to fill his social media feed with people's breakfast and lunch, but now it's mostly positive stories and business talk. He also had his accounts hacked and had to start from scratch, which allowed him to only add people he wanted to. Mitch's social media is 98% positive, but he still gets some negativity from family members.
The customer experience is the most important thing for businesses, and it's important to follow through and take care of customers' needs. Greg and Mitch discussed the culture of Greg's company and how it has grown. Mitch was impressed that employees feel comfortable coming to Greg for feedback.
Greg explained that he had a lot of anxiety and fears about starting the company and wanted to share his experience with others, which is why he started the podcast. The podcast is designed to help people make the switch from employee to self-employed and has had 500 downloads since it's been running for 16-18 months. The purpose of the podcast is to help people, not to promote the plumbing company, and Greg and Mitch enjoy the podcast because it helps them connect with people and gives them an opportunity to give back.
Greg and Mitch also discussed the different types of plumbing companies and services. Mitch's company focuses on plumbing and has not ventured into heating and cooling services. His company logo features a cartoon of his pet dog and his company motto is "Fixed Pipes and Pet Dogs". Mitch's company encourages customers to keep their dogs around when they come to the house and also helps to promote the adoption of dogs on their social media page.
Mitch's company is family-run and includes younger kids. Mitch had to let some employees go due to a sour point of view that could spread like wildfire. He does most of his work on Facebook and has a YouTube channel called Smedley Plumbing.
Greg and Mitch established a policy of open conversation with no temper or hidden agendas. They also created T-shirts with the company logo to break the ice with customers. Mitch's sons are 11 and 14 and his oldest is interested in working with him this summer, but Mitch and his employees have discussed not giving any special favors to the kids if they work with them. Mitch is not the type of person to sit on the excavator and order other people to do the work.
The conversation between Greg and Mitch is an important reminder of the value of customer service in the plumbing business. It's important to have a clean and professional work environment, treat employees as family members, and wear button-down shirts for the first impression with customers. It's also important to have conversations to further enhance the customer experience and to surround yourself with good people. By following these tips, you can ensure that you are providing the best customer service experience possible.
Resources:
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