AI Guides / plumbing
Practical ways to save time, capture more enquiries, and use the tools you already have.
Plumbing lives or dies on who answers first. A homeowner standing in water rings two or three plumbers inside fifteen minutes and hires whoever picks up and commits to today — they are not comparing quotes. Everything below is built around that, plus the second problem nobody talks about: unlike HVAC, plumbing has no annual service visit, so every customer file goes cold the day the job finishes.
Written for a plumber who has never set up a single one of these things. Start at step one, which is free and takes an afternoon, and stop whenever you have had enough — nothing further down is needed for anything above it to work.
Prices checked 27 July 2026 · no affiliate links on this page or any other
The whole page, in order
Software: Jobber or ServiceTitan · Xero or MYOB
Cost note: No extra cost if the named features are in your current plans
Software: OpenPhone with two users · Rosie
Cost note: Approximately $87/month at the checked prices
Software: Jobber or ServiceTitan · NiceJob · CompanyCam
Cost note: Use the tools you already have; CompanyCam starts at $29/month
Software: OpenPhone, job-software, and review reports
Cost note: No additional software
Step one · start here
If you already use Jobber, ServiceTitan, Xero, MYOB, these features are settings inside those products, not another subscription. Your current plan still needs to include the feature. If you use something else, skip that card and search your software’s help centre for the named feature before you buy anything.
Extra software cost
$0*
if included in your plan
Hours back per month
≈26
Why it matters for a plumber
Emergencies are never shopped. Repipes, bathroom jobs and hot water replacements are — and those are the quotes that go quiet. Three touches at day 2, 7 and 14, stopping when they reply.
What to do
In Jobber, look under Settings for Automations, then quote follow-ups. Turn on the three-touch default and leave the wording alone to start with. It is included in your plan and off until you enable it.
Open the official setup guide ↗1 hour · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters for a plumber
Built in, free, and off by default. Reminders at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue, with your builder and strata accounts excluded because those need a phone call.
What to do
In Xero, invoice reminders live in Settings and are off by default. Set the three intervals, then go through your contacts and tick "exclude from reminders" on the trade accounts you deal with personally.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗20 minutes · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters for a plumber
Matters more in plumbing than anywhere else: the customer is standing next to the problem watching the clock. An honest arrival window stops them ringing every twenty minutes.
What to do
Enable customer notifications in your job software, then set a realistic window rather than an optimistic one. Half a day, because the work is agreeing the wording and testing it on a few real jobs first.
Open the official setup guide ↗Half a day · $0 extra if included in your current plan
If your software is not named above, the equivalent switch often still exists. Search its help centre for the exact feature name before you buy another tool.
Step two · first workflow to implement
An active-leak caller rings two or three plumbers inside fifteen minutes. The first real reply wins the job outright — they are not collecting quotes, they want someone today.
Do this in order
Typical size
≈34/mo
Setup
Half a day
How you know it worked
Count it in week one, then count the same thing again in week four. If the number did not move, stop spending.
Do not want to set it up yourself?
In Speed to Lead. Or take the Diagnostic before hiring anyone.
Step three · keep going without adding complexity
Do not start all three at once. Finish one, test it on real work, then move to the next card.
Evenings are when hot water fails and pipes let go. Right now those calls reach a personal mobile or nothing, and after-hours work carries a 50–150% premium.
1 hour · In Speed to Lead
Two questions — is water still flowing, is there hot water. A genuine emergency goes straight to the on-call phone; everything else becomes tomorrow morning's booked job instead of waking you.
2 hours · In Speed to Lead
Gratitude peaks in the twenty minutes after the water stops, not in a Friday batch send. One message, one link, at sign-off.
1 hour · In Speed to Lead
Step four · only once the first three are running
This is the first point where a real build may be worth paying for. The earlier steps need to be working before you add it.
Plumbing has no annual service visit, so every file goes cold. Units fail at eight to twelve years and your job history already knows which ones you installed and when — that is a warm list nobody is calling.
1 week · We do it · $1,900
Compliance dates already sitting in your job records, chased automatically. The closest thing plumbing gets to recurring revenue for free.
1 week · We do it · $1,600
What this page is automating
Almost everything above is a computer sending a message at a moment when nobody was going to send one. That is it. No robot and no replacement for professional judgement.
If you already use one of the products named in step one, those cards are settings inside that product. If you do not, skip the card. This page is not claiming that you already own it.
It is
A message going out because a call, date or status changed.
It is not
Something that decides what to charge or replaces professional judgement.
It is
A reminder sent from records your business already keeps.
It is not
A replacement for you, your trade, or the people who know the work.
Does this look familiar?
A call rings out while you are under a house, and you ring back two hours later.
The hot water call at 9pm goes to somebody’s personal mobile, or to nothing.
You quoted a bathroom three weeks ago and never followed it up.
The customer rings four times asking how far away the van is.
You have no idea which customers you sold a hot water unit to in 2018.
Somebody spends Friday afternoon chasing invoices one email at a time.
After thirty days
Number one
Count them in week one and again in week four. This is the number that pays for everything.
Number two
Compare the month before to the month after. Should roughly triple if you got the timing right.
Number three
Your job software will tell you. Before step one it was almost none.
Number four
Ask them. They will know before any report does.
Every figure on this page is a typical size, not a measurement of yours. These four are the numbers that are actually about your business.
Reference · come back to this
Nothing here is urgent and nothing here is a starting point. It is the complete set for this business, in rough order of what it returns, with the tool, effort, and done-for-you route on every row.
Wins work
01
An active-leak caller rings two or three plumbers inside fifteen minutes. The first real reply wins the job outright — they are not collecting quotes, they want someone today.
02
Evenings are when hot water fails and pipes let go. Right now those calls reach a personal mobile or nothing, and after-hours work carries a 50–150% premium.
03
Two questions — is water still flowing, is there hot water. A genuine emergency goes straight to the on-call phone; everything else becomes tomorrow morning's booked job instead of waking you.
04
Gratitude peaks in the twenty minutes after the water stops, not in a Friday batch send. One message, one link, at sign-off.
05
Plumbing has no annual service visit, so every file goes cold. Units fail at eight to twelve years and your job history already knows which ones you installed and when — that is a warm list nobody is calling.
06
Compliance dates already sitting in your job records, chased automatically. The closest thing plumbing gets to recurring revenue for free.
Saves hours
07
The customer is standing next to the problem watching the clock, so they ring every twenty minutes. An honest arrival window ends it.
08
One burst pipe reorders the whole board. A draft reshuffle with every conflict flagged, that a person still approves — the judgement stays human.
09
Reminders at 7, 14 and 30 days, with builder and strata accounts excluded because those need a phone call, not an email.
10
Repipes, bathrooms and hot water replacements are compared across three plumbers. Those quotes need three touches; emergencies need none.
11
Call-out fee, after-hours rate, service area, what you will and will not touch, whether you do gas. One place the team can ask instead of asking you.
12
Before and after on every leak, tagged with time and place, landing against the right job from the tech's phone. Your evidence when an insurer disputes water damage.
13
Jobs done, quotes out, cash in, overdue, and what needs attention — assembled and sent on Monday instead of compiled by hand.
The stack · prices checked
Prices checked 27 July 2026.
| Tool | What it is for | Price | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone & messagingOpenPhone | A business number with a shared inbox, so after-hours calls and texts stop living on one person's mobile. | $19/user ↗ | Start here if your on-call rotation currently means somebody's personal phone. Skip it if you already run a hosted phone system with a shared inbox. |
| AI answeringRosie | Answers the calls nobody can get to, takes the details, and books straightforward jobs. | $49/mo ↗ | Best value of the small-business answering tools. Check whether your phone provider already includes one before adding a second bill. |
| AI answeringGoodcall | Same job as Rosie, with tighter control over exactly what it may and may not say. | $59/mo ↗ | Worth the extra ten dollars specifically because you can forbid it from quoting an after-hours rate. Otherwise Rosie does the job. |
| Job managementJobber | Quotes, scheduling, invoicing and customer history for a small field team. | $29/mo ↗ | The quote follow-up automation is included in your plan and almost nobody switches it on. Do that before you buy anything new. |
| Job managementServiceTitan | The same, built for larger field businesses with real dispatch and reporting. | On quote ↗ | Only if you are already on it or past about fifteen staff. Below that the cost is hard to justify — but its notification features are the cheapest win in this table. |
| AccountingXero | Invoicing, reconciliation, and the overdue-payment reminders nobody enables. | $35/mo ↗ | You almost certainly have this already. The reminders are free and off by default. Twenty minutes in settings, no new spend. |
| Job documentationCompanyCam | Photos filed against the right job automatically, tagged with time and location. | $29/mo ↗ | Unglamorous and pays for itself the first time a customer or insurer disputes water damage. Skip it if your job software already handles photos properly. |
| AutomationMake.com | Connecting two tools that will not talk to each other, without writing code. | $9/mo ↗ | The engine behind the water-heater-age and inspection-reminder rows above. Powerful, and very easy to build something fragile that breaks quietly. |
| AssistantChatGPT Team | Answering the questions your team asks each other all day, from your own rates and process documents. | $25/user ↗ | Useful once you have fed it your real prices and service areas. Out of the box, with nothing loaded, it will not move a single number in your business. |
Do not bother
Nobody types a form while water is coming through the ceiling. They ring. Every dollar here belongs on the phone instead.
You cannot price a leak you have not seen. A number given over the phone becomes an argument on the doorstep, and you will wear it.
Those notes are your evidence in an insurance or warranty dispute over water damage. Get them consistent on paper first, or you will automate inconsistency.
Sources
Nearby trades
Nothing on this page is gated. This is the price recheck only, and you can leave at any time.
Do it yourself
Use the official links, do one card at a time, and count the result after thirty days.
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