For the first few years, the owners of Handy Plumbing Man in San Carlos, California, grew the business by word-of-mouth referrals. It worked well. However, the co-founders reached a point where they realized they needed to formalize their marketing outreach.
“Most plumbing and drain cleaning companies have agencies outside the company,” says Marco Acosta, who owns Handy Plumbing Man with his wife Amparo. “I recently hired Yuhna del Rosario pretty much as an employee. She is a guru. She’s been with us for two months and the ads she’s doing are amazing.”
They target online shoppers. The keywords that shoppers type in their online search bring Handy Plumbing Man to the forefront. This search engine optimization is bringing in new customers. Acosta says his targeted customers are people who have had poor experiences with plumbing and drain cleaning companies and seek an alternative.
“You’ve heard the stories — ‘I had this company come out and they wanted to destroy the inside of my house’ — that kind of thing. The key words are ‘no destruction.’ We give such shoppers options to create minimal damage.”
Another marketing tool for Handy Plumbing Man is full utilization of ServiceTitan, a software platform used to schedule and dispatch jobs as well as bill customers. However, it is also used to send email campaigns that follow up with satisfied customers to motivate them to call again. One initiative offers a free camera inspection to check and see how a sewer system is doing.
“We can track everything and see what’s working and what’s not working. It’s so smart,” Acosta says.
Read more about Handy Plumbing Man in the May 2025 issue of Cleaner magazine.
