How to Care For a Customer – Part I

The Three C’s of Green Hippo Plumbing:

Cleanliness    Competency   Consideration

It’s not at all surprising that in this fast paced world, customer care has been pushed to the side.  Interactions with customers lack relationship, and what used to be common courtesy is almost nonexistent or is only present in small doses while trying to lure a customer into a sales agreement.  As a plumber, I have heard many stories of bad service experiences.  Oddly enough, service has left the service industry and the customer has taken a back seat to a monetary transaction for “services” rendered.  Customer care is important at Green Hippo Plumbing, and that’s why cleanliness, competency, and consideration are at the top of the list in our customer relationship.

You may be familiar with the old stigma plumbers have had in the past, conjuring up images of a rather large, and not so pleasant smelling, man attempting to squeeze into a rather small space.  While this notion makes fodder for cartoonists, it’s really no laughing matter when it’s happening in your home!

While the way one dresses may not be a perfect judge of character, one must wonder , “If someone is unwilling to put forth the effort to maintain a modicum of cleanliness in their uniform (or perhaps consider changing into a clean shirt throughout the day), exactly what is my house going to look like when they finish doing whatever it is they claim to be skilled at?”  Many plumbers are slow to catch on to this reality and so it really wasn’t until about twenty years ago that things began to change in this area.  Plumbers with clean uniformed shirts began to emerge.  Some companies went the extra mile and purchased the pants as well.  This was a good first step, yet still many plumbers refuse to put forth the effort  and extend the common courtesy of a clean professional uniform to their customers.  A clean uniform is a demonstration of customer care, to be sure, however, there is a mind shift that must occur in order for cleanliness to become a core value.  Yes thinking (as difficult as that may be for some in the service industry) must be employed here – a reality that has certainly occurred to us at Green Hippo Plumbing!  A plumber must recognize that he is in someone else’s house; a house where people live, and those people, though they may think you very nice, do not want to remember where in the house you walked, or spend time cleaning up those dirty foot prints that were left behind.  This is why shoe covers will always be worn in your home, drop cloths will be used to protect your floors and furnishings and great care will be taken to leave the house cleaner than when we arrived.

Sometimes beauty is only skin deep.  This can be true of cleanliness as well, so if you’ve experienced the filthy repair man sitting on your couch while he nonchalantly fills out your bill, or the knuckle head who walks across your new kitchen floor with muddy boots on, then rest assured your clean plumber at Green Hippo Plumbing in Ontario will fix your problem and leave your home clean – we guarantee it.