By Shelia Watson

Every industry has its standard joke. Lawyer jokes, doctor jokes, airline pilot jokes - you name it, most of us have heard them. The plumbing industry has its standard joke too. Stop me if you've heard this one.

A plumber goes to a doctor's house and fixes a leak. When he hands the doctor the bill, the doctor yells, "Fifty dollars! That's more than I charge for an office visit." And the plumber says, "I know. I charged less when I was a doctor too."

The high cost of keeping the pipes working has been the punchline of jokes as well as the basis of serious customer complaints over the years.

Blitch Plumbing, a company based in Charleston, S.C., discovered a way to eliminate that complaint when it introduced flat rate pricing -- charging the customer a standard fee as opposed to an hourly rate.

Changing focus

In operation for 55 years, Blitch Plumbing was a typical plumbing company -- performing new construction, renovations, and repair -- until about seven years ago when owner John Blitch decided to concentrate solely on the service side of the business.

That decision transformed almost every area of the company, from employee morale to accounts receivable procedures.

Blitch contacted Contractors 2000 (C2K), a national organization of more than 300 members in the plumbing, electrical and heating and air trades. C2K provided the information and support Blitch needed to focus on service.

Implementing the flat rate pricing took about six months, with certain fees introduced incrementally. Overall, the most noticeable difference since implementing the system has been increased efficiency levels and improved customer satisfaction.

" The biggest plus to flat rate is that the customer knows the price up front," Blitch says. "No matter how long the plumber is there, the price is the same."

Bleaching the collar

Shifted his company's focus to customer service has introduced white collar professionalism into an industry known almost stereotypically as blue collar. Centered on customer service, the employees are encouraged to please the customer rather than rack up more calls in a day.

"We don't want to overbook," says Blitch. "We'd rather the technicians do fewer jobs per day and do them well. We also want to leave a little room for emergencies."

The technicians work on straight commission as opposed to hourly wages, which has improved morale. "They're more in control of their earnings," says Blitch, "and they learn that what matters is how well they do the job the first time." Because they are not paid for call-backs (a second trip to complete a repair that wasn't repaired correctly the first time), their efficiency has improved dramatically.

Back to school

Along with learning how to install faucets and replace toilets, the technicians have weekly customer service training, viewing training videos on everything from how to clean up the work area properly to how to present yourself to the customer to ways to do the job more effectively.

The office staff are trained in customer service also, including how to obtain correct information and how to handle irate customers.

"It's all about customer service," says Blitch. "Our service just happens to be plumbing."