Beating the Competition
in High River

The plumbing game in High River isn't complicated. With 14,000 residents spread across neighborhoods like Downtown, Montrose, Highwood Village, Hampton Hills, and Valley Golf Course, there's enough work to go around. But here's the brutal truth: the plumber who answers the phone first gets the job. Period.

You already know this. You've lost jobs to competitors who weren't necessarily better, faster, or cheaper. They just picked up their phone when yours went to voicemail. In a market this size, those missed calls add up fast.

High River supports maybe 8 to 12 serious plumbing operations, from one-person shops to small crews. That's roughly one plumber for every 1,200 residents. Sounds like plenty of work, right? It would be, if every job was distributed evenly. But that's not how it works.

The reality is messier. Mrs. Johnson in Hampton Hills needs her sump pump checked before the next heavy rain. Her first instinct isn't to carefully research every plumber in town. She wants someone now. She'll call the first three plumbers she finds on Google, and whoever answers first gets the job.

Meanwhile, the Thompson family in Montrose discovers their backflow preventer isn't working properly. They remember their neighbor mentioning a good plumber, but they can't remember the name. So they Google "High River plumber" and start dialing.

This is your daily competition. Not just against the quality of your work or your pricing, but against your competitors' ability to simply answer their phones.

Did you know?

High River plumbers using Buddy capture 40% more leads by answering every call instantly, even at 2 AM.

Let's get specific about how your potential customers behave. When someone in Highwood Village has a plumbing emergency, they follow a predictable pattern:

First, they might try the plumber they used before. But if that was two years ago, they probably don't have the number saved. So they move to step two: Google.

They search "plumber High River" or "emergency plumber near me." Google shows them the top results, usually the Google My Business listings with good reviews. They don't spend 20 minutes comparing options. They start calling, usually working down the list.

Here's where it gets interesting. Studies of emergency service calls show that 67% of customers hire the first contractor who answers the phone and can schedule them quickly. Not the first contractor they call, but the first one who actually answers.

The third way homeowners find plumbers is through referrals. Your buddy at work recommends Joe's Plumbing, so you call Joe. But if Joe doesn't answer, you're not going to wait around. You're moving on to Google or asking for another recommendation.

The pattern is clear: availability beats everything else in the initial selection process.

Here's what call tracking data from service businesses reveals: when someone calls multiple contractors for the same emergency job, the first contractor to have an actual conversation with the customer wins the job 78% of the time.

Notice the emphasis on "actual conversation." Calling back two hours later doesn't count. By then, the customer in Downtown High River has already hired someone else. Their frozen pipe is being fixed while you're listening to their voicemail.

This gets more pronounced during High River's harsh winters. When it's -35°C outside and someone's pipes have frozen, they're not waiting for callbacks. They're calling every plumber until someone answers and says "I'll be right there."

The same urgency applies to flood-related calls. High River residents don't mess around with water issues. The 2013 floods are still fresh in everyone's memory. When someone calls about a sump pump failure or backflow preventer problem, they want immediate attention.

Your competition isn't necessarily smarter or better at plumbing. But some of them have figured out the phone game. While you're under a sink in Valley Golf Course with your phone on silent, your competitor is answering calls from three other neighborhoods.

The plumbers winning more jobs in High River have systems for call management. Maybe it's a simple as having their spouse answer the phone. Maybe they use a call forwarding service. Maybe they have an apprentice who can take calls and capture lead details.

What they don't do is let calls go to voicemail during business hours. They understand that in a town of 14,000 people, word spreads fast. But so does availability.

Some of your competitors are also gaming the system with multiple Google My Business listings or aggressive local SEO. They're making sure they show up first when someone searches for High River plumbers. But all that marketing means nothing if they don't answer the phone.

Here's a myth that costs plumbers money: customers always shop around for the lowest price. In emergency situations, that's simply not true.

When someone in Hampton Hills has water backing up into their basement, they care about three things in this order: Can you fix it? Can you come now? How much will it cost?

Price matters, but it's third on the list. Availability and competence come first. This is especially true in High River, where flood awareness makes any water issue feel urgent.

Non-emergency jobs follow different rules. Someone planning a bathroom renovation in Montrose might get three quotes. But emergency calls are about solving problems quickly, not finding the cheapest solution.

Your job is to be available when urgent problems arise, then deliver quality work at fair prices. The availability part gets you in the door. The quality work gets you referrals and callback business.

Every plumber has loyal customers who call them first for new problems. But loyalty has limits. If you don't answer your phone, even your best customers will call someone else.

Think about it from their perspective. The Millers in Highwood Village have used you three times before. They love your work. But their sump pump stops working on a Saturday afternoon, and you don't answer your phone. They'll wait maybe an hour, then start calling other plumbers.

By Monday morning, when you return their call, someone else has already fixed their problem. The Millers aren't mad at you, but they now have a relationship with another plumber who was available when they needed help.

This is how market share shifts in small towns. It's not dramatic. It happens one missed call at a time.

In High River's plumbing market, the biggest differentiator isn't your truck lettering or your Yellow Pages ad. It's your phone availability. The plumbers capturing the most market share are simply the most reachable.

This creates opportunities. If you can improve your phone answer rate from 60% to 85%, you'll see immediate results. Those aren't theoretical percentage points. They represent real jobs going to you instead of your competitors.

Consider the math: if you typically get 40 calls per month and currently answer 24 of them (60%), improving to 34 answered calls (85%) means 10 additional conversations with potential customers. Even if you only convert half of those, that's five more jobs per month.

In High River's market, five additional jobs per month can significantly impact your annual revenue.

The solution isn't complicated, but it requires commitment. You need systems that ensure calls get answered by a real person during business hours, and ideally beyond.

Start simple. If you're working alone, invest in a hands-free system so you can answer while working. Set specific times to return missed calls, within 30 minutes if possible.

Consider call forwarding to a family member during busy periods. Your spouse answering professionally and taking messages beats voicemail every time. Train them to gather basic information: name, address, problem description, and urgency level.

For plumbers ready to invest more, call answering services specializing in contractors can be worth the cost. A good service can take basic information, assess urgency, and forward emergency calls immediately while scheduling non-urgent appointments.

The key is creating systems that work even when you're busy. Because in High River's competitive plumbing market, being busy is good, but being unreachable costs you money.

Your competitors are counting on you to miss calls. Don't make it easy for them.