Beating the Competition
in Three Hills

Three Hills isn't Calgary. With 3,500 people spread across Downtown, the College Area, and South Hills, every plumbing call matters. There aren't dozens of plumbers fighting over scraps. There are maybe 4-6 legitimate plumbing businesses serving Three Hills and the surrounding acreages. That's both good news and bad news.

The good news? There's enough work to go around, especially with Prairie Bible College, aging infrastructure, and the constant battle against frozen pipes at -38°C. The bad news? When you miss a call, it's going straight to your competition. And in a town this size, losing customers hurts more than it would in Red Deer or Calgary.

Let's be honest about what we're working with. Three Hills has roughly 1,400 households between the town proper and nearby acreages. Add in Prairie Bible College facilities and local businesses, and you're looking at maybe 1,600 potential service calls spread across all the plumbers in the area.

If there are five active plumbing businesses in Three Hills, that's about 320 potential customers per plumber. Sounds manageable, right? Wrong. Because customers don't divide themselves evenly. They go to whoever picks up the phone first.

The math is brutal but simple: every call you miss is revenue walking out the door. In Calgary, a missed call might mean losing one customer out of thousands. In Three Hills, that missed call might be Mrs. Johnson from South Hills who tells everyone at the grocery store that you didn't answer when her pipes froze.

Did you know?

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

Three Hills residents find plumbers the same way people do everywhere, but the small market amplifies everything. They start with Google, check Facebook, ask neighbors, and then start calling down the list.

Here's what actually happens when someone in the College Area has a plumbing emergency:

1. They Google "Three Hills plumber" 2. They see 3-4 businesses that look legitimate 3. They call the first number 4. If no answer, they immediately call the second number 5. Whoever answers first gets the job

There's no loyalty during emergencies. When it's -30°C and pipes are freezing in a South Hills acreage, homeowners aren't thinking about who did their last service call. They're thinking about who can solve their problem today.

Word-of-mouth still matters in Three Hills more than it would in larger cities. The community is tight-knit, and people talk. But even the best reputation won't save you if you're not answering your phone. A good reputation gets you on the call list. Answering the phone gets you the job.

Industry data shows that 78% of customers hire the first plumber who answers the phone during an emergency. In Three Hills, that number is probably higher because there are fewer options and people need problems solved fast.

Think about it from a homeowner's perspective. It's 7 PM on a Tuesday in January. Their furnace is running overtime because pipes in their crawl space are starting to freeze. They need someone now, not tomorrow morning. They're not going to leave voicemails and wait for callbacks. They're going to keep calling until someone picks up.

The plumber who answers that call doesn't just get the emergency service call. They often get the follow-up work, the preventive maintenance, and the referral to the neighbor who's been putting off that bathroom renovation.

Missing emergency calls in Three Hills is especially costly because of the seasonal nature of the work. When it hits -38°C, everyone's calling about frozen pipes. When spring comes and people are dealing with flooding and sump pump issues, the calls are concentrated in a short time period. Miss those peak periods because you're not answering, and you've lost a significant chunk of your annual revenue.

Your Three Hills competitors aren't necessarily better plumbers. They're just better at being available when customers call. Here's what they're doing that you might not be:

They're answering after hours. Plumbing emergencies don't happen on a 9-to-5 schedule. Your competition knows that the plumber who answers at 8 PM gets the job, even if three other plumbers call back at 7 AM the next morning.

They have someone dedicated to the phone. Whether it's the owner, a spouse, or an answering service, someone is always available to take calls. When you're under a sink in Downtown Three Hills, you can't answer the phone. But your competition might have that covered.

They're managing their online presence. This means keeping their Google My Business updated, managing reviews, and making sure their phone number is easy to find. In a market with only a handful of plumbers, small advantages in online visibility make a big difference.

They understand the local market. They know that College Area calls might involve older buildings with quirky plumbing. They know that South Hills acreages often have well water systems. They're positioning themselves as the plumbers who understand Three Hills specifically, not just plumbing in general.

Here's what most plumbers get wrong: they think price is the main competition factor. In Three Hills, availability trumps price almost every time, especially for emergency calls.

When someone's pipes burst in their Downtown home, they're not calling around for quotes. They want someone who can come today and fix the problem. The plumber who can be there in two hours at $150/hour gets the job over the plumber who might be $20 cheaper but can't come until tomorrow.

This doesn't mean you can charge whatever you want. Three Hills residents talk to each other, and word gets around if your prices are unreasonable. But being available and responsive allows you to charge fair rates without constantly competing on price alone.

The sweet spot is being known as reliable and fairly priced, not the cheapest. In a small market, being the discount plumber often means being perceived as the low-quality plumber.

Here's an uncomfortable truth: even your best customers will call your competition if you don't answer the phone. Customer loyalty in plumbing is conditional on availability.

You might have done excellent work for the Thompson family on their South Hills acreage last year. But if their water heater fails on a Saturday morning and you don't answer, they're not waiting around. They're calling the next plumber on the list.

This is especially true in Three Hills because people know there are limited options. They don't have the luxury of waiting for their preferred plumber. They need their plumbing problems fixed, and they need them fixed now.

The good news is that answering the phone helps build real loyalty. When customers know they can count on you to be available, they stop calling around. They call you first and only call others if you're genuinely not available.

In Three Hills, market share isn't won through fancy marketing or the lowest prices. It's won by being the plumber who answers when customers call.

Think about it mathematically. If you answer 80% of your calls and your competition answers 60%, you're getting one-third more opportunities. In a market with maybe 800-1,000 plumbing service calls per year, that difference compounds quickly.

The plumber who's best at answering calls builds momentum. They get more jobs, which means more opportunities to impress customers, which leads to more referrals, which means more calls. Meanwhile, the plumber who's hard to reach gets stuck in the opposite cycle.

Set up a proper phone system. This means having a dedicated business line that forwards to your cell phone. It means having voicemail that tells people when you'll call back and actually calling back when you say you will.

Use an answering service for after-hours calls. A good answering service costs maybe $100-200 per month. In Three Hills, capturing just one additional emergency call per month probably pays for the service.

Have someone else handle the phone when you're on jobs. This could be a spouse, a part-time employee, or a virtual assistant. The key is having someone who can take calls professionally and capture leads while you're working.

Be strategic about when you're available. Track when most of your calls come in. If you're getting a lot of calls between 5-7 PM when people get home from work, make sure you're extra available during those times.

Follow up fast. When you do miss a call, call back within 30 minutes if possible. The customer might not have reached anyone else yet, or they might not be completely satisfied with whoever they did reach.

Know your competition's weaknesses. Pay attention to when other plumbers in Three Hills seem to be unavailable. If everyone else shuts down at 5 PM, being available until 8 PM gives you a major advantage.

The reality is simple: Three Hills is a small market with limited plumbers and unlimited plumbing problems. The plumber who's easiest to reach gets the most work. Everything else is secondary.