Homeowners in Northern Virginia and Maryland know when they call My Plumber Plus, a skilled technician will come get the job done. Founded in 1982, My Plumber Plus is a trusted family business with professional plumbing, HVAC, and electrical certifications. But longevity can lead to complacency, and managers struggled to coach all technicians and improve sales techniques.

The challenges

My Plumber Plus answers over 600 service requests every week. Techs couldn’t remember exactly what they said in a call, so they couldn’t identify what they did right or wrong.

“As a service manager, you spend a lot of time thinking of how to help the technicians grow. ‘Am I doing enough so they can have a great livelihood?’ One of the ways to do that is seeing how they're talking to the customer,” said Training Manager Silvia Nestares.

They have more techs than she could accompany on ridealongs, which left some techs dealing with inconsistent performance.

“I’d have two months where I’d just kill it,” says Plumbing Tech and Team Lead Steven Richers. “You get complacent and think,  ‘There’s nothing I can do any better.’”

But when technicians weren’t killing it, they didn’t know how to improve. My Plumber Plus looked for a solution where they could consistently coach techs through the company’s 10-step process and increase conversions and sales.

Rilla provides the time to coach every tech

My Plumber Plus began using Rilla to record and analyze customer conversations, which offers the team a consistent source of truth. 

“Rilla lets us dig deep into what we're doing, dissect it, analyze it, really pull it apart,” said Plumbing Technician Geoffrey Lustre. “And with the amazing AI functions, it really allows us to keep making sure that we're hitting those points that we're supposed to be hitting.”

Rilla ensures managers have more time for more coaching, too. They often wear multiple hats, and Director of Operations Phil Hopkins admits that getting out for ridealongs was sometimes difficult. “Being able to have virtual ridealongs and getting real-time feedback to the sales guys has been absolutely beneficial,” he said.

The results

Rather than waiting for a weekly meeting and relying on technicians to remember what they said to each customer, Field Supervisor John Thomas can address issues on the fly.

“When guys have issues, I can literally get in my truck and listen to [calls],” he said. “I can be anywhere with any of the technicians at any time. As long as they hit the record button, I know what’s going on, and I can help them.”

“Since we started with Rilla, our conversion rate has increased by 14% and the average sale has increased by 20%,” Silvia said. “The technicians get excited because they see their numbers going up.”

Rather than focusing on a few ridealongs daily, Silvia provides feedback on up to 35 calls daily, listening to clips and highlighting certain moments. She has more peace of mind knowing she is doing everything to help all techs improve, and by listening to their own calls, techs can review their own approach and make tweaks to increase their sales and become more confident.

Techs also learn from peers. Geoffrey confirmed his sales numbers increased 50–60%, partly from listening to top sellers’ calls. “I have a whole truckload of tools, but Rilla is my best.” 

He also said listening to his recordings has made him more self-aware.

“It has benefited us like crazy. It's really about being able to hear yourself and examples of other technicians,” he said. “It allows you to start caring a lot more about what you're saying and a lot more about what you're selling to the customer.”

“It holds you accountable, making sure you're going through all the steps, making sure you're doing the process, you're doing the options and everything on every call,” Steven said.