Mastering Soft Skills: The Key to Boosting Plumbing Service Success

Chris Fresh is the owner and founder of The Plumbing Sales Coach, a service that specializes in teaching service technicians how to Increase their conversion rates and ticket averages.

Fresh started his plumbing career by taking a local shop to seven figures in less than a year. In the course of his career he has been the owner of several successful home service business, and was a top 10% sales rep for Fortune 500 companies.

With The Plumbing Sales Coach, Fresh has helped thousands of technicians and hundreds of owners take control of their businesses while improving the bottom line. He spoke with CONTRACTOR about workforce development and the importance of soft skill.

CONTRACTOR:  Why are technical skills now just the baseline for service technicians?

Chris Fresh: Technical skill used to be the differentiator. Now it’s just the price of entry. Every customer assumes you know how to fix the problem. That’s not impressive anymore. That’s expected. What separates companies today is how the technician shows up, communicates and leads the conversation inside the home.

The real job isn’t just fixing plumbing. It’s helping a homeowner understand what’s going on, what their options are and what makes the most sense for them. That’s where most companies lose. They’ve got skilled plumbers who can fix anything, but they can’t guide a customer through a decision.

CONTRACTOR: What soft skills make the biggest difference once a technician is in the home?

Fresh: It comes down to three things:

• Communication: Can they explain the problem in a way the customer actually understands?
• Awareness: Can they read the customer—are they nervous, skeptical or overwhelmed?
• Leadership: Can they guide the conversation without being pushy? 

We teach what we call “Always Be Serving.” That means you’re not there to close someone. You’re there to help them make the best decision. And when you do that right, the customer naturally moves forward.

CONTRACTOR: Why should contractors hire for communication and people skills, not just trade experience?

Fresh: You can teach someone plumbing. But it’s much harder to teach someone how to care about people and communicate clearly.

Most companies hire based on technical ability and then wonder why their guys struggle in the home. If a technician can’t build trust, it doesn’t matter how good they are with a wrench.

We teach owners to look for people who can connect, listen and take ownership of the experience. Then we train them on the technical side and give them a structure to follow in the home. That combination produces far better results than hiring a highly skilled tech who can’t relate to a customer.

CONTRACTOR: How do soft skills influence close rates, average ticket and repeat business?

Fresh: Soft skills drive all three.

When a customer trusts the technician, they’re more open to hearing options. When they understand those options, they make better decisions. And when they feel taken care of, they come back and refer others.

A lot of companies want their techs to focus on “closing.” But we believe the focus should be on asking questions. There’s still structure to it, but it should be done through service. The tech’s job is to help the customer understand the problem, walk them through their options and support them in choosing what’s best. When your team does that consistently, conversion rates go up, average tickets go up and your repeat business grows because the customer actually had a good experience.

CONTRACTOR: What role does customer experience play in online reviews, referrals and long-term profitability?

Fresh: It’s everything. The fact is that people don’t leave reviews because you fixed a pipe. They leave reviews because of how they felt during the experience.

Did the technician respect their home? Did they explain things clearly? Did they feel pressured or taken care of?

That emotional side drives reviews, referrals and lasting loyalty. Companies that win in the long-term aren’t just good at plumbing. They’re good at creating an experience where the customer feels confident and comfortable spending money. That’s where profitability really compounds.

CONTRACTOR: How can contractors coach soft skills in the field without making technicians feel like they’re being pushed into “sales”?

Fresh: You have to change the language and the intention.

The moment a technician feels like they’re being trained to “sell,” they resist. That’s where the industry has it wrong. We don’t teach selling. We teach a process of serving. We give technicians a clear structure for the call, including how to build trust, how to ask questions, how to diagnose properly and how to present options.

That’s very similar to what you see in structured sales training, but the focus is different. It’s not about pushing a decision. It’s about helping the customer make one.

When technicians understand that their job is to serve and educate, not pressure, they buy in. And when they buy in, their performance goes up without leaving them feeling like they’ve turned into a salesperson.

To learn more about Fresh and his approach to soft skills, visit theplumbingsalescoach.com.

To learn more about soft skills training, read How Soft Skills are Setting the New Standard of Professionalism in the Trades.