Growing gas, heating and plumbing business

[Jack Adams]

Hi all,

New member here so just wanted to introduce myself and maybe ask for a few pointers. My name is Jack adams and I run a company called CommGas Maintenance ltd. It’s a small company based in the south east (London/Surrey) and been trading since 2013. We currently specialised in providing services to domestic and commercial clients covering Gas, heating, plumbing, air conditioning, electrical and ventilation services. Ever since starting things just seem to tick over and the company has always earned ok money but that’s it, I guess I’ve been struggling to open new doors for opportunities. I’m really in the process of trying to grow the business and client database, particularly on the commercial side and was wondering if anyone could give any pointers regarding marketing etc. I’ve just had the website rebuilt and am starting new SEO, social media and google ads campaigns. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

 

[Socio South West]

Welcome aboard. Hope you find the thoughts given useful.

My thoughts would be that you shouldnt be over reliant on web advertising - if you have a google listing that will generally appear well up listings without spending too much on your own site and SEO. The enquiries that come through Website/SEO will random, and rely on people searching on the web for your service in your area.

Your best and easiest advertising is word of mouth, so concentrate on giving good customer service and customer relations to retain your existing customer base. .
Large commercial work may need deep resources, and payment is not always fast, so make sure you are able to handle those aspects besides having the manpower to handle potentially larger projects.

Personal approaches to housing associations, developers and other property owners in your area with well presented brochures and business cards will also bring your services to the attention of the larger clients you would like to work for rather than rely on the random nature of internet searching as above.

 

[AllUpHere]

First thing that springs to mind when reading your post is that you are doing everything a little back to front. A website needs to be built as part of a strategic marketing plan. You can't get the website done and then think about marketing. Same goes for SEO. You can't possibly do that until the marketing has been done.

Maybe take a couple of steps backwards and sort out a strategy before you think any more about individual tactics.

 

[Jack Adams]

Thanks for the replies. some very useful comments

 

[pentel]

Maintenance/ breakdowns and contracting are 2 very different animals.

The number of repeat customers when contracting are far less than repeat maintenance/ breakdown customers.

If a customer goes bust when contracting can have a terminal effect on your company, far less so with maintenance/ breakdown.

Lots of people chasing the big contracts, finding a good maintenance/ breakdown company can be a nightmare.

You can see where I am going with this.....