The customers you've already had are the easiest ones to get again.
A customer who's had you once already trusts you. The catch is the gap. The next time they need a plumber might be two years off, and by then all they've got is a number they may have saved and a memory of a bloke who did a good job. Whether they ring you then, or search "plumber" again and ring whoever comes up, mostly comes down to whether they've heard from you since.
Getting remembered happens between jobs.
Most plumbing runs on the phone. Someone rings, you go out, you fix it, they pay, and that's the job. Ten of those in a week, and every one ends the same way: a happy customer, and nothing between you that lasts. No email, no note, nothing with your name on it that they'll come across later.
That's fine while the job's fresh. It's the gap that costs. The hot water unit's got years in it, the drain's clear, and the next time they need someone could be two winters away. By then it rests on them finding you: a contact they might have saved, a card in a drawer, an invoice somewhere. Some do. Plenty just search "plumber" again and ring whoever comes up, the same way they found you the first time.
An email is the one thing that stays. It sits in their inbox with your name and your number on it, it comes up when they search their own email for "plumber" two years on, and it reads like a person wrote it, because you did. It costs a few minutes, and it doesn't need them to have kept anything.
And you've already got the address. Everyone who books through your page has left one, and by the time you've invoiced you've usually got the rest. From there it's one short email at the right moment: a thanks and a review ask when the job's done, a heads-up before winter, a note at Christmas. Used a couple of times a month, that's what turns the customer who had you once into the one who's got a plumber.
The emails aren't the point. Being the plumber they already know is — and that gets built a few lines at a time, one customer at a time.
May. Pre-winter. A customer from two years ago.
One email, sent in the quiet weeks, that fills the loud ones. That's what getting remembered means in practice — last winter's job turning into this winter's.
A mock-up, on a specimen business — not a real customer.
Five moments. Five emails.
A quote that's gone quiet, a job just finished, May, Christmas, and a customer you haven't heard from in a couple of years. One email for each, written in your voice with your details already in it, sitting in a Google Doc you copy from. No CRM behind it, no subscription and no ads.
Sent a quote 2 days ago. Silence.
A Google Doc, your inbox, and five labels.
There's no CRM in it and no new app. The emails live in a Google Doc, written in your voice, with your name, your number and your licence already in every one of them, and five Gmail labels keep track of every customer for you. We set all of that up with you. Your part is the four steps below.
Subject: Got your message — quick next steps
G'day {{FIRST_NAME}},
Thanks for reaching out to {{BUSINESS}}. I've got your message and I'll call you back within 90 minutes (Mon–Sat, 7am–6pm).
If it's urgent — burst pipe, no hot water — call {{PHONE}} directly…
Subject: Got ya — hang tight
Hey {{FIRST_NAME}}! Cheers for the message. I'm probably under a sink right now but I'll give you a bell back within 90…
Subject: Got it — stopping the flow first
- 01
Customer sends an enquiry.
Any channel. Gmail, Outlook, a form, Facebook Messenger — wherever it lands.
- 02
Open the doc. Find the situation.
Browse by category. "Enquiry & Quote Handling" → "Auto-response". Pick the tone.
- 03
Copy, paste, adjust, send.
Merge fields already filled. You tweak one line for their specific situation.
- 04
Tag the thread. You're done.
Five Gmail labels = your CRM. The customer list builds itself over time.
A moment comes up.
A job’s just finished. A quote’s gone quiet. It’s May, or it’s December, or a name you haven’t heard from in a couple of years comes to mind.
Open the Doc. Find the moment.
Browse by moment. “Post-Job” → “Review request”. Pick the tone.
Copy, paste, adjust, send.
Your details are already in it. You change the line that’s about them — the job, the thing they mentioned — and send.
Tag the thread. You’re done.
Five Gmail labels = your CRM. The customer list builds itself over time.
Same customer. Same job. One gets you a review.
Most plumbers send something like the first email — if they send anything at all. It's polite. It's also entirely forgettable. The only thing that changes in the second is the words.
Sounds like a person
Their name, the actual job, your voice — it reads like the bloke who just fixed their tap wrote it. Because he did.
Makes one clear request
A single link, a single action: leave a review. Easy to read, easy to act on.
Same email. Different customer.
The name isn't the only thing that changes. Pick who this one is for and the lines change with them: the job, the thing they mentioned, what comes next, and how you'd say it to them.
The Doc is written that way from the start. Each email comes with its lines for the customers you actually get — the ones with kids, the rentals, the rough ones — so the one you send is about them, not about a customer in general. It's a small thing to read and a big thing to receive, and it's the difference between an email that gets a reply and one that gets filed.
How you’d say it
Wants it done properly and doesn’t need a chat.
The job
Something they mentioned
What comes next
You decide. Nothing sends for you.
It earns as it comes. It earns more if you get into it.
- Used exactly as it’s handed over. A job finishes, you open the Doc, copy the one that fits and send it. In May the seasonal one goes to last year’s customers; in December the Christmas one goes to everyone. That’s the whole routine — a few minutes here and there — and it’s enough: last winter’s job comes back, and the review gets asked for.
- If you get into it. Try a different tone on a type of customer and see who replies. Send the seasonal one to two winters back, not one. Work out which jobs come back on their own, and send a check-in for the ones that don’t. The Doc is yours to push as far as you like — and none of that is required for it to earn. That’s by design.
Follow-ups aren't just polite.
They're how the work comes back.
The review you ask for after the job doesn't stay in their inbox. It lands on your Google card, where the next customer — the one who's never heard of you — reads it while deciding who to ring. That's the part Get Found is about, and it's fed from here.
The address the emails go to came from the page they booked on, which is what Get Reached is about, or from the invoice. The seasonal note turns last winter's job into this winter's. The Christmas one keeps your number in their inbox for the night something goes. Each is small on its own. Together they're how a customer who used you once ends up ringing you for years, and giving your name when a neighbour asks.
The questions we get, answered.
I already use ServiceM8. Do I need this?
ServiceM8 handles booking confirmations and invoicing. This fills the gap: the follow-ups, the review asks, the seasonal ones, and the customers you haven’t heard from in a while. It sits alongside ServiceM8 — we tag which emails each tool covers.
Isn’t this just more admin?
Exactly why it’s a Google Doc, not a platform. No logins, no dashboards, no notifications. You open it when a job’s done, copy one email, send it. That’s the whole system.
What about the Australian Spam Act?
Covered. Every email includes compliant opt-out language. The Doc includes a one-page checklist: when you need consent, what “inferred consent” means for past customers, and exactly what to put in your footer.
Will this work for a two-person operation?
Yes. It’s built for a business that’s you, or you and a couple of others.
What if I’m not good with computers?
If you can copy text and paste it into an email, you can use this. And if that still sounds like a stretch, say so when you get us to take a look — it’s set up with you, so we set the fiddly parts up and walk you through the rest on a call.
Everything on this page assumes one thing: the enquiry arrived. That's what Get Found and Get Reached are for. One setup, three outcomes — this is the one that keeps paying years after the job.