Guide to Business Texting for Plumbers, HVAC, & Electrician Professionals

Stay off the phone and spend more time on the job with MessageDesk.

Josh avatar
Written by Josh
Updated over a week ago


Email had it's day. Now it's time for business text messaging.

When speaking with a customer it's about getting a job done quickly and effectively. That's why businesses are using texting to reach their customers.

In this guide we break down how field service businesses can use text messaging to accomplish the following:

Get More Estimates 💵

Filtering out unqualified leads is a burden that feels all too familiar to any service oriented business.

Talking to potential leads over text lets you:

- Filter out unqualified leads who are not serious buyers over text so you don't waste time on the phone

- Distribute website form for potential leads to continue a conversation automatically with Autoresponders

- Easily send promotional material to potential leads

Automating every piece of your business that you can will save you time and better yet...money.

Consider using Autoresponders so you can use keyword responses. Marketing material might look like:

Text "ESTIMATE" to ###-###-#### to get a link to our consultation form!

Schedule Service Reminders 📆

In a recent survey, 53% of people said they forgot to attend or cancel their appointment. Another 28% said they wrote down the wrong date or time, and 24% blamed traffic or work.

You can’t control traffic or work conflicts. However, you can do something about the 81% of missed appointments due to forgetfulness or miscommunication.

Use a template like:

{{ Time }} and {{ Service Day }} are custom tags not put in the default set of tags. They are generated by creating custom fields.

Get More Reviews 🌟

One of the quickest ways to grow your business is by getting more online reviews. 6/10 consumers check online reviews before making a buying decision.

But you don't have time to ask for reviews when you're going between job sites all day.

Instead, with MessageDesk it's easy to pre-schedule texts to go out after service that thank your customers and ask them for honest feedback.

One way to ask for feedback is by linking your Google reviews in the text message itself.

Good Google reviews are vital to any local business. They improve your local search ranking, builds credibility, and gives you feedback on their experience.

Before we ask your customers to leave a review we'll need to know where exactly to send them. Below I've outlined the steps to follow to create your link to your businesses Google Review Link.

If you don't have a Google My Business account then simply check out our full guide here to set it up

  1. You can find the Google Place ID tool on the Google Maps Developer Page.

  2. To find your business’s Google Place ID, type your business name In the “Enter a location” field and click on the correct match from the drop-down list.

  3. Next, you’ll see a 25 character string of numbers and characters under your company name. This is your Google Place ID.

  4. Now that you have your Place ID, copy and paste it at end of this link: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=

  5. Once you insert your Place ID in the URL, it should look similar to this, but contain your own Place ID: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJiaAayYBAmYARZvM1YKGhVsc

  6. Finally, to make the link shorter and more visually appealing, use a link shortener. Short URL services like bit.ly will make you a short link that’s perfect for texting to your customers.

Improve Customer Service 💬

Here are the top 3 reasons why businesses and organizations are adopting text messaging for customer service and support:

1. Customers are demanding more real-time, personalized, conversational experiences.

Customers are also 4 times more likely to respond to a text message than call back after receiving a voicemail.

2. Businesses and organizations are saving money by sending texts.

The average customer service phone call costs about $16 according to a Forrester study.

3. Businesses and organizations are scaling their messaging with increased text message automation.

Why pay someone to answer phone calls? Your business could automate responses to customer service questions without sacrificing personality 🔽 🔽 🔽

When you aren't in the office, consider setting office hours! When you aren't in the office, your customers could get a message like this:

Get Paid Faster 🏇

If you operate with Quickbooks or Xero, it is easy to send invoice reminders and payment links with MessageDesk.

Here's what it will look like:

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