Public Relations

National plumbing and drainage company Drain Doctor Plumbing has celebrated 13 years of being in business by successfully completing its search for the home with the ‘unluckiest plumbing in Britain.

Drain Doctor’s quest ended in Manchester. When Manchester North Drain Doctor Andrew Farrington was called last year to deal with a toilet that was backing up he got more than he bargained for. In fact the call-out turned into the area’s 'unluckiest' plumbing problem so he entered the customers into the national competition.

Andrew was called out to clear a blockage in Mr and Mrs Crowther’s drain. As a matter of routine he inspected the drain using a CCTV camera and found that there was a leak there.

Andrew said: “I pointed out the leak to the Crowthers and gave them a quote for repairs to the drain. I was called back to do the job a few days later. I thought the work was only going to take half a day.”

After lifting the flag stones on the path next to the customer’s utility room and starting to dig Andrew fell into a big hole. Water from the leaking drain had been eroding the subsoil and concrete around the drain for years. As Andrew dug, the hole got bigger and he even lost his shovel down it.

We had to dig under the utility room to uncover the leaking drain and the hole just kept getting bigger. After fixing the damaged ‘S’ bend drain we had to back fill the hole with concrete to underpin the utility room. It had been leaking for years and nobody knew until I checked the drains with my CCTV camera.

If it had carried on leaking it would eventually have caused serious structural damage for the house. What I thought was going to take just half a day to finish ended up taking three days.”

Drain Doctor has been celebrating 13 years of being in business by searching for the home with the ‘unluckiest plumbing in Britain'. While the number 13 may be unlucky for some, the company’s customers have had 13 years of first-class service since Drain Doctor started trading.

Mr and Mrs Crowther had a free inspection and diagnosis of the problem from Drain Doctor and received £1,000 of plumbing work to solve it. Mrs Christine Crowther said:“We are very pleased to have won the prize, although it was very traumatic at the time because the problem just kept escalating. We were worried about subsidence but Andrew was just brilliant.

He did a very thorough job and wouldn’t give up until it was right. The hole that he started just kept getting bigger and went right under the utility room. Andrew’s spade even disappered. But he kept going until he reached solid ground and then ensured that the utility room was properly underpinned.

"We are delighted with the work.”

Andrew Farrington said:“We built the competition around the theme of thirteen years of being in business.

Thirteen is unlucky for some, maybe, but not for Drain Doctor. We are building a successful business based on the simple principle of delighting the customers with a first class service.

The whole team at Drain Doctor is focused on doing things differently from so many other plumbers – we turn up on time, do the job right first time, guarantee the work and are totally ‘up front’ about prices.”

Drain Doctor Plumbing has quickly grown since its launch to become the country's largest emergency plumbing and drain repair service. It now provides a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year service in every part of the country with each franchise – such as the one in Manchester - run as an independent business.

The company provides a genuine 24-hour service with no call-out charge and no extra charges for calls outside of normal working hours. Customers get a fixed price quotation so they know exactly how much they will have to pay before work is started.

Franchisees of Drain Doctor Plumbing have been learning new skills to further improve customer service. They are clearly doing well already because Drain Doctor has grown rapidly to become the UK’s largest emergency plumbing and drain repair service.

Its success has been built on providing a 24 hours per day, 365 days per year service with a fixed price ‘menu’ and no call-out or out-of-hours charges.Technicians are trained not just in plumbing but also in customer care, so that they do things such as put down mats and wear overshoes while in customers’ homes and clear up carefully after every job.

Now Drain Doctor aims to do even better with a series of new ideas which originated in the USA.

The company has just finished its annual convention in Stratford-upon-Avon at which franchisees from across the UK Republic of Ireland were introduced to new technical and business developments.

Among these were SWAT – ‘service with attitude training’ – presented by Mike Stone and Beth Dobkin from Mr Rooter, Drain Doctor’s sister company in the USA. The SWAT techniques have helped American franchisees to build better and more profitable businesses.

Mike pointed out that customers “are not excited about calling a plumber”. Customers have not budgeted for it but are forced to. How the plumber treats them can turn a bad day into a good one.

Beth said “Customers buy what they see – things such as the van, the technician, the mat, the shoe covers and the menu price book. All of these help to build the trust and respect of the customer.”

Mike and Beth also talked about the franchisees’ ‘office culture’ and gave some practical ideas on how the culture can be used to improve the business itself.

For example, Beth talked about monitoring the progress of all the technicians in a way for all to see with a big board showing job averages, turnover, product sales made and other features of their individual services. Competitions can be built around the big board and the competitive nature of the technicians makes them want to see their name up there in a positive way.

Andrew and Sheryl August, who operate a Mr Rooter franchise in New Jersey, USA, told the Drain Doctor franchisees how providing SWAT had boosted their business. Already highly successful, they found that implementing the SWAT techniques added more value to each customer call. Andrew August said that ‘home check-ups’ and CCTV surveys are now standard parts of the service which they provide.

Mary Kennedy-Thompson, president of Mr Rooter of the USA, talked about the importance of the company’s image and the way in which Drain Doctor franchisees and technicians help to build it.

In particular, she said, Drain Doctor technicians should be known for their courtesy – something which is “in short supply these days” she said. Drain Doctor wants to be known as “the polite plumber”.

Closing the convention, Drain Doctor founder and chairman Freddie Mitman said "This annual gathering of Drain Doctor franchisees adds real strength to every individual franchise and, importantly, to the network as a whole because we learn from one another as well as from our guest speakers.”

A national plumbing and drainage company has received accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which aims to improve health and safety practice amongst contractors in the food industry.

Drain Doctor Plumbing applied for SAFEcontractor accreditation to help secure uniform standards across the business.

Drain Doctor director Jan Mitman said: “This accreditation not only highlights our dedication to improving health and safety for our workers but also for our customers.

Drain Doctor prides itself on customer service and we hope that being on the SAFEcontractor register will give safety-aware customers the assurance that we operate to industry-leading standards”.

Drain Doctor Plumbing supplies a 24-hour, 365-day emergency plumbing and drainage service to businesses across the SAFEcontractor accreditation is expected to enhance the company’s ability to attract new contracts and its commitment to safety will be viewed positively by its insurers when the company’s liability policy is due for renewal.

SAFEcontractor is operated by international safety, health and environmental risk management specialists, the National Britannia Group. The system is applicable to most sectors although the company says it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, which is a big user of contract services.

James Ostler, managing director of information service at National Britannia, said: “Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors which are not able to prove they have sound health and safety policies.

More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that Drain Doctor has done.The firm’s high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector”.

Under the SAFEcontractor system, businesses undergo a vetting process which examines health and safety procedure and their track record for safe practice.

Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database which is accessible to registered users only via a website, www.safecontractor.com.

Employer organisations which sign up to the scheme can access the database, which enables them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site.These employers agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only contractors which have received accreditation.

Over eighty major nationwide businesses have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building, cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.

Launched in the United Kingdom in 1993, Drain Doctor Plumbing has quickly grown to become the UK’s largest emergency plumbing and drain repair service, offering assistance to businesses in every part of the country from independent franchisees in more than 100 areas.

The company’s central principle is to deliver dazzling levels of service in a market plagued by cowboy operators which are overcharging customers for shoddy workmanship.

Franchisees offer a full 24 hour per day seven day per week service with no call out charges and they give fixed-price, no obligation quotes with a full guarantee on all their work.The fact that they operate to the highest standards of health and safety has now been recognised by the SAFEcontractor accreditation.