What I’ve learnt from plumbers…

Isn't it amazing when: 

a) people speak in clear, and easy to understand language 

and you b) combine a) with a proactive, positive mindset?

To set some context - I have had 3 different plumbers come and look at the same problem in the my bathroom. This is a saga that has been going on months, and after each conversation I have felt mystified, frustrated and stupid for questioning how can this be so complicated? 

I have a broken tap in the bathroom. The tap itself is simple to replace, but the genius who fitted the bathroom well before we moved in, covered any access to the pipework etc to enable a fix if anything went wrong. 

Each of the 3 plumbers told me how complicated the issue would be to solve and basically offered no solutions because they couldn't be bothered to think about solving my problem. One plumber is also ghosting me, as he's not interested as the job it too small for him. They all assumed I probably wouldn't pay enough to make it worth their while. 

A guy turned up today to solve a problem in another bathroom we just had re-done (what is it with bathrooms?) and I asked him to take a look as a favour as he seems like a decent bloke. 

He took a look, asked me some questions about what my ideal solution looks like, explained the problem, and gave me a few simple options to the solve the problem. 

The solution we agreed on involved cutting a square hole in the panel in front of the pipework, replacing the tap and fitting an access panel to resolve the lack of access issue for any future requirements. Simple. 

He told me he could fix it within about twenty minutes, and he could do it tomorrow whilst he's waiting for some silicon to dry in the other bathroom, if I was interested. I was interested. 

He even told me he will go and pick up the access panel on the way to our house in the morning. 

After agreeing on the resolution plan and me thanking him a thousand times, I then asked him if I could call him in the future for help on any other issues, under the understanding of course I would pay a call out fee etc. 

What he also doesn't know, and the other plumbers didn't know because they didn't ask, is that my pain level of this problem was so high that I would have paid almost whatever anyone would have suggested just to get it solved. The problem wasn’t just a tap, the problem was the problems the tap created in our household. Whilst small and certainly first world in nature the tap created a range of knock on’s that created an urgency for me to find a solution.

What these plumbers also didn't know, is that we will be replacing the bathroom in which he's fitting the broken tap with no access in the coming months, and the job was up for grabs.

This story for me has so many lessons that can be applied in all forms of business. Especially in IT and complex sales, its so easy to forget basics and get lost in the complexity. It’s also so easy to get lost in our own problems, target’s goals we lose site of the bringing value to our customers.

Business most of the time is pretty simple right? But I think we all need these reminders from time to time -

- Ask good, open questions.
- Understand problems and the real pains they create.
- Don't make assumptions. Good or bad. 
- Know your stuff, but don't use jargon just to sound clever. 
- Have an open mindset. 
- Be a creative problem solver. 
- Invest in people's/companies problems - you never know where it can go. 

My experience with the plumber today was so positive, I felt like writing about it. How many times in our own businesses do we make people feel the same?