Pricing and quoting for plumbers: flat rate, good better best, and the drain special trap
How to present plumbing prices so homeowners buy the middle option, why the $99 drain special hurts, and how pricing decides what your marketing can do.
Two plumbing companies in the same town run the same ads at the same budget. One books 38% of calls at a $560 average ticket. The other books 52% at $290. The second shop is busier and makes less money. The difference is not marketing. It is how each one presents a price.
Pricing is upstream of everything you can do in advertising. It sets what you can afford to pay for a lead, which channels are open to you, and which customers you attract.
Flat rate, and say the diagnostic fee out loud
Charge flat rate per task, not hourly. Hourly punishes your fastest tech and invites an argument about the clock. Flat rate lets you show a price before the work starts, which is what a homeowner actually wants.
Charge a diagnostic or trip fee, publish it, and waive it on approval. A $69 to $129 diagnostic fee does three jobs at once: it filters people who want free advice, it pays for the truck roll on a no-sale, and it makes the "waived if you book today" line real.
The CSR script matters as much as the number: "Our diagnostic is $89. The tech gives you a firm price before any work starts, and if you go ahead, the $89 comes off the job." Nobody argues with that sentence. Plenty of people argue with "it depends."
Good, better, best on every quote over $600
Present three options on the tablet, always, for anything with a real ticket. The structure that works for plumbing:
Water heater
- Good: like-for-like 40-gallon atmospheric replacement, 6-year tank warranty, permit and haul-away, $2,150.
- Better: 50-gallon power vent, 9-year tank, expansion tank, new shutoff and flex lines, 2-year labor warranty, $2,950.
- Best: tankless conversion, gas line sizing, recirculation, 12-year heat exchanger, annual descale for 3 years, $5,400.
Main line stoppage
- Good: clear from the cleanout, 30-day warranty, $325.
- Better: clear plus camera inspection with recording, 90-day warranty, $475.
- Best: hydro jet the line, camera before and after, 1-year warranty, $895.
Most customers pick the middle. That is the point. Written as one price, the middle option feels expensive. Written between two others, it feels sensible. Shops that move from single-price quotes to three-option quotes typically see average ticket rise 15% to 25% within a quarter without a price increase.
Put the options on a screen the customer can see, with the warranty and what is included spelled out for each. The words are doing as much work as the numbers.
The drain special trap
The $79 or $99 drain special is the most common plumbing offer in America and it is a bad deal for most shops. The math: a truck roll costs $60 to $110 in labor and vehicle cost before parts. At $99 you break even only if the tech sells something else, so the model depends entirely on upselling from a price-shopping customer. That customer chose you on price and will choose the next shop on price too.
If you want a cheap front-end offer, make it honest and make it anchor upward: "Drain clearing from the cleanout, $185. If we cannot clear it, the camera inspection is free and we credit the $185 toward the repair." You are still competing, you are not losing money on the roll, and you are attracting somebody who might buy a $4,000 sewer repair.
Anchoring on your website does the same work for free. Publishing "drain clearing $185 to $325" on the page makes a $265 quote at the door feel expected instead of invented, and it screens the $99 hunters before they ever call. The website guide covers where those ranges go.
Deposits, financing and the big jobs
For anything over $3,000, take a deposit. Thirty percent to 50% on repipes, sewer replacements and tankless conversions. It covers material, it kills the tire kickers, and it makes the customer's decision real.
Offer financing on tickets over $2,500. Typical dealer fees run 3% to 8% depending on the term you buy down. Build the fee into the price rather than adding it at the door. Presenting a $9,800 repipe as "$9,800, or about $189 a month for 60 months" moves jobs that would otherwise sit for a year, and it is the single most useful thing you can put in a water heater or repipe ad.
What pricing does to your marketing
Your average ticket sets your allowable cost per lead. A rough rule: you can afford to spend up to about 10% of gross ticket on acquiring the job.
- $290 average ticket: about $29 per booked job. If your booking rate is 40%, that is $12 a lead. Local Services Ads at $60 a lead do not work at that ticket.
- $560 average ticket: about $56 per booked job, $22 a lead at the same booking rate. Now Google Ads works.
- $2,400 water heater: about $240 per booked job. Now Meta ads, retargeting, direct mail and even a $90 lead all work comfortably.
This is why the shops running profitable ads are usually the ones selling the bigger jobs, not the ones with the cleverest ads. See the Google Ads guide and the Meta ads guide for what each channel costs.
Raising prices without losing the phone
Raise in one place at a time. Start with the diagnostic fee, wait 30 days, watch the booking rate. Then raise the top two tiers, which most customers do not pick anyway. Then the middle.
Watch booking rate, not complaints. If booking rate falls less than five points after a 10% increase, you left money on the table for years. Reviews are your cover here: 78% of plumbing companies sit at 4.5 stars or better, so ratings do not differentiate you, but review count does, and a shop with 200 reviews can charge more than a shop with 21.
Frequently asked
Should I put exact prices on my website? Put ranges with what is included. Exact prices invite arguments about scope. Ranges set expectations and screen out shoppers.
What if a competitor undercuts me by 30%? Let them. Say it plainly at the door: "They may be cheaper. Here is what our price includes and what our warranty covers." A third of homeowners buy on price, and they were never your customer.
Do I quote over the phone? Give a range and book the diagnostic. Quoting firm numbers over the phone loses jobs your tech would have sold in person.
If you want the ads pointed at the higher-ticket work instead of the drain special, that is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.