Cross-selling between plumbing and heating customers

What this service is

Cross-selling here means three linked pieces of work:

1. The customer file. Sorting your past customers by which trade they've bought, how recently, what equipment you've seen in the home, and what consent you hold to contact them.
2. Follow-up campaigns. Email and text sequences, sent only where you have consent, that offer the other trade at a moment when it's relevant: a heating check-up offer in September to plumbing customers, a water heater age check in February to furnace customers.
3. The visit itself. Short, honest prompts for technicians and a leave-behind card, so the observation "your water heater is 14 years old" is made on every relevant call.

Who it's for

It fits combined shops with at least a couple of thousand past customers and a field-service or CRM system that records jobs by trade. It works particularly well when:

• the HVAC side was added in the last five years and most of the customer base is plumbing;
• the shop runs a maintenance plan that covers only one trade;
• the office has no regular reason to contact customers between jobs.

What's included

• List audit. We count one-trade and two-trade households, check data quality, and mark each contact's consent status. The rules matter: ISED's CASL guidance says commercial messages need consent, sender identification and a working unsubscribe, and that implied consent from a purchase is time-limited. We summarise; your lawyer advises.
• Consent capture. Wording for invoices, quotes and the office phone script that asks for express consent in plain language.
• Two-trade plan marketing. If you run or want a plan that includes both a heating tune-up and a plumbing check, we write the offer page, the renewal reminders and the technician explanation.
• Seasonal sequences. Four to six short campaigns a year, each tied to the season and to what the customer already owns.
• Technician prompts. A one-page guide per trade: what to look for on the other side of the mechanical room and how to mention it.
• Monthly report. Messages sent, replies, bookings and revenue by campaign.

Timeline

• Weeks 1–3: list audit, consent review and segment counts.
• Weeks 4–6: first campaign written and approved; technician guides printed.
• Month 3 onward: one campaign every six to eight weeks, adjusted by results.

First bookings often appear in the first campaign's week, because these customers already know you. The bigger effect, more two-trade households, builds over a year.

How results are measured

The headline number is the share of active households that have bought from both trades, measured from your job records each quarter. Alongside it:

• bookings and gross profit per campaign;
• plan sign-ups and renewals;
• replies and unsubscribes, so we know when a message annoys people;
• technician-sourced leads, if your system tags them.

Our cross-sell math guide shows how to estimate what this is worth before you start.

Mistakes to avoid

• Blasting the whole list. It risks breaking consent rules and teaches customers to ignore you.
• Generic newsletters instead of offers. A customer with a new furnace doesn't need furnace tips. They might need a water heater check.
• Discount-led messages. Price cuts train customers to wait for the next offer and say nothing about your crew. Relevance works better: the right reminder at the right age of equipment.
• No feedback loop to the field. If technicians never hear which prompts turned into jobs, they stop using them.

Cross-selling works best once the brand clearly shows both trades; see one brand across plumbing and HVAC. Questions? Call, text or email.