Setting up Yesoma for a plumbing business

This guide walks a plumbing business owner through applying Yesoma's plumbing playbook, handling the emergency vs. scheduled inquiry split, setting price expectations before the first visit, and using templates and follow-up cadence that reflect what plumbing customers actually need: a calm, competent response fast.

1. Apply the plumbing playbook during onboarding

When you first sign up, Yesoma's onboarding wizard asks you to pick your industry. Choose Plumbing and the wizard loads a complete starting workspace: 8 pre-written services, 7 policies, 8 FAQs, 8 reply templates, and a follow-up cadence tuned for the job-based workflow plumbers actually use.

The playbook is a starting point, not a locked contract. After it loads, you land in Settings where you can:

• Edit any service name, description, or price
• Add or remove services (tankless specialists, gas line work, commercial-only, etc.)
• Adjust the deposit threshold if your minimum is different from $500
• Update your warranty terms if you offer more or less than the playbook defaults

Take 10–15 minutes here. The more accurate your services and prices, the better Yesoma's AI replies will match your real business when it generates draft responses.

2. Handle emergency and scheduled inquiries differently

Plumbing is unusual among home-service verticals because the same business receives two completely different kinds of contacts in the same inbox: a homeowner whose pipe just burst and a homeowner who wants to schedule a new faucet next week. The playbook accounts for both.

The playbook loads two first-reply templates:

• First reply — emergency inquiry opens by acknowledging urgency, asks for the address and nature of the emergency, and commits to a 30-minute callback. It also tells the customer to shut off the main supply if they have not already — reducing damage before you even arrive.
• First reply — scheduled inquiry is slower and warmer. It asks about the issue, how long it has been going on, and what appointment windows work.

When a new inquiry comes in, Yesoma's AI reads the message and drafts a reply using whichever template fits. You review and send. For emergencies especially, getting that first response out fast — and calmly — is the thing customers remember.

A few practical notes on managing both lanes:

• If you have a separate after-hours number, add it to your business profile so customers who find you via the marketplace or a Google search see it immediately.
• The emergency template is set to channel both because stressed customers will reach you on whatever they have open first — text, WhatsApp, or email. Do not restrict it to one channel.
• Tag emergency cases manually in the inbox so your team can track after-hours volume and adjust staffing.

3. The "starting from" pricing reality and how Yesoma sets expectations

Almost every plumbing price starts at a floor and goes up depending on what is behind the wall, under the slab, or inside the fitting. A $200 leak repair that turns into a corroded manifold is a very different job. Quoting a firm number before seeing the work is how plumbers lose trust — either the customer feels misled when the price goes up, or the plumber eats the difference.

The playbook uses starting_from pricing on all services except custom jobs (which are custom_quote). The pricing reply template explains this directly to customers without making it feel evasive:

"The exact price depends on what we find. The $125 visit fee is credited to the repair if you accept — so you are not paying it twice."

That one sentence does a lot of work. It tells the customer they are not being charged to be sold to, and it names the number upfront rather than surprising them at the door.

You can update the anchor prices in your service settings any time. The templates reference [price] as a placeholder, so when Yesoma drafts a pricing reply it pulls from your service record. Keep your anchor prices current, especially if materials costs shift.

4. Deposits on large jobs and when to ask

The playbook sets a deposit requirement on two services: water heater installs and custom work (re-pipes, remodels, new construction). The deposit is 50% before parts are ordered.

This makes sense for two reasons: parts for a water heater replacement are a real dollar amount you are fronting, and large jobs carry scheduling risk. A 50% deposit before ordering is a standard practice customers in this category expect.

The playbook does not require deposits on service calls, drain clears, fixture swaps, or single-visit repairs. Asking for a deposit on a $180 drain clear creates friction that is not worth it. The deposit note on each service in your settings tells customers exactly when a deposit applies and why — you can adjust the threshold or the language to match your own policy.

When a customer accepts a large-job quote, Yesoma's quote-sent template lays out the deposit expectation clearly:

"Deposit required: 50% before parts are ordered."

This is better than springing it after the fact. If your payment processor is connected in Settings, you can send a payment link inline with the quote.

5. Warranty and license messaging baked into your templates

Two things matter enormously to plumbing customers who are comparing you to the next plumber they found online: proof that you are licensed and insured, and confidence that if something goes wrong after you leave, they are not stuck.

The playbook handles both.

Your policies section includes a dedicated license and insurance policy with language you can paste into any template or surface on your marketplace profile:

"We are fully licensed and carry general liability and workers' compensation insurance. Copies of both are available on request."

The warranty policy distinguishes between repairs (90-day labor warranty) and installs (1-year labor warranty). That distinction is important because a toilet install and a pipe repair are different risk profiles, and customers who are spending $1,200 on a water heater want to know that install is backed for longer than 90 days.

The post-job follow-up template references the warranty naturally:

"If anything comes up in the next [90 days / 1 year for installs] that you think is related to our work, reach out and we will make it right — that is covered under our warranty."

Edit the bracket to match the actual service. If you want to standardize on one number (say, 1 year on everything), update both the policy and the template so they match.

The permit policy is also in the playbook. Customers who have been burned by unpermitted work — either at resale or when an inspection fails — respond well to knowing you pull permits as a matter of course, not as an upsell.

6. What your reply templates look like in action

Here is a practical walkthrough of how a typical scheduled job moves through Yesoma:

Day 0 — inquiry arrives. A customer messages asking about a slow-draining kitchen sink. Yesoma drafts a reply using the scheduled inquiry template, asking for the address, description, and preferred window. You review and send it.

Day 0 or 1 — pricing reply. You reply with the pricing template: drain unblocking starts at $180, the final price depends on whether it is a single drain or multiple, no deposit needed. You offer two open slots.

Day 1 — quote sent. If the conversation moves to a quote, you send the quote template with the scope, price, and payment terms. Yesoma logs this as a quote event, which starts the follow-up cadence.

Day 4 — quote follow-up. Yesoma queues the quote follow-up template if the customer has not replied in 3 days. One tap sends it.

Job day. You complete the work. Yesoma shows the job as completed.

Day after the job. Yesoma queues the post-job follow-up with the review link. The customer is relieved the drain runs again. That is exactly when they are most likely to leave a review — not a week later when they have forgotten about it.

That loop — inquiry, pricing, quote, follow-up, completion, review request — is the whole playbook working. Yesoma handles the timing and drafts the messages. You keep your attention on the job.

Common questions

What if I mostly do emergency work and rarely schedule in advance? Change the follow-up cadence for inquiry_received to use the emergency template instead of the scheduled one. You can also create a custom version of the first-reply template that is even shorter — some emergency plumbers want to skip the qualifying questions and just get an address and callback number.

Can I add gas line work as a separate service? Yes — add it in Settings under Services. Use starting_from pricing and include a note that gas work requires a licensed gas fitter and is inspected before the line is re-lit. Copy the booking steps structure from the water heater service as a starting point.

My diagnostic visit is free — should I change the service call price to $0? You can. Set the price to 0 and update the pricing policy to remove the "credited to repair" language. The trade-off is that free diagnostic visits attract more tire-kickers. The playbook default ($125 credited to the repair) is the more common model for US plumbers, but use what reflects your actual practice.

How do I distinguish my after-hours calls from regular inquiries in the inbox? Tag them manually as they come in, or set a keyword trigger in your inbox settings so that messages containing "emergency," "burst," or "flooding" get auto-tagged. This lets you track emergency volume over time and see how quickly your team responded.