Customer Experience as Competitive Advantage: Lessons from Pimlico Plumbers

The other day I chanced upon a YouTube podcast in which Craig Wilkinson, a champion of tradespeople, was interviewing Charlie Mullins. Charlie Mullins is best known for his origins as a plumber based in London and who built a plumbing enterprise called Pimlico Plumbers. It is no easy task to recruit good-quality tradespeople and knit them into a successful business. However, Charlie Mullins succeeded, eventually being offered £145 million by an American company looking to expand internationally. Charlie left his son in the business and exited to Dubai.

The podcast fascinated me because I love hearing down-to-earth business tactics and strategies. Charlie Mullins never had any formal business tuition in his life and that did not seem to be necessary because he had exactly the right attitude for doing what most people find difficult. He told Craig Wilkinson how it seemed obvious to him that if he wanted to grow his business, people would have to know it existed. So, he had his vans decked out in noticeable and stylish livery with his contact details prominently displayed. Other plumbers were reticent about spending money on decorating their vehicles and, in any case, they worried that to do so would invite tool thieves to break in.

Charlie’s instinct for gaining visibility did not stop there. He collected dozens of special number plates reflecting the plumbing business. I seem to remember that he mentioned “BOG 1” as a particular favourite.

He told the story of how he got chatting to a local neighbour who, despite being in his 90s, wanted a part-time job. Charlie employed him to wash the vehicles, and when the old man turned 100, he persuaded him to run the London Marathon—representing Pimlico Plumbers, of course. There are PR opportunities everywhere if you look for them.

Another element in the scaling of Charlie’s business was his rule book. Charlie is an opinionated and disciplined man. He believes that a plumber going into a customer’s house should look the part. His rule book insisted that staff wear uniforms and proper shoes (no trainers). No tattoos above the neck were allowed. If people were not prepared to follow the rules, they were out of the business. If they were willing to follow them, they had a reliable and well-paid job, a low-cost canteen, and any number of perks.

The only way Pimlico Plumbers could grow to the size it did was because it delivered high levels of customer satisfaction. Customers were satisfied because they received a job well done by courteous and smart staff. When the business was taken over, however, it seems the new owners did not buy into the same culture. Of course, they attempted to build revenue and profits, but it was profit more than anything that drove the new company. One of the easiest ways to generate a quick burst of profit is to cut costs. Standards in recruiting new plumbers were lowered, customers complained, and sales began to fall.

It made me reflect on something I have long believed: the difficulty large organisations—especially public companies—have in delivering high levels of customer satisfaction. A good customer experience costs money, and the payback is not always immediately obvious. There is a natural temptation among managers of large companies (many of whom have never been “on the tools”) to constantly nibble away at costs. Vans do not get cleaned or maintained as they should. Lower-quality staff are taken on. Standards drop, and prices often rise. In the podcast, Charlie Mullins suggested that in a couple of years he might be in a position to buy back his old company at a bargain price because the new owners were not capable of running it as it should be.

The lesson in all this is the importance of customer experience. Great customer experience will grow a company, knit it together, and in time deliver great profits. High levels of customer experience are difficult to copy, so a company that believes in this approach has a powerful tool for growth and will face little competition. A business school education is not necessary to work this out. Charlie Mullins never learned this at school or from reading a book—he simply knew it made sense.