Benjamin Franklin Plumbing offers decades of hands-on experience
Perry Sisson at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing has spent the last 40 years fixing leaks and doing the things most homeowners can’t do or won’t even attempt.
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing is a franchise company with hundreds of locations throughout the nation, including North Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
Sisson started out as an independent in 1989 with Diamond Plumbing (though he started plumbing with his father, who operated Thrifty Plumbing in the ’60s) and became a franchise in 2008 with Carolyn Graves, who is the company’s general manager and former president of the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce.
“We had gone to business coaching classes and were doing well and thought if we got a franchise all this stuff we were learning was already in place,” Sisson said.
There have been some challenges for Sisson. For one, since many of the homes he services are for seasonal residents, his busy time is usually from November to April, with much less to do during the summer.
Another thing is what he says is the lack of quality plumbers in general. Good help is hard to find, as soon as they get a good one, they either lose the person to a bigger company or business dies down and he gets paid to sit in the office.
During the economic downturn, when big companies began to lay off plumbers, the good plumbers were still hard to come by, and, as the economy improved, those who would be good hires did new construction, roughing out homes.
Despite the challenges, Sisson and Graves have managed with their small franchise and single truck. Sisson does much of the work, with a few part-time helpers chipping in.
The larger companies, Sisson said, make loads of money by hiring salespeople, rather than plumbers who provide the service.
“I am a technician. I know what’s right and do what’s right by the customer and give them a service they’re going to talk about to their friends,” Sisson said.
Sisson tries to be as punctual as possible, setting timeframes that don’t leave the homeowners hanging all day. He said he tries to limit it to three or four calls a day so they can be sure the job is done right.
They also make sure the customer isn’t paying $2,000 for what might be a $50 job, which is important since many of their customers live in retirement communities and have fixed incomes.
“We’re not telling them you need this and tell them how much. We know what their needs are before we start any work,” Sisson said. “A breaker was kicked on a water heater and one of those companies told her she needed a new one, when all she needed to do was to turn the breaker on.”
“We get a lot of repeat business. Our customers are loyal. I service customers my dad serviced,” Sisson said. “We’ve even pet sat. We like to build relationships with our customers.”
For more information, call 939-1929.