Understanding people

“I’ve worked with my brother-in-law, my nephew was a plumber, I’m a plumber and now both of my sons work in plumbing,” laughs the founder of Melbourne’s Butler Plumbing.

“Our eldest son Will works part-time in the office with us, and our younger son Henry works as an apprentice for us. I think he’s enjoying it more than he thought he would!” Andrew and his wife Jennifer run the Fitzroy-based business, which has grown over the past three decades from the “classic man with a van” to a close-knit team of 20 people.

“Like so many plumbers, Andrew worked for other people, then started going out sub-contracting before forming his own company when things got more serious,” explains Jennifer.

“In the late 1990s we moved to Fitzroy, and we saw that as a great opportunity. Over time, we have grown organically, each year over the past decade. Things dropped back a little bit during COVID but then came back quite well after that.”

“We’ve recently had one of our staff members, Ally, celebrate 10 years with us which is amazing. We have a number of long-serving staff, which makes us feel like we are doing something right.

Butler Plumbing has a reputation as one of Melbourne’s best domestic and commercial maintenance businesses in both general plumbing and roofing. They pride themselves on being respectful, working as a close-knit team, having great communication and a focus on “getting it done.”

“We pretty much have a guaranteed 11 plumbers on the road at any given time because we’re focusing on reactive maintenance work, and sometimes we go to change a tap washer but we end up being there all day,” says Andrew.

“We want to provide a really good maintenance service, both preventative and reactive, which means we need flexibility and a really strong office.”

That’s where Jennifer, who joined the business in 2010 after more than 20 years of experience working as an accountant and management consultant in the corporate sector, comes in.

“We’re really strong on back-office systems and processes. I joined the business knowing about the importance of getting a good job-management system and being able to do strong reporting. It was good I’d come from that [corporate] world because I understood budgets and compliance,” she says.

The couple say that plumbers who can explain problems as well as fix them are worth their weight in gold.

“When we talk to clients, we promise to take their plumbing problems away so they can get on with the more important things in their lives. The concept of understanding what a customer’s pain point is and then communicating with them every step of the way has always been a really important part of what we do,” explains Jennifer.

“We’ve always had a really strong focus on employing plumbers who are good talkers and who like to have a chat, because communication is so key to what we do.

They can solve more with their mouth than with their hands by asking the right questions, which at the end of the day means solving problems quicker, more effectively and in a way that is better financially for the client.”

Butler Plumbing services a number of major clients including Marriott Hotels and UniLodge, predominately in Melbourne’s CBD and inner suburbs, but with Andrew says they still service regular customers who’ve been with the business for more than three decades.

“We still have a lot of customers in and around this area that we’ve had for 30 years, jobs like fixing Mrs. Brown’s washer. We mainly work close to the city but we do go as far as Frankston depending on the day and the workload.

We don’t do renovations or new work, just plumbing maintenance and roof maintenance.”

Jennifer’s role as General Manager of the business has her focused on the strategic direction of the business, driving performance and being involved with HR, Finance and Marketing, while Andrew has put down the tools to focus on Business Development and working with the senior leaders of the company.

“I’d like to be on the tools, like all old plumbers would, but I love the business development side of the work, which involves getting to go out to customers and showing them how we can help,” he says.

Butler Plumbing is also passionate about gender equality in the plumbing industry, having one female apprentice and two women in the leadership team.

“We would love to get more females in the field, but there are not many in the industry. The way we work is very consultative and I think it’s an approach that women often enjoy,” says Jennifer.

“Our team are the ones out in the field representing our business and we really invest in them and their development. Supported and happy plumbers go that extra step to get the job done,” says Andrew.

“Butler Plumbing isn’t just Andrew and Jenny; we’ve got a great team of people.”