Free quotes and inspections prior to work commencing, time potentially spent waiting for jobs to come in in which customer support and taking calls are essentially a pure unpaid cost center for the business, taking the time to answer customer questions wholly unrelated to the job potentially even after the job completed, a desire by customers to hear you say things like
> hey, I saw your valve on blah was loose when it shouldn’t be, since I was there and it was an easy fix, tightened it for you as part of the job, no charge.
And there are likely more, I’m not a plumber.
If you are looking for it, you’ll find many cases of “free work is used as a tool to distinguish oneself, delight, and lubricate business”, and plumbing is no exception.
Free quotes and inspections prior to work commencing, time potentially spent waiting for jobs to come in in which customer support and taking calls are essentially a pure unpaid cost center for the business, taking the time to answer customer questions wholly unrelated to the job potentially even after the job completed, a desire by customers to hear you say things like
> hey, I saw your valve on blah was loose when it shouldn’t be, since I was there and it was an easy fix, tightened it for you as part of the job, no charge.
And there are likely more, I’m not a plumber.
If you are looking for it, you’ll find many cases of “free work is used as a tool to distinguish oneself, delight, and lubricate business”, and plumbing is no exception.