A day in the life of a Best Plumbing Specialties Account Manager in the plumbing supply industry can be thrilling, demanding, and rewarding. Best Account Managers can be called on to represent the company's dedication and degree of professionalism.
With over fifty reps nationwide, they embody the values of Best Plumbing with exceptional customer service and dedication to our relationships with clients. Making maintenance staff’s jobs easier and more efficient is their priority. There is no problem too small, and no project too big.
Let us look at a typical day in the life of a BPS Account Manager and see how we can help serve your facility. We will call him Billy Best.
8:00am - New Items / More Than Just Plumbing
Billy Best is on the way to his first account of the day. He arrives with his sample bag in hand at the regional medical building and goes to the maintenance shop.
Upon greeting Jeff, the manager of the maintenance staff, Billy pulls out some samples of Best Plumbing’s newest items on the market. This month's newest item is a chemical perfect for lubricating door tracks and gears. He then takes the customer over to a squeaky problem area and shows how the product works. After that, he then shows a handy rechargeable headlamp with 5 different light modes.
Billy asks Jeff if there are any repair parts for his faucets, flush valves, and other plumbing-related items he is running low on and takes down some notes. Jeff asks for a quote on a list of items and parts and Billy assures him that he will have a quote ready for his review within a few hours.
Next thing you know, Jeff mentions that Paul down in the electrical shop is having some trouble finding some electrical parts and tools but is not sure if Billy can help with that.
Billy says, “Of course, I can help with that!” Billy heads down to the electrical shop for a meet and greet. Paul then tasks Billy with finding some parts. Billy sends an email to his customer service team with information about the products as well as some pictures he took. His customer service team will begin working on finding the right parts for the customer.
10:00am - Stress-Free Inventory
Billy walks into the local retirement center, Seniors' Sunrise Village. Juan is the head maintenance guy there, but he is in the middle of a project and does not have much time to talk.
Luckily, Billy has been working with Juan for years and Senior’s Sunrise stockrooms are already filled with Best Plumbing’s Organization Bins and Assortment Boxes. Juan can continue working on his project while Billy handles the stockroom reorder process.
Billy takes a quick walk through the stockrooms. He notes products that are low on the shelves and within the bins and boxes. After about 20 minutes, Billy returns to Juan and presents him with a list of items that are low and need replenishment. He shows Juan the list, which consists of Flush valve Drop-In Kits, Closet Bolts, Brass Elbow Fittings, and a few washers and screws that are running low.
Juan approves the order and is relieved that Billy can handle these stockroom inventory levels himself. Billy bids his farewell and lets Juan get back to what he does best.
12:15pm - Hard-To-Find Parts
Currently, Billy is taking a quick lunch break when he receives a call from Peter at the county prison. Peter needs a part for an old and discontinued Acorn Prison Toilet Valve.
Billy asks Peter if he can shoot him over a few pictures of the fixture as well as the part to see if he can locate any manufacturer numbers anywhere on the unit. He will work with his team to research exactly what Peter needs.
Peter sends over three pictures and Billy gets them to his customer service team. Customer Service scours catalogs, and internet pages and eventually comes across a parts breakdown for this fixture. The part that Peter needs is available through a third-party supplier. Customer Service informs Billy that it can be ordered and shipped to the customer immediately.
Billy passes this information on to Peter.
1:30pm - Stockroom Consulting
Billy has been working with Todd at the State College nearby for a few months. When Billy first started managing this account, there were many issues with the stockroom organization. The staff was consistently losing parts and inventory. Going through the shelves to figure out what needs reordered was tedious.
Billy suggested an inventory audit and offered to help them reorganize their shelves to save them time, money, and space. After explaining the details, Todd agreed, and Billy is stopping by today to get started.
Billy shows up at the College’s maintenance building and starts by surveying the property. He walks the facility and identifies all the fixtures. He then surveys the stockroom itself and determines the best inventory systems for the space available. Billy goes through the existing stock to get an idea of which items are being used regularly and figures out what needs restocking.
He works with Todd to determine inventory levels for items. Billy then suggests a variety of customized assortment boxes such as a Sloan Regal Master Repair Assortment. This box would be perfect for the many Sloan Regal Flush Valves on campus. It has all the regularly replaced repair parts for this valve. The best part is, it can be carried directly to the restroom when a repair is needed.
In total, Billy suggests 8 Large Assortment Boxes all labeled for different applications such as Pipe fitting, Partition Hardware, Faucet Seats, and more. Billy explains that these Assortment Boxes and the Racks that they go in are NO-CHARGE. Todd only pays for the parts inside!
Billy points out shelving space where he would put labeled bins for other consumable items.
Now, Todd is excited about the transformation of his stockroom. Billy gets to work customizing the assortment boxes, ordering bins and labels and ordering other products that are low on inventory based on the levels they both established.
Billy will be back next week to help Todd set everything up!
3:30pm - Online Ordering
Billy stops by the High School downtown. There is a new maintenance manager there named Ricky, and Billy wants to introduce himself. Billy brings along a Full Line Product Catalog as well as an informational pamphlet about Best Plumbing. Ricky accepts the catalog and tells him he really likes doing his ordering online.
Billy directs Ricky to www.bestplumbingspecialties.com and gets him set up with online ordering.
Billy shows Ricky some great online tools such as favorites lists. This feature allows Ricky to save his regularly ordered items into a list for easy reordering whenever he needs them. He also shows Ricky the order history feature where all the High School’s orders will be saved. Ricky can check out this history anytime he needs a refresher on what he ordered in the past. This may help him remember part numbers and quantities.
Next, Ricky gets two other members of his staff set up for online ordering as well so that they can get what they need without Ricky needing to do all the ordering.
Billy assures Ricky that he is available anytime if Ricky has questions about the website, questions about any products, or if he needs to discuss any issues that arise.
5:00 pm – Communication and Follow Up
Billy works from his laptop and phone answering any emails and voicemails from other accounts, helping to place orders, and identifying parts. Billy passes along some spec sheets and product flyers to customers that were requesting more product information.
Then, he makes his plans for the next day’s visits before wrapping up his successful day.