Holidays and Plumbing Problems
Here come the holidays, with lots of great food and making merry with family and friends. Inevitably, however, some parts of your superb meals are destined for the garbage disposal, and turkey bones or potato peels or even a stray fork can end up creating a huge mess. The disposal clogs, and water backs up into the sink just as you're trying to clean up the kitchen.
This year, don't worry about hearing that fateful gurgle that signals trouble.
Every holiday season at Fox Plumbing, we receive numerous calls from frantic customers who have just plugged up their kitchen drains. It couldn't happen at a worse time, they always say. We know!
We send out service technicians to take apart kitchen p-traps and garbage disposals and clean up the problems. And we often find that customers mistakenly believe that they can put the turkey carcass, ham residue, and other bulky leftovers down the garbage disposer along with potatoes, yams, and salads, etc.
Most of us in the plumbing business feel that garbage disposals are one of the worst inventions ever. They offer convenience, yes, but are too susceptible to problems and breakdowns. That noisy electric grinder does not guarantee that your garbage and troubles are all washed away. Most kitchen drain lines are only two inches in diameter, and older drains are only an inch and a half in diameter an incredibly small space to handle solid waste.
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There's another problem, too. American architecture often positions the kitchen in the back of the house, farthest away from the main sewer line. The waste that has been ground up in the garbage disposer has an extra long way to go before channeling into the main sewer pipe.
Fox Plumbing recommends that you allow only small food scraps into the garbage disposal. All large food waste, such as bones, tough rinds, and woody produce like carrot or potato peels, should be scraped directly into the garbage. There's an extra benefit to this, as well: in the ever green Seattle area we can put food scraps and bones into our yard waste containers for ecologically-friendly disposal.
By following these measures, you will most likely avoid the frantic emergency service call during the coveted holiday season.
About Our New Referral Program
Marketing and the independently-owned small business
I would like to share a brief look at marketing for the small business owner, and the unbelievable expense this is to a company like ours. Over the years the yellow pages has been the typical source for service companies to advertise for business. Our company, like others, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with yellow pages over the years. We spent this money to help our existing customers find us quickly when they need us, and also to introduce Fox Plumbing to new customers to help grow our business. Most people are unaware of how expensive phone book advertising is.
By buying the largest possible ads, they tell us we will be in the front pages of our appropriate section. Therefore, whoever is in the yellow pages the longest in a particular heading, with the largest ads, will have seniority over all the others. Over the years, this has turned out to be an incredible trap. As the yellow pages have continually increased the size of the ads it has forced advertisers such as us to have to buy larger and larger ads to maintain our position. Several years ago the standard size ad for any heading was a full-page ad, the largest ad offered. These ads were incredibly expensive, to the tune of about $6,000 per month per directory. I know this is staggering, but this is in fact the truth.
Several years ago, the Yellow Page people decided that they wanted more revenue, and they created a three-page ad known as a "Triple Truck". These ads were incredibly excessive and hurtful to companies such as Fox because we had to pay outrageous prices just to maintain our first-place position in the directory. We had advertised with the DEX Yellow Page people since 1964, and had achieved first-place position with the Seattle Directory, the South King County Directory, and the Eastside Directory. This was a very long-term investment.
When the new "Triple Truck" program was implemented, our monthly advertising expense went from $11,000 a month to $37,000 a month! It was impossible for us to pay for this and maintain our position. Consequently we had to drop out of the Eastside and South King County directories and now we advertise in just an in-column ad. Even with that, our advertising budget went from $11,000 a month to $18,000 a month. I know what you are thinking. These prices are shocking and outrageous. This is exactly how all of us have felt. Over the past couple of years, the yellow pages were sold to a different company, and they decided to eliminate the "Triple Truck." The current ownership offers a two-page "Double Truck" ad, which costs approximately $15,000 per month for my company to maintain its advertising position.
This is why I am announcing this new referral program
For several years we've seen a noticeable decrease in yellow pages usage. Most people use the internet 
now to obtain service or get referrals. Therefore, I am constantly trying to find new, less expensive ways to reach new customers, and to give our existing customers easy access to our company when the need arises.
After many hours of discussions and brainstorming we decided to launch this new referral program and reduce our advertising expenses. We at Fox Plumbing are determined to find ways to keep our costs down and maximize our advertising dollars as effectively as possible. We are very conscious of your out-of-pocket costs, too, when it comes to plumbing emergencies or refurbishing, and we also want to help save you money.
Win-win
We think this is a win-win situation: we'll save on our advertising budget and those dollars will be directly transformed into a customer benefit: a terrific prize awarded to a customer who refers business our way. In addition to saving money, we'll be building customer loyalty and generating new business.
To review the referral contest:
Just send us referrals via your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers, in our business area of King County, WA. Have them mention your name at the time they request service. Each referral earns you another entry into the drawing for an outstanding prize. Good luck!
Fox Plumbing Receives 2009 Seattle Award
We are pleased to announce, Fox Plumbing Receives 2009 Seattle Award for Plumbing Contractors.
For more info see the U.S. Commerce Association press release below.
Seattle Plumbing Award Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fox Plumbing Receives 2009 Seattle Award U.S. Commerce Association's Award Plaque Honors the Achievement WASHINGTON D.C., June 8, 2009 --
Fox Plumbing has been selected for the 2009 Seattle Award in the Plumbing Contractors category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA). The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties. About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a Washington D.C. based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising. The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.
SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association
CONTACT: U.S. Commerce Association
Email: PublicRelations@us-ca.org
URL: http://www.us-ca.org