Somebody you did right by two years ago has a problem today. A slow drain, a dead outlet, shingles in the backyard after a windy night. Right now they're standing in the kitchen with their phone out, and they're typing your trade and their town into Google. Because they can't find your number and they can't remember your company name.
That used to be your call. You earned it the first time. You just didn't do the one thing that keeps it yours, which is stay in front of them between jobs.
Most trades are sitting on a pile of people who already trust them and would call again in a heartbeat. The pile just lives in your invoices, your phone, and your head, scattered and dead quiet. Pull it into one list, send one short text, and a chunk of those folks come back. It costs you almost nothing, because you already did the hard part years ago.
Why they forgot, and why it costs you
It's almost never the work. People just forget. The magnet came off the fridge. They got a new phone and your number didn't come across. Two years is a long time, and a water heater doesn't fail on a schedule that keeps you top of mind.
Here's the part that stings. When the next job finally lands, they don't sit there straining to remember you. They grab the nearest option: a neighbor's name, a truck they saw parked down the street, whoever shows up first in the search. You're not losing to a better plumber or a sharper electrician. You're losing to a faster reminder.
Build the one list first
Start with everyone you haven't worked for in 18 months or more. The recent folks still have your number handy. The older ones are the ones slipping away, and they're the whole point of this.
You don't need fancy software to begin. Pull names from wherever they're hiding and drop them in a spreadsheet, or even a legal pad for the first pass. Your sources are probably:
- QuickBooks or whatever you invoice from
- Old text threads on your phone
- The contacts in your cell
- That notebook in the truck door
For each person, you only need four things: name, cell number, what you did for them, and roughly when. That's enough to write a text that sounds like you actually remember them, because you do.
Write a text that sounds like you
This only works because it reads like a real person tapping it out, not a marketing blast. Keep it short. Name the job you did so they place you in two seconds. Make one simple ask and stop.
Something like this works fine:
Hi Dave, it's Mike from Mass Plumbing. I put in your water heater back in 2023. Just checking in, we're still around if anything ever comes up. Save my number so you've got it.
That's it. No coupon required, no paragraph about your services, no link to click. The rules that keep it human:
- Use their name and name the job. "We did your panel upgrade" beats "valued customer" every time.
- Keep it under four lines. They're reading it between other things.
- One clear ask. Save my number, or call anytime. Not both plus a survey.
- Don't attach anything. A photo or a PDF makes it look like spam and tanks delivery.
Send it like a person, not a machine
How you send matters as much as what you send. A single text from your own number reads as a guy checking in. Four hundred texts fired off at once from some random number reads as junk, and it'll get you flagged.
Go in small batches, say 20 or 30 a day, so you can actually keep up with the replies. Text mid-morning or early evening, never at 9 at night. When somebody writes back, answer the same day, because a reminder that gets a slow reply undoes the whole point. And if someone doesn't respond, leave them be. One text, not a drip campaign that nags.
Timing helps too. Exterior trades do well reaching out before the spring rush. Heating guys land better right before the cold sets in, when a furnace on its last legs is on everybody's mind.
Be honest about what this does and doesn't do
Some of those numbers are dead now. That's fine, cross them off and move on. Plenty of people won't reply at all, then save your number and call you in March when the sump pump quits. You'll never see that one working, but that quiet save is exactly what you're paying for.
This is not a lead machine that runs on its own. It's a once or twice a year housekeeping job, and it beats any paid lead service on cost because these people already know your work. A tool can pull the list and help you send in batches, but the words should be yours. A reminder that reads like a robot wrote it gets ignored.
One more honest note: this won't bring back anyone the job went bad with. If the last visit ended sideways, skip them. You're reminding the happy ones you still exist, not reopening old wounds.
If digging that list out of QuickBooks and your phone sounds like a weekend you don't have, that's the kind of setup we put in place for shops around here, so it mostly runs itself after the first pass.
Worth doing this week
- Open your invoicing and pull everyone whose last job was 18 months ago or older.
- Fill in the missing cell numbers from the contacts in your phone.
- Write one text in your own words and save it where you can grab it.
- Send the first 20 tonight and see who writes back.
- Block 30 minutes next week for the next 20, and keep going until the list is done.