Interview with Matt O'Rourke of Z PLUMBERZ of North America

The Kickserv Spotlight of the Month

December 2020

With C19 continuing its grip on our world it is nice that we can still reach out to one another and have conversations and learn what others are doing. I did just that the other day and spoke with Matt O’Rourke of Z PLUMBERZ North America. I first was interested in just who is Matt O’Rourke, so I asked him to tell his story before he was Z PLUMBERZ.

● How did you originally get into the type of business you are in today?

As I was in college jumping from Business, Education, Nursing, and back to Business, I realized that I absolutely wanted to help people but also have my own business. From the time I started caddying at 12yrs old, I just loved being around business-minded people and listening to their discussions. At that time, I knew owning a business would allow me a variety of avenues to help people. It wasn’t until I went to work for a local retail plumber that I got my first feel for plumbing.

● What is the origin of your business?

After a year of working in the medical field as a Nurse Assistant, I knew it wasn’t for me and knew it was time to find a way to start my own business. I was fortunate enough to find an apprenticeship at a small plumbing company. I loved it! Something different every day, working with my hands and solving problems. It was really a perfect fit for me. What I was shocked by was the turnover, the number of great plumbers (mechanically speaking) that never thought to get their license, and how there really wasn’t a career path set up for them.

● What was it like to start this business of yours?

We started in April 2008, so scary, but my goal was to be the largest plumbing company in North America. I wanted to create a recognizable plumbing company across America with career paths into the honorable trade of plumbing. There is still a majority of consumers that cannot name a “Plumbing” company. Roto-Rooter and Mr. Rooter are the most recognizable, but do consumers really see them as a plumbing company or only as a drain cleaning company? I believe all “Service Technicians” should be on the path to obtaining the appropriate certifications/licensing that each State requires. There is a lack of education and continuous training opportunities for young people looking to make plumbing a career. The opportunity that I see is creating systems and processes and are easily duplicatable and repeatable and this is the foundation I’m building.

● Detail some of the hurdles you had to overcome to be where you are today?

Up until this year, it was hard to convince people, mainly parents, that the trades are not only a good alternative to college but maybe the best choice and path to take for some young people. If medicine, law, or engineering is not your inclination then perhaps a trade. I intend to create programs for people to join my organization and work towards being independent career plumbers and successful business owners.

● What business pain lead you to go looking for a tool to help?

While working for another company early on I was introduced to Successware, Pipe Logic, and Service Titan. These programs allowed me to see the power of utilizing APIs (Application Programming Interface) or in other words their webhooks to integrate other software to make them speak to each other and share data. The problem with these programs was their QuickBooks integration. The sync was only one way. In addition, I had some experiences with Nexstar and discovered they were not simple. There were many binders and lots of reading. The amount of reading was overwhelming to many. We found that we didn’t use most of their technology due to it not being very duplicatable.

● What was the resolution?

We went online and found many Field Service Management (FSM) tools, but the interface and user experiences were not very friendly. What I found pretty quickly was the clean and straightforward design of Kickserv. Plus, we were able to create a partnership with Kickserv. We have people and contacts to work directly with and help with integration issues as they arise with our new franchisees.

● What was the fix?

The user interface (UI) makes it so that we can utilize at least 80-90% of the entire program easily. By using the program’s customer flowline, we can account for our revenue growth and A/R balances and be better more at cause over each aspect. Did I mention already Kickserv has actual two-way syncing? (haha!). This allows our franchisees to quickly reconcile their books in about 5 days. This has been a game-changer for many of them. Plus, we are now converting 20-30% more of our online visitors using Kickserv’s booking portal. All in all, our franchisees are going to be breaking booking records as well as profits using Kickserv. Many of my franchisees are going to experience for the first time clean books this year and this is in part due to the two-way syncing and reporting features of Kickserv.

● What is your favorite business book(s)?

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

• Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

• Start with Why by Simon Sinek

● What do you do when you are not working in the business?

Being a full-time dad to my 3 young daughters.

● What are you focused on today regarding your business?

Building the foundation of a successful business model that can be duplicated in each shop.

● How can people reach you if they wanted to contact you?

matt.orourke@zplumberz.com or call (734)245.2464