Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Robin | Delivered January 16, 2020

Commercial Plumbing Contractors Trends

Goals

To find information on the industry trends in the commercial plumbing contractors space for the following industries: hospitality, chain restaurants, property management, medical centers, shopping centers, and commercial office centers.

Early Findings

In 2020, the market size of the U.S. plumbing industry is valued at $113 billion. 
Within the industry, there is a total of 121,876 businesses and an industry employment of 518,031. 
The products and services that make up this industry include general plumbing services, mechanical services, building sprinkler system installation, steamfitting and piping services, and lawn sprinkler installation. 
The business trends that are evident in the industry include the industry being dominated by independent owner-operated businesses and franchises such as Roto-Rooter.
Additional trends within the plumbing industry include companies not being able to rely on low pricing to differentiate from the competition, technology use as a way to standout from competition, going online to connect with new customers, and the data playing a bigger part in business decision-making than intuition. 
A list of the top 10 trends that are expected in the plumbing industry in 2020 was published by Service Titan. 
The trends include: more job opportunities in the industry, improvement of the gender gap, digital marketing strategy being more important than ever, plumbing as a growing part of the smart homes trend, modern payment processing being a must in 2020, employees caring more about workplace happiness and career fulfillment, water efficiency solutions growing in popularity at a fast pace, customers expecting service, but continuing to want an experience, consumers increasingly relying on online reviews before selecting a service, and millennial workers expecting employers to communicate with them via chat/text.