London plumber is all a Twitter

Nov. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- When one of London’s leading electricial contractors GDS Electrical decided to launch a new plumbing and electrical service direct to home owners across London, they also decided to adopt a new marketing strategy. So the Assure Property Services team took to Twitter just 4 weeks ago and, much to their own surprise, have seen great results.

“We knew when we started that it was important to build as good a reputation in the domestic community as we have held within the contracting industry over the last decades” explained MD Alex Daws. “Twitter’s been an essential part of that, keeping us in touch with what’s going on locally and finding people who are tweeting about their plumbing emergencies or home DIY disasters.”

The company follow tweets  that range from emergency burst pipes and broken boilers to requests for recommendations to complete larger works such as kitchen, bathroom and central heating installations.

Independent studies suggest the UK has the fourth-largest number of Twitter users in the world, beaten only by the US, Brazil and Japan. There are in excess of 10 million active users.

Assure Property Services aren’t the only company to have benefitted from local engagement through Twitter.

When a struggling independent bookshop in Wood Green, London tweeted in 2011 that it would have to close its doors within nine months as it couldn’t repay a bank loan, its tweet was soon trending across the capital. One day later the shop sold enough books to cover its bank loan repayments for two months and has continued to trade healthily since.

“The beauty of Twitter and social media is that it’s so immediate and we can be on site with the customer very quickly” Alex continued.  “Our staff really enjoy using it and it will prove to be an essential tool for monitoring what people are saying about us and managing our reputation effectively online.”