A new survey commissioned by Toolstation has revealed that for homeowners across the country, plumbers are the most difficult tradespeople to find. Over 25% of the 2000 homeowners surveyed said that they found it ‘really difficult’ to find a plumber. In comparison, only 7% struggled to find a qualified tradesperson for tiling, flooring or kitchen fitting.
Property owners aren’t attempting these jobs themselves though – more homeowners would hire a professional tradesperson for plumbing than any other home improvement task. They like to keep it local too, with 50% saying they’d call a local plumber or heating engineer following a system break down and only 36% opt to contact a national supplier.
Whilst searching for a professional to hire, property owners still very much rely upon their own list of tried and trusted tradespeople, with nearly half opting to use someone they had hired previously. When that fails, they choose the next best thing and speak to family, neighbours, colleagues or nearby friends for their recommendations. Interestingly, less than 4% rely on recommended tradespeople websites and prefer instead to use the local paper to help them make their decision.
John Meaden, Director of Marketing at Toolstation, said: “Our research shows that finding the right tradesperson is important to homeowners, with trust and satisfaction of the job being the highest priorities. Word of mouth recommendations are still the most trusted method of hiring tradespeople. It will be interesting to see if there is a shift to online selection in the future with the growth of social media and trade review websites.”
