Mark Tran runs ACT Plumbing Solutions — a five-tradie operation based in Mitchell that covers emergency call-outs across the north of Canberra. When he came to a Growth Hub workshop in late 2024, he had 22 Google reviews built up over four years and a website his nephew made in 2019.
His problem wasn't lead volume. His problem was that the leads he got were price-shoppers — people calling three plumbers and picking the cheapest. Mark wanted to be the choice that came up first, with the rating that justified the call-out fee.
Where he was stuck
Mark was already a Birdeye customer through another agency, but the seat had gone dormant — nobody was setting up review prompts, nobody was responding to the reviews that came in. His after-job SMS confirmation didn't include a review link. His Google Business Profile had photos from 2020.
I was going to cancel Birdeye. Couldn't see what I was paying for. The Growth Hub team set it up properly in a single morning.
What changed
We switched him onto our Growth tier, which bundles Birdeye into a managed configuration: review prompts now fire automatically two hours after every job, the responses are drafted by Reviews AI and approved by Mark in under a minute via the mobile dashboard, and the GBP gets a fresh job-site photo every fortnight (uploaded by the apprentices, sorted by Social AI).
We also rewrote his pricing page. Mark agreed to publish call-out fees and after-hours rates — most plumbers won't, and the price-shoppers self-filtered.
Where he is now
Six months in: reviews went from 22 to 138. Average rating held at 4.8. Mark ranks top-3 on Google Maps for "emergency plumber Canberra" and #1 for "24 hour plumber Mitchell". Average job size up 35% because the cheapest-three calls dropped off — those leads now go to other tradies, and the leads who reach him are people who chose him on the rating.
The reviews AI alone paid for itself in 6 weeks. The Himayat team are genuinely invested in our success.
What he said to make us write this
We asked Mark whether he'd be open to a case study because his story directly contradicts the assumption that AI tools are for big businesses with marketing budgets. He runs five tradies and a ute. He said yes "if it helps another sparky or plumber stop giving away $80 jobs."
If that's you: come to a Tradie Tax Time Bootcamp or book a 30-minute Growth Call. We'll look at your Google profile together.