
Rob Castelao from Good Guy Plumbing joined me on the ShareWillow Podcast.
He set up the business eight years ago and has now scaled to a team of 14-people all operating in the same 5-6 mile radius in the South Bay of LA. Rob’s built an impressive business that’s integrated itself into the local community and racked up over 1,000 five-star reviews.
But what caught my attention wasn't his growth numbers or his killer branding (though both are impressive)...
It was his contrarian take on AI and where the industry is heading that made me realize we might all be thinking about this wrong.
The AI Problem Many Service Business Owners Overlook
While everyone's rushing to implement chatbots, automated scheduling, and AI-powered everything, Rob sees a massive opportunity going the other direction.
"Everyone's getting really numb to AI and the lack of human interaction,” he says. When customers phone a business like Good Guy Plumbing it’s often because they have a problem. “People want to hear a human at the other end of the phone so they know someone actually cares,” adds Rob.
Think about your own experience as a consumer, when your water heater dies at 8 PM on a Sunday, do you want to navigate through an AI chatbot? Or do you want to talk to a real human who understands your stress and can actually help?
Rob's betting big that customers are getting fatigued by all the automation. The more digital everything becomes, the more valuable human connection becomes. It's basic supply and demand and most companies are supplying the wrong thing.
Why Human Touch Points Win Every Time
Rob's philosophy is simple but powerful: "Customers will probably never remember what was done, but they're always gonna remember how they felt."
While his competitors are focused on technical expertise and efficiency, Rob's team is optimized for emotional connection. And guess what? Technical problems get solved either way, but only one approach creates raving fans who refer to their neighbors.
Here's how Rob trains his team to create emotional connections with customers:
It all starts with the greeting: Instead of the standard "How can I help you?" Rob's CSRs say: "Thank you for calling Good Guy Plumbing. How can I make your day better?" It's a small shift, but positions them as a business that cares about the customer's overall experience, not just their plumbing problem.
CSRs that know the trade: Rob teaches his customer service reps basic plumbing knowledge. Not so they can diagnose problems over the phone, but so they can ask intelligent questions and a level of understanding around their problem. This builds trust before the technician even shows up.
A focus on first impressions: When it comes time to start each job, Rob’s techs have it all mapped out in detail from how to park, how to approach the door, the way you know, the distance you stand from the door, everything is set in stone to deliver a great customer experience.
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How Rob's Techs Turn Relationships Into Five-Star Reviews
We all know the importance of reviews. But Rob believes that many service business owners are automating too much, relying on automated texts and emails to request reviews.
"You're gonna get the best results when you ask [in person],” he says. All Good Guy Plumbing techs are trained to close each job with a similar prompt:
“Hey, a text is gonna arrive just in a few minutes when I close up. If you had a great experience, it would mean the world for me and my family if you could leave me a review."
The key insight? The technician who did the work needs to make the ask. They can personalize it, maybe mentioning their kids love seeing the reviews, or explaining how each review helps a small local business compete with bigger companies.
The approach works because it's authentic. The customer just had a great experience with the person who solved their problem and when that same person asks for help with a review, it feels natural, not transactional.
Fighting Back Against Private Equity with Education
Rob's not ignoring the private equity wave sweeping through home services, he's preparing his customers for it:
"We're working on a newsletter for our existing clientele base to inform them of what private equity is and what they're doing in home services. We also give them a checklist covering what to look for when you hire your next contractor.”
His theory is that once customers understand the difference between PE-backed companies and locally-owned businesses, they'll choose local every time.
Rob also focuses on outcompeting PE-backed businesses where they’re weaker, focusing on Good Guy Plumbing’s personal relationships with customers, its community connection, and the fact you can get to know your regular tech.
Incentivizing Techs with Performance Pay
Rob's currently restructuring his compensation plans because he understands that in a relationship-driven business, employee motivation is everything:
"We're making sure that the team has complete visibility of their goals and metrics,” he says. So every tech knows what success looks like. Rob also makes sure everyone has access to documentation and training so they can understand what’s expected of them.
When your competitive advantage is human connection, your people need to be genuinely motivated to create those connections. You can't fake caring, and you can't automate relationship building. But you can align incentives so your team wants to:
- Spend extra time understanding customer problems
- Ask thoughtful questions that show they care
- Follow up to ensure complete satisfaction
- Ask for reviews in a genuine, personal way
- Build relationships that generate referrals
The beauty of performance pay is that it rewards the exact behaviors that help your business to grow.
Instead of rushing off to the next jobs, your techs will stick around for an extra 10-minutes to explain their work and ask for a review if it helps them to earn more at the end of the month. As I always say, it’s a win-win-win:
- Your customers get better service
- Your business gets more repeat customers, a great reputation, and more five-star reviews
- Your techs do work their proud of and get rewarded financially
Profit sharing
made simple.
Give your team a stake in the company’s success. ShareWillow helps you create and manage profit-sharing programs that motivate employees and drive business results.
The Content Strategy That Humanizes Your Brand
While most companies are creating generic, sometimes AI-generated content, Rob's going deep on authenticity:
"We're really pumping out content. We're doing behind the scenes videos with our guys. What are they doing? Who are they? We want to build it so people think, 'they seem like a really great company. Like good, nice people.'"
His social media strategy focuses on showing the people behind the business. If they follow Good Guys Plumbing on social channels, customers see the actual technicians who might come to their house, watch them solve real problems, and get a sense of the company culture.
What This Means for Your Business
Rob's success suggests a massive opportunity for service companies willing to zig while everyone else zags.
While your competitors are investing in automated scheduling and AI chatbots on their websites, a better strategy could be to double down on the things that’ll differentiate you:
- A person on the other end of the phone who is trained to understand problems and show empathy, not just take information and schedule appointments.
- Technicians who are incentivized provide great customer service, not just complete tasks as quickly as possible.
People will always prefer to buy from people. And no matter how good AI gets, it’ll never be able to match genuine, human empathy. So where possible, try to lean into the things that set you apart from overly automated, PE-backed competitors.
The Bottom Line
AI is changing the way we do business and it offers a ton of benefits when it comes to things like scheduling, routing, inventory management, and other backend operations. We even use AI at ShareWillow to help streamline performance pay.
But AI will never replace human connection. If someone has a plumbing emergency, they want to pick up the phone and be heard by someone who has empathy for their situation, not text a bot.
Conclusion
Create incentives
that
drive results
You shouldn't need complex equity plans to align your team. ShareWillow makes it simple to create transparent profit-sharing programs that motivate employees and grow your business.

Incentive plans to help
small businesses thrive.
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"I was able to leverage the knowledge of the ShareWillow team to learn how other companies were designing their bonus plans. The template was extremely helpful."