Every service truck has a stack of business cards in the door pocket. Many shops leave one at every stop. Some add a sticker on the panel or the furnace.
It's a habit that makes sense. The goal is right: when this customer needs help again, they should call you. The question is whether paper and stickers actually get you that call. Based on the data we've looked at, mostly they don't.
Cards are cheap. That's not the problem.
Let's get the cost out of the way. From the data we've looked at, a 10-truck shop running about 2.5 calls per truck a day (Level, 2026) goes through somewhere around 6,000 to 10,000 cards a year if every stop gets one. That's our estimate (620 to 1,000 stops per truck a year). At online printer prices, that's probably a few hundred dollars.
So nobody is going broke on business cards. The real cost is what happens after the card leaves your tech's hand.
Where the card goes
The card goes on the counter. Then a drawer, or the junk mail pile, or the trash. Either way, there's no guarantee your number ever makes it into their phone.
What we do have is data on what homeowners actually do when they need you again.
What homeowners really do
In a national survey of 863 homeowners, 45.1% couldn't name the last plumbing company they used without looking it up (Zion & Zion, 2019).
Here's how those people try to find the company:
- 48% dig through home records: old receipts, invoices, bank statements, business card files.
- 25% search online.
- 10% ask family or friends.
- 7% say they just won't find it.
- 2% look for a magnet or sticker.
So the card file is a fallback, and a slow one. Picture a homeowner with no hot water, flipping through a kitchen drawer looking for a card from three years ago. Then picture the same homeowner giving up and typing "plumber near me" into Google. People search it almost 180,000 times a month in the U.S. (LocaliQ, 2025).
The sticker problem
Stickers feel smarter than cards. They stay on the equipment. When something breaks, the number's right there.
But only if somebody's standing there.
When the power acts up or the furnace quits, the homeowner is often at work. Maybe a spouse calls and says, "Something's wrong with the heat. Can you call somebody?" Nobody at the office can read a sticker in the basement. They pick up their phone and search.
That's why only 2% of homeowners who forgot their plumber went looking for a sticker or magnet (Zion & Zion, 2019). Promo industry surveys say people keep magnets for a year or more (ASI, 2026). Keeping it isn't the same as using it when something breaks.
Your sticker's in the utility room. They're not. Be in their phone.
The phone is where the next call starts Phones are where people look for everything else, so that's where they look for you. 91% of U.S. adults own a smartphone (Pew Research Center, 2025). Nearly half of homeowners start their search for a home service company on Google (LocalImpact, 2025), and 58% still prefer to book by phone call (Tinuiti, 2024).
If your contact card is already saved, a homeowner can type your name or "electrician" into their contacts and you come up. No digging. No search page full of your competitors.
Paper vs phone
| | Business card | Panel or furnace sticker | Saved in their phone | |---|---|---|---| | Where it ends up | Counter, drawer or trash | On the equipment | In their contacts | | Helps when they're not home | Only if they kept it with them | No | Yes | | Helps when a spouse calls you at work | No | No | Yes | | Takes effort later | Find the card | Walk to the utility room | Search contacts |
How to get in the phone
The best time is the last minute on site. The job is done, the customer is glad you came, and their phone is already in their hand.
Billet Coin gives your crew a way to do it every time. Each tech keeps a solid metal coin with a laser-marked QR code. Made in our shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At job complete, the tech holds up the coin and says, "Scan this, it'll put us in your phone." The customer scans, taps Add to Contacts, and your shop's contact card is saved. The tech pockets the coin and heads to the next job.
Show, scan, saved. Unlike paper, it lands in the phone.
- Get a crew quote: three styles to choose from.
- We laser-mark your shop's contact info as a QR code.
- Show your coin. They scan. You're in.
The best customer is the one you just made happy. One scan keeps them.
Sources: Zion & Zion, "How Long Does It Take to Forget the Plumber?" (2019); LocaliQ (2025); ASI Global Ad Impressions Study (2026); Pew Research Center Mobile Fact Sheet (2025); LocalImpact (2025); Tinuiti (2024); Level (2026).