What Christine Spetz hears from customers, over and over, has little to do with pipes. It is about being kept in the loop.
“We always keep them updated on their appointments and in terms of arrival time, and if we can get them in earlier,” she says.
That is her side of Spetz Plumbing Corporation, a family company in Champlin. Christine and her daughter, Elaina Spetz, share the calls equally, so anyone who phones gets one of the two of them. The plumbing side rests on Mike Spetz.
“Mike’s been a union plumber for over 30 years,” Christine says.
Christine, Mike and their daughter own the company together. They started it in 2022, and Minnesota records show the corporation was incorporated on April 23 of that year. The idea was to work for themselves, as a family. “We decided to start our own family business,” she says.
Most of the work is residential service. “We do water heaters, softeners, we replace toilets,” Christine says. The company lists master plumber licenses for the state of Minnesota and for the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with a master gas fitter license and qualifications to test and rebuild RPZ and backflow devices. Gas piping and gas stove hookups sit on its service list next to faucets, sinks and sump pumps. The crew covers the Twin Cities metro and keeps weekday hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A homeowner who hired the company to run a gas line to his kitchen described what the office side looks like from the customer’s end. He got updates by email and text at each step, including when the technician would arrive. When he wanted to know how the city inspection would work, the office walked him through it. On inspection day, the plumber, Bill, showed up before the inspector to make sure everything was in order.
Christine says the company’s size is part of what it offers. “It’s personal customer service,” she says. “We’re not a big company.”
That starts with who picks up the phone. “We like to talk to you and we like to help you out with your problems,” she says.