John Akhoian is the Co-founder and CEO of Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air, a home services company providing plumbing, drain, sewer, and select HVAC services across California and Arizona. In his role, he focuses on building strong teams, developing leaders, and creating a customer-first culture through consistent training and systems. His expertise spans home service growth, leadership, and the skilled trades. John is also an author whose books include Values First and Temporarily Broken, which share lessons on leadership, values, personal growth, and building a successful career in the trades.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn
- [3:02] John Akhoian’s perspective on how the home services industry has changed over time
- [6:19] How John scaled from one location into multiple markets while maintaining company culture
- [10:01] The systems, structure, and leadership practices behind sustainable growth
- [18:48] Why training and customer experience remain central to long-term success
- [25:37] Hiring challenges in the skilled trades and building talent from within
- [29:18] Expanding customer relationships through additional services and recurring maintenance
- [33:59] John’s perspective on private equity, competition, and staying focused amid industry change
- [38:00] What home service businesses often misunderstand about marketing and customer acquisition
- [40:55] The role of community involvement in strengthening culture and employee engagement
- [47:22] John’s plans for franchising, geographic expansion, and the next phase of growth
In this episode…
Scaling a home service business requires more than adding locations and employees. Strong systems, leadership, and culture are what keep growth sustainable. So how can home service leaders grow without losing the standards that made them successful in the first place?
The answer starts with building structure before growth outpaces the business. John Akhoian, a home services leader with decades of experience scaling plumbing operations, explains how consistent training, strong management systems, and clear accountability help teams grow while protecting the customer experience. John also emphasizes developing people from within, keeping employees engaged through transparency, and staying focused on customers instead of competitors. By investing in people and operational discipline, home service businesses can create a stronger foundation for long-term growth.
In this episode of Outsmart & Outgrow, Hayden Bruce sits down with John Akhoian, Co-founder and CEO of Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air, to discuss scaling home services through better systems, training, and culture. John shares how to maintain service quality across locations, build stronger teams, and create systems that support growth. He also touches on hiring, marketing, customer retention, and franchising.
Resources mentioned in this episode
- Hayden Bruce on LinkedIn
- Glen Moore on LinkedIn
- Bear Fox Marketing
- John Akhoian on LinkedIn
- Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air
- Values First: Principle Driven Leadership by John Akhoian
- Temporarily Broken: The John Akhoian Story by John Akhoian
- Podium
- Mike West on LinkedIn
- EOS / Entrepreneurial Operating System
- Classet
- ServiceTitan
- Basim Mansour of Michael & Son
- Kevin Comerford on LinkedIn
Quotable Moments
- “Sometimes you grow so fast that… you’ve got to build some structures underneath the growth to keep it stable.”
- “Keeping people in the dark is not a good way to get team engagement.”
- “You have to tune the noise down because it’s very simple.”
- “It’s the quality of the service you give the customers you’re in front of.”
- “I think referrals are something that, if you do a really good job, it’s going to be the aftermath of that.”
Action Steps
- Build systems before growth outpaces the business: Putting clear processes, accountability, and support functions in place early helps expansion stay stable as locations, teams, and complexity increase.
- Make training a consistent operating rhythm: Reinforcing service standards, customer expectations, and team responsibilities every week helps create a more reliable experience across the business.
- Develop strong leaders at every level: Giving managers clear ownership and structured ways to review goals, KPIs, and challenges helps teams stay aligned as the company scales.
- Keep employees informed and engaged: Sharing wins, problems, and priorities transparently gives people more context to make better decisions and contribute to improvement.
- Focus on service quality before chasing more leads: Taking great care of each customer strengthens retention, reviews, and referrals, reducing the pressure to rely only on expensive customer acquisition.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Bear Fox Marketing — a digital marketing agency helping ambitious businesses get found, attract better leads, and grow with confidence.
Through SEO, AI Search Optimization, content marketing, paid search, social advertising, and local marketing, Bear Fox has helped more than 1,000 home services, HVAC, manufacturing, and technology companies drive qualified traffic and increase their revenue.
Visit bearfoxmarketing.com to learn more and book a free strategy call.
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