The Snap-It app claims to be the easiest way to source plumbing parts and supplies around London, offering users the opportunity to have parts delivered in as little as 30 minutes to their job site. Installer spoke to Viktor Muhhin – CEO and Founder of Snap-It LTD – about how he came up with the idea, how it works, and his plans for the future.

The idea

Getting access to the parts you need, when you need them, is one of the most important aspects of any installer’s job. Time travelling to and from the merchant, leaving the site to pick things up, or running out of van stock, are all common headaches for our readers.

Snap-It is an app for heating and plumbing engineers designed to help them spend less time searching for materials, letting them focus on the job in hand. Viktor Muhhin came up with the idea while working on the tools, and has turned it into a thriving business.

“I came to London when I was 19 and I’d just finished my A-levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry,” Viktor explained. “I started working on building sites and I saw that the plumbers would be treated like Gods on the sites. We’d have to do all their prep work for them and cleaning up, so I was like ‘yeah I want to be a plumber’.

“It’s a really interesting job as well. You have the mechanical aspect, but also calculations, sizing, fault-finding etc. It can be hard and demanding, but it’s great for people who like problem solving.

“So I started my plumbing and heating company and when we were scaling up, and I had engineers working alongside me, we found the biggest challenge was getting parts we needed, when we came across a problem that we hadn’t foreseen.

“I would tell them to stay on site and focus on the work, and I would deliver anything they needed if they were close by, or get an Uber car to deliver the materials.

“When you’re managing a plumbing and heating company and you’re trying to provide the best possible service for your clients, you want to be on time. Less time spent travelling to the merchant meant more jobs we’d complete in a day, more happy customers and less disruption to the rest of the week.

“After I’d finish work I’d drive home and see all of these mobile couriers standing on the curbs outside of restaurants waiting for food delivery orders, and that’s how the idea was born.”

How it works

For food delivery drivers there are two peaks: at lunchtime and in the evening. By using this workforce outside of their key hours to deliver plumbing and heating supplies to installers, through a local merchant, Snap-It is helping to accelerate the supply chain.

“I thought it was going to be the simplest thing ever to build, but it has proven to be one of the most complex,” Viktor laughed. “We have three parties interacting on different devices so a lot of things are going on in the background.

“We launched in 2019 but the big question was will plumbers actually use it or not? We have actually calculated that every single plumber goes out to get a piece of material at least once a day in London. One trip to the merchants could take an hour, and there are only 250 working days a year. If we say the average call out fee in central London is £90, the combined annual saving could be over £20,000. Add in the traffic, the hassle of finding a parking spot, the congestion, and it’s easy to see why our customers love us.

“Through the application, your item will get to you in between 30 to 45 minutes depending on where you are in London, and the cost of delivery you can just pass on to a client.

“The installer goes on the app, checks availability, and orders the part. They can choose the boiler brand, then select the GC number, model number, and select the part. We come back within 10 to 15 minutes with availability and cost, and they can place the order.

“The courier goes into the merchant, gives them a four-digit pin and then collects the order. The item then arrives with the engineer who checks that it’s correct, and when it’s confirmed that everything is OK, then the money is collected from the user’s account. There’s no risk. If there’s a problem, which is rare, at the point of cancellation the funds get released instantly, so installers don’t have to wait for three to five days before the money gets back to them.

“The majority of merchants we’re signed up with are independent merchants, who don’t have the facility to offer this kind of service, so it benefits them. The couriers love the app because the Snap-It shop opens at 8am so they get extra work, and the installers love it because it takes away all the hassle of getting the parts. It’s win-win-win.”

The future

Currently Snap-It is available to plumbers and heating engineers in London, but Viktor and his team have big plans for the future.

“We currently have just shy of 1000 plumbers shopping on a daily basis,” he said. “We’re looking to add more merchants and get more users in London. At the minute, we have a customer that orders to Essex, and we can’t do that in half an hour, but he knows and orders anyway. We want to scale across the whole of London within the M25, so every plumber can get their parts within half an hour.

“Fingers crossed we’ll be looking to launch exactly the same application for electricians early next year, and then expanding into Birmingham by summertime.

“The beauty of Snap-It is that it’s super scalable, and we don’t hold any stock. We just enable plumbers and electricians to do more, and merchants to sell more. It’s quite a revolutionary concept for the industry, but over the years we’ve seen actual materials and products becoming smarter and more efficient. Tech has been used for a long time to improve production and products, and now’s the time to make that technology available to engineers, to empower them to do more.

“I invite your readers to download the Snap-It app, try it out, and see for themselves how much time and effort they can save. When you register for an account please use the referral code ‘Installer10’ to get £10 off your first purchase.”

The installer’s view

Heating and plumbing engineer Shoaib Awan gives his view:

“One of the best companies I’ve dealt with for a long time. I’ve got a personal sales rep who messages me on a daily basis, to see if I need anything on a job which I think is a good touch. I use Snap-It more and more regularly purely because of the prices and service I get. I arrive at a job and the parts are already there, saving me time which matters the most in my line of work. If there are any issues, one call solves everything. The whole team at Snap-It are great, and I couldn’t recommend them enough.”

For more information and to download the app, visit snap-it.app.

At the point of registering an account, please use referral code Installer10
to get £10 off your first purchase. Referral code works at a minimum
purchase value of £15.