Snider’s Riders Are Always on the Way

Snider’s Riders Are Always on the Way

Joey Snider has all the right DNA.

Photo by Vicky Moon

By Leonard Shapiro

Joey Snider’s career path makes perfect sense. From the age of 13, he frequently followed his father, Ray, a master plumber, out the door of their house in The Plains. Then he’d hop in the truck and head out to various jobs all around the area.

“My father taught me how to be a plumber,” Joey said, sitting in his spacious office at the Middleburg headquarters of J.R. Snider, LTD, specializing in plumbing and water care. “By the time I was 18 or 19, I was telling the older plumbers what to do. No, that didn’t go over very well.”

A 1976 graduate of Fauquier High, Joey still had much to learn about his future profession. He had finished two years of community college and at one point thought about going to Virginia Tech. But not for long.

“I told my dad I wanted to be a plumber,” he said.

Ray Snider had started his company in 1966, working out of the family home before relocating the business to Middleburg in 1977.

By 1979, the company had moved again to its current location on the south end of Pendleton St. Joey was still going through a five-year apprentice program and two years in a supervisory position. By 1982, he was a master plumber and had completed another rigorous program in gas fitting.

When Ray Snider decided to retire at age 55 in 1983, he had a simple message for his son.

“He told me I could buy the business, or go out and get a job.” Joey said.

This was clearly a no-brainer, and on Joey’s watch, the operation has grown from its original four employees now up to 18.

That also includes Kristi, his wife of 13 years and the company’s office manager, among countless other tasks in her job description, including screening and interviewing potential new hires.

The business has expanded exponentially in other ways. They’ve established a water care division that perfectly complements the plumbing side. There are now over 1,400 clients in an area that covers a 40-mile radius to the west of Middleburg and a 30 miles radius to the east.

“We’re growing all the time,” Joey said. “We average about three to seven new clients every week. A lot of it is word of mouth and people reading your reviews on line.”

Those reviews are consistently excellent, and Joey would have it no other way. Both he and Kristi describe him as a perfectionist, and while he no longer goes out as the main man on most jobs, he makes his presence known with unannounced drop-ins to see how his people are performing.

“I call myself the Trash Man because I’ll clean things up and help them any way I can,” he said. “People know we’re high quality. And we wouldn’t be doing this for 37 years if we weren’t reasonable. People will say, ‘I hope you’re as good as they say you are.’ They usually call us again.”

Snider calls his crew “Snider’s Riders,” adding that, “I’m always there for my guys, 24 hours a day. My dad always said ‘nothing good ever happens after 9 o’clock at night.’”

If there’s an after-hours emergency, the Riders have to be ready, day or night. “They are all well aware this is an on-call service,” Joey said. “And they are well-compensated.”

Joey and Kristi are particularly picky about new hires. Candidates with solid vocational training are hard to find. “The work force is not that great,” Joey said. “One out of ten or fifteen is a keeper.”

Those who do make the cut also are encouraged to adhere to six core beliefs, what Joey calls “The DNA of Snider’s Riders.” That would be credibility, kindness, humor, respect, trust and understanding.

“If you don’t have those six things in your DNA,” Joey said, “you can’t work here.”

Said Kristi, “they also love that he tries to create new avenues for them to get better. And he wants to do it right. He’s always available. We can be at home, and he’ll be on the phone with one of the guys. They all want to have time with him.”

And there is one critical question employees are always encouraged to ask.

“What would Joey do?” Kristi said. “And they all know the answer.”