So many roofers are great at what they do. They know their way around a roof or basement and can usually spot problems with a roof easily during an inspection.
They take pride in their work and treat their customers with respect and provide the best service possible. However, too many roofing businesses struggle to manage the daily tasks of running a business and truly understanding their numbers. This results in struggling businesses who eventually are forced to go out of business.
Luckly, there are many products out on the market, designed specifically to help roofing contractors manage the backend of their business so they can worry less about staying afloat and instead focus more on the customer experience. Even without those apps or products, there are simple things roofers can do to increase their revenue by making small changes or improvements in the operations of their business.
Answer the Phone
Very few contractors understand how important it is that you answer the phone when a potential customer is calling. And, I get it. Sometimes, a call comes in when you’re in the middle of working, however, answering the call gives you an opportunity to make an offer to that person. When people call a local service provider, they are usually in need of service very soon. So, they will likely go with the first person who answers and/or the first person who gives them a quote. If you don’t answer the call, they will move on to the next contractor and you will lose the opportunity to gain a new customer.
If you are truly struggling to answer the phone, then hire someone to answer the calls for you and set the appointments. You can designate a couple of dates/times per week specifically for you to go out to give estimates. That way, when the person who answers your phone needs to schedule a customer in, they are able to do it on that first call. This keeps the momentum going with the customer. I highly suggest you have your person call each customer a couple of hours before their appointment to remind them that you will be meeting them for the estimate that day. This will save you time.
Invest in a CRM
You may be wondering, what is a CRM? Well it’s a tool that helps with “Customer Relationship Management”. This is really important if you are looking at the long-term growth of your business. A CRM allows you to house all of your customer contact information as well as helps you track your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well.
It will take a little bit of work at first, but once you set up a system and either train someone to update it- or do it yourself, it will be smooth sailing from there. You’ll be able to track things like, how many calls did you convert into customers, how many of each type of job did you perform, what online profile or site is bringing in the most calls to your business and you can even send out reminders on a set schedule to customers about regular roof maintenance.
All of this information is organized into graphs and charts so that you can get a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly snapshot. This keeps you from ever having to guess about your numbers again.
The best thing is, you can find the just right CRM that will help you automate your business so you never miss another roof replacement or roof repair call again!