Your busiest season is in full swing. You want to make sure your roofing business stays on top of all your jobs and leads while providing great customer service and making sure your teams have the information they need to do their jobs. Managing all of this can seem like a daunting task. But some of the latest roofing technology trends can make it easier. Here are five digital tools that roofing contractors need this season to help their businesses succeed.
Digital Tool #1: Automated Messages
With so many jobs coming in, your roofing business can start to feel pressed for time. You want to make sure you reach out to customers and leads in a timely manner, keep your records up-to-date, and stay on top of material ordering. But there are only so many hours in a day, and you sometimes feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. How can you keep these repetitive, day-to-day tasks from slipping through the cracks?
Using automated messages and reminders can help you manage these everyday tasks during your busy summer schedule. Automations streamline and standardize your communications, keeping you in touch with customers and team members even when your day is packed. In AccuLynx, our Automation Manager allows contractors to set up texts, emails, and tasks that are automatically triggered based on job events, milestone changes, and order-related events. For instance, you could create an automated email reminding customers of a scheduled appointment that will be sent every time you set up a new customer appointment in AccuLynx. Your customer will stay informed about your visit to their job site, without the need for you to write a separate email every time.
Learn more about the benefits of creating automations for your roofing business.
And automations aren’t just for communicating with customers—they can also help you and your team members stay on task. To take one example, you could set up automated text messages that notify your project manager when a material order delivery date changes. Using automations like those in AccuLynx gives you the ability to improve communication without adding more work to your day.
Digital Tool #2: Estimate Builders and Templates
Do you feel like the estimating process takes too long? The more efficiently you estimate, the faster the sales process and the better the customer experience. But you also want to make sure your estimates are accurate—and balancing accuracy and efficiency in the estimating process can be difficult. You need a way to create an estimate quickly without sacrificing precision.
Estimate builders and templates are a roofing technology trend that can provide a solution. With these templates, you can create standardized estimates for your most common jobs and trades. Then you can fill in the template with customer information, instead of having to create a new estimate from scratch every time. These electronic estimates are easy to create, easy to send for review, and easy to access from anywhere.
AccuLynx lets roofing contractors create and upload estimate templates directly within the software platform. With our SmartDocs feature, these templates have the capacity to pull customer information from AccuLynx job files to automatically populate a given estimate. This speeds up the estimating process considerably and eliminates the need for double data entry. In addition, many of the features in AccuLynx improve the accuracy of your estimates. From the integration with EagleView and SkyMeasure aerial measurement services to the built-in waste and profit margin calculators, AccuLynx helps you build precise estimates every time. You can estimate more efficiently and have confidence you’re providing the most accurate information in the estimate.
Digital Tool #3: Roofing Business Management Apps
Many roofing businesses struggle with bridging the gap between the field and the office. Especially during your busiest times, it can be hard for salespeople in the field to stay up to date with office staff and vice versa. Finding a way to keep everyone in the loop and make sure your teams in the field have the information they need is vital to help your roofing business run more smoothly.
Many roofing software providers, including AccuLynx, offer app versions of their powerful software to make communication and collaboration easier when your teams are in the field. With the AccuLynx Field App, your sales teams have access to all the features of AccuLynx directly from their mobile devices. This means that up-to-date job information is always at their fingertips. Instead of calling back to the office or taking a job file with them, salespeople can view directions, customer details, and other important information through the AccuLynx Field App. And the convenience goes both ways. When a salesperson makes an update to a job file using the AccuLynx Field App, the information is updated for everyone in AccuLynx, so office staff can see it right away. There are no gaps or delays—everyone on your team has access to the most current information when that information lives in AccuLynx.
In addition, sales teams can use the AccuLynx Field App to send messages to other team members and assign tasks. AccuLynx creates a record of these messages and associates them with a specific job, so your communication stays organized and it’s easy to refer to a message later. With an app like the AccuLynx Field App, every member of your roofing business will have an easier time staying updated and communicating important information.
Digital Tool #4: Electronic Payment Processing
If your customers pay you in paper checks, there can be a significant delay between when your work finishes and when you get paid for it. Checks can get damaged, lost in the mail, or simply take a long time to be processed. This can cause cash flow problems for your roofing business. In addition, many customers would prefer to have a range of payment options for roofing work so they can choose the one that is most convenient for them. Adopting new payment methods can seem daunting, but the right ones can help your roofing business provide better customer service and get paid faster.
Watch this video to see how payment processing can streamline your sales process.
Luckily, new roofing technology trends, such as electronic payment processing, can help you move away from paper checks and make the payment process more convenient. AccuLynx recently added AccuPay, a secure online payment processing feature, to our lineup of tools. With AccuPay, contractors can process credit cards, debit cards and e-checks in person, online or over the phone using AccuLynx. This allows you to easily offer multiple payment options to your customers. AccuPay is seamlessly integrated with the rest of AccuLynx, so you can apply the payments directly to a job, sync with QuickBooks, and easily track payment requests. Not only does this help you get paid on time, it eliminates the hassle of paperwork associated with payments and gives you greater capacity to keep track of outstanding invoices. With tools like AccuPay, you can serve your customers while simplifying the payment process.
Digital Tool #5: Scheduling Tools
Managing appointments, deliveries, and other scheduled events can get complicated during your busiest times. It’s important to have a system in place that will keep everyone on your team up to date, allow you to make changes in real time, and notify people of their schedules. Some roofing businesses use a whiteboard or physical calendar, but this can be hard to change and access when updates are needed. Using electronic scheduling tools can help your business run more smoothly during busy seasons.
The built-in production management tools in AccuLynx are designed to simplify scheduling and planning. With our Production Scheduler, you can see all your labor assignments and material deliveries in one calendar view. It’s like the calendar functions in Google or Outlook—but designed specifically for roofing businesses. You can visualize, plan, schedule and reschedule all your labor and material deliveries with just a few clicks. When you make changes to the schedule, your teams are instantly notified so they can adjust their plans. And since these tools live on AccuLynx’s cloud-based platform, you can access the most up-to-date version of the schedule from anywhere. Electronic scheduling and production management tools are essential for keeping your teams on task and in the loop, wherever they are and whenever the schedule changes.
The summer is an incredibly productive time for many roofing contractors. But without the right tools in place, your business might find itself slowing down or unable to handle all your work. Adopting these roofing technology trends can help your business simplify its workflow and manage an influx of jobs more effectively.
