For many roofers, these past few weeks have felt chaotic. Navigating new state regulations, keeping yourself and your employees safe, finding new ways to reach customers—roofers are juggling a lot and having to adapt to many changes.
But even with these new challenges, business still moves forward. Roofs still leak and need repairs. And roofers are looking for the best ways to stay productive and prepare for success throughout the rest of the year. There are many ways to drive business, keep leads flowing, and set yourself up for a great second half of the year. Here are three roofing business strategies to help roofers thrive during this time.
Promote a Touch-Free Roofing Approach
Connecting with prospects and customers is one of the biggest areas that requires new creativity from roofers during this time. Changing sales tactics in response to coronavirus is essential for moving business forward, but can be difficult to do, especially on such short notice. Gaining new customers—and providing great service to current customers—requires a focus on meeting buyers where they are at.
As part of a new roofing sales strategy, many roofers are promoting a “touch-free” or “reduced contact” service package to prospects and customers. This enables them to connect with homeowners who need repairs without having to show up in person, keep their employees safe, and still sell and complete jobs. Many homeowners who are reluctant to make necessary repairs at this time will have greater peace of mind knowing that your roofing business can still work while reducing in-person contact.
Do you have touch-free roofing business strategies in place?
When you market your roofing business, emphasize whatever technology or tools your business is using to reduce in-person interactions. Video inspections? Electronic signatures? Aerial measurement technology? However you’re keeping your distance while still getting work done, emphasize it when you speak to prospects and customers, put it in online advertising, and include it on your website. A selling strategy focused around touch-free, reduced contact roofing will help put potential customers at ease, shows that you’re thinking about their needs, and gives them the confidence that you can repair their roofs safely. You can keep leads flowing to your business with these tactics.
Equip Your Teams to Work From Anywhere
You want your roofing employees to stay safe and follow any guidelines your city and state have put in place. For most roofing teams, this means that your office staff—and many other employees—will be working from home. But you also want your business to stay productive during this period of remote work. How can you make sure that your teams can work from home effectively, access the information they need, and keep the business running smoothly?
The most important way to help your teams work remotely is to give them the ability to access what they need for their essential job functions. Roofing software systems, like AccuLynx, function as a single source for all your business information. Documents, job files, measurements, calendars, and other essentials are stored in the cloud, which means that all your employees can access them from wherever they are.
In addition, roofing software lets you keep up with how your employees are doing. In AccuLynx, the dashboard gives you an easy view of how all your jobs are progressing through the pipeline. Any messages, notes, or changes to a job file are stored directly in the system, so you can keep track of all your communication in one place. And if you need someone to take action or want to make sure someone saw something, you can use the @Me function to notify them, rather than having to call or text. If you don’t already use roofing software to manage your business, now is the time to start. With all the tools they use every day at their fingertips, and the ability to keep communications in one place, it will be much easier for your teams to work from home.
Prepare Your Processes For the Future
Right now is an unusual time in the roofing industry. But while it’s caused many changes and required new roofing business strategies, it’s not going to last forever. In addition to taking steps to help your business keep moving forward, you should also be thinking about ways to stay competitive the rest of the year.
One important way to set yourself up for future success is to review your business processes and identify any inefficiencies or pain points. Shoring up your processes will allow your business to run more nimbly, able to tackle more jobs and follow up with more leads.
Does your roofing business have the tools it needs to thrive moving forward?
Roofing software like AccuLynx helps businesses streamline their processes in a variety of ways. With third-party app integrations like QuickBooks, EagleView, and GAF QuickMeasure, AccuLynx eliminates double data entry and reduces time spent on administrative tasks. Production calendar tools in AccuLynx make it easy to schedule and update deliveries and labor orders, while keeping teams informed of any changes. AccuLynx streamlines the process of document creation by letting roofers upload and store templates for estimates, contracts, change orders, and more, rather than having to create new ones every time. And the AccuLynx dashboard helps you keep track of leads and jobs, preventing anything from falling through the cracks.
Now is the time to identify areas where your roofing business could improve its efficiency and adopt technology, like roofing software, that can help you streamline your work. If you strategize now and prepare your processes for the rest of the year, you’ll be able to hit the ground running and compete effectively for roofing jobs.
In this confusing and stressful time, thinking strategically can help roofers thrive. Targeting customers with a touch-free approach, equipping your employees to be productive at home, and preparing your processes for the rest of the year will help your business keep moving forward.
