With the Atlantic Hurricane season not coming to an end until November 30th, it’s safe to say that this is the eye of busy season. The last update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on August 4th stated the number of predicted Atlantic hurricanes has increased to 15-21 named storms (those with 39 mph winds or greater). Out of that, they expect 7-10 to be hurricanes and 3-5 to form into major storms. That being said, following the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana in early September and Hurricane Nicholas in southwest Texas, the likelihood of another hurricane, or a bad storm coming from the Atlantic and causing destruction to residential homes, is high.
If your residential roofing business is being directly affected by these storms, is it running in the most effective way it can? And if it isn’t currently affected, are you prepared to take on more jobs if one does hit your area? Disaster restoration software can help manage the chaos and provide ways to be more efficient in your operations. Here are five tips that can help your roofing business right now during the peak of hurricane season:
Read: 3 Tricks for Faster Estimates With Roofing Software
Disaster Restoration Software Tip #1: Create Fast and Accurate Bids
After a large storm, you want your crews to be as efficient as possible, especially at the start of a job. Taking estimates and creating the initial bid can be time-consuming and expensive, and when there is a high volume of jobs, a slow process isn’t the best for profitability.
Using an aerial measurement report instead of measuring roofs by hand is a way to speed up your estimating process and create more accurate bids. Aerial imagery also helps cut down on expenses relating to traveling to and from the worksite because you can request and access reports right from the office.
AccuLynx integrates with two aerial measurement companies, Eagleview and SkyMeasure by CoreLogic, which can help you streamline your process and turn around estimates faster. With this integration, you can order the reports from your preferred company, and once they are complete, the measurements are directly populated right into your job estimate. This will take away from the need to input anything manually and cut down on double-checking your work in anticipation of human errors. You will then be able to quickly move your job down the pipeline and move on to the next job sooner.
Disaster Restoration Software Tip #2: Stay Updated on Material Supply Chain Delays and Shortages
Throughout 2021, supply chain delays and material shortages have been a very consistent problem for roofing contractors. While many events over the last year have led to this issue, including the Covid-19 pandemic, storm season does contribute to the continuous challenge of keeping some materials fully stocked without delays.
The most recent contributor to the shortages was Hurricane Ida, which caused destruction throughout Louisiana in early September. The lack of specific materials has led to many contractors being creative with what they have available, especially during emergencies. Since this has been an ongoing issue throughout the year, it isn’t expected to improve, especially during peak storm season.
The best way to be prepared for delays and shortages is by always having an eye on what’s happening with your distributor. While this might sound tedious, AccuLynx provides a solution to stay updated about the status of specific materials, availability, and even prices. With seamless integrations with ABC Supply and SRS Distribution, you can see real-time availability and prices of specific materials right from AccuLynx. This allows you to stay aware of what is in stock and even easily find alternatives if the supply of specific necessary items is low or delayed.
Disaster Restoration Software Tip #3: Simplify Your Payment Process and Provide Options for Customers
Roofing jobs are expensive, and due to the delays and shortages, overall prices for materials have risen significantly since the beginning of 2021. When providing a new bid to a potential homeowner, the cost of the job may shock them and even make them wonder if they should wait to fix their roof until things calm down. It is best to advise them not to wait and instead provide them with alternative ways to help make the price tag less of a burden.
There are two integrations within AccuLynx that help provide seamless payment processing and financing possibilities without using a different system or having your customer step foot in a bank. These two features, AccuFi and AccuPay, will help simplify your payment process and help move the job forward without additional delays.
Due to the heightened cost, your customer might want to look into options to help fund their new roof or repairs. With AccuFi, AccuLynx’s Financing integration, you can provide your customers with multiple competitive loan options right from the job estimate. A live link is sent over along with the job estimate, where your homeowner can quickly fill out a short form. Almost immediately, and without any adverse effect on the customer’s credit score, they will be redirected to multiple different loan options to choose from. Your sales representatives will receive email notifications throughout this process and have the ability to track the status of the loan.
Having flexible payment options instead of only accepting paper checks or cash helps your customers and provides you with more security and less manual accounting work. AccuPay is AccuLynx’s fully-integrated, secure electronic payment solution that allows you to request and process payments. With AccuPay, you can provide your customers with more payment options, such as credit cards, debit cards, and e-checks. Further, payments can be made online, over the phone, or in person from any device. This process can help you save time by processing all payments in the same system and simplifying your accounting by not having to enter payments in multiple places.
Disaster Restoration Software Tip #4: Communicate Efficiently with Your Crews and Homeowners
So much can happen during a roofing job, from material delays to new storms coming through the area, it can sometimes be challenging to stay in touch with crews and homeowners. No matter how busy it can get, communication is one of the areas of your business that shouldn’t be neglected.
It is essential to have a streamlined process to keep everyone on the same page, whether they are in the office or on-site. Not only that, but it is also necessary to keep a history of your communication so that if something goes wrong, you can look back and find a well-documented report of what has been happening. By communicating through AccuLynx, this is all easily done and saved right in your Job File.
One of the best ways to communicate through AccuLynx during your busy season is by text messaging. By adding text messaging onto your AccuLynx plan, you can easily communicate with everyone, from your crews to your homeowners, right from your account. Even better, you can set up automations that will send messages to your crews when there is an update about a material order or change in their schedule so that you know for sure everyone is always on the same page.
Disaster Restoration Software Tip #5: Streamline Your Project Management
There is always so much happening at once during busy season that keeping track of everything from start to finish can be a challenge. Throw in the difficulties that come if another storm hits nearby or with material shortages or delay— you want to be prepared for anything. Having a CRM system that helps you streamline, track, and manage your projects will help you immensely during times of high volume and make your busy season less stressful and more profitable.
Streamline Hurricane Season with AccuLynx
AccuLynx is the only all-in-one roofing contractor software designed to help you throughout the entire roofing process and provide you with many options on how to streamline your business in a way that is best for you. With all of the integrations mentioned above, you will complete estimates and material orders more efficiently and within one disaster restoration software program. Not only that, everything is saved in a Job File specific to the job, where you can keep track of how the job is progressing through customer workflows.
Want to see more on how you can streamline your processes and execute these above tips with AccuLynx during busy season? Join us on October 7th at 10:00 AM Central / 11:00 AM Eastern, for a webinar and demo that will help your business make the most out of this Hurricane season.
