The roofing industry was faced with more than its ordinary challenges this year. Because of the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the safety concerns of both customers and employees, roofing contractors had to pivot their strategies and find new ways to get things done. This change in strategies presented many difficulties, but many contractors were able to overcome them and continue to move their businesses forward.
As a recent Roofing Contractor Magazine article describes, roofing technology played an essential role in helping contractors find success during COVID-19. Here are a few of the ways that roofing technology equipped contractors to overcome their most pressing challenges.
The Role of Roofing Technology During a Crisis
Keeping Contractors and Customers Safe
One of the most pressing and immediate challenges faced by roofing contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic was the need to keep in-person interaction to a minimum. In order to protect the safety of their employees and customers, roofing businesses needed to pivot to virtual, digital and touchless interactions.
Read: Reaching Homeowners During Coronavirus
Roofing technology helped contractors make this transition swiftly and easily, without dropping the ball on outstanding projects. One tool that gave contractors the power to go touch-free was electronic signature capabilities. With roofing software like AccuLynx, contractors could send estimates, contracts and more to their customers over email and have the customers sign off on these documents with legally binding e-signatures. Many contractors also took advantage of video conferencing technology like Zoom to meet with customers virtually. And aerial measurement technology, such as EagleView and SkyMeasure
, helped contractors get the measurements they needed to create accurate estimates without having to visit the job site.
Enabling Remote Work
Restrictions put in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19 required many roofing contractors to work from home—in some instances, for the first time ever. Many roofing businesses rely on in-person team meetings, physical job files, and white boards to make sure everyday tasks are completed. Without access to these tools, roofing contractors had to find new and innovative ways of getting work done.
Roofing software platforms, like AccuLynx, helped contractors take their work home and equipped them with all the tools they needed to complete it. AccuLynx stores job information in digital job files, which can be updated from anywhere and accessed wherever contractors have an internet connection. Before COVID-19, these digital job files made it easy for field staff to make important updates and access customer information; during COVID-19, having all the job information in an easily accessible place made it possible for contractors to work from home while still keeping their teams informed.
Generating Leads Without Door-Knocking
One of the most challenging things for roofing contractors to do remotely was generate leads. Many roofing companies rely on door-knocking and in-person canvassing to find new customers. Contractors needed to find creative ways to reach people digitally in order to keep their business growing.
During this time, some roofing companies pitched potential customers using Facebook ads, email campaigns, or phone calls. Using data on past customers provided by roofing software helped contractors figure out who they should target for digital lead generation. For instance, AccuLynx allows contractors to view data about their most profitable roofing jobs and sort that data by location, type of job, and more. This helps contractors gain an understanding of which leads are likely to become profitable jobs and seek those leads out. With door-knocking put on hold, gathering more information about the highest-quality leads was essential for roofing contractors to succeed.
Read: Roofing Sales Tips – Alternatives to Door Knocking
Moving Projects Forward Efficiently
For contractors who had active projects when COVID-19 hit, their priority was finishing those projects efficiently to help their customers feel safe. For new projects during the pandemic, contractors were motivated to provide the best possible service to customers and eliminate delays that might require an increase in the number of site visits.
Roofing technology helped contractors work more efficiently and reduce errors and delays. This was especially true of roofing software platforms like AccuLynx, which contains a wide range of features designed to simplify work that contractors are already doing. For instance, the estimating tools in AccuLynx help contractors estimate more efficiently and accurately. Contractors can order an aerial measurement report from EagleView or SkyMeasure directly from the AccuLynx platform. The numbers from the measurement report can be used to populate an estimate with just a few clicks—no double data entry required. AccuLynx allows roofing companies to store estimating templates in the software system, so it’s simple and fast to put together an electronic estimate. This estimate can then be emailed to the customer directly from AccuLynx. Efficient, streamlined processes such as estimating through AccuLynx helped roofing contractors keep projects on track and serve their customers well during COVID-19.
Trusting in Roofing Technology for a Successful 2020
Roofing contractors faced the challenges of COVID-19 head-on, using innovative strategies combined with new technology to keep work moving forward. As AccuLynx CEO Mike Stein said to Roofing Contractor Magazine, “While the coronavirus outbreak has undoubtedly presented challenges for roofing contractors, we have seen the power technology can have on their ability to navigate them. Our customers have demonstrated resilience throughout this unprecedented time, with our software playing a critical role in keeping their project teams connected and work moving forward.” While 2020 was not the year anyone in the roofing industry expected, its many challenges showed the resilience of roofing contractors and their willingness to adapt to new ways of doing business.
