Patrick Fingles, CEO, Leap
Like any service business, customer satisfaction is paramount. But many roofing contractors still follow traditional sales processes: home visits, hand measuring, paper quotes. The problem is: homeowners have moved on. And staying stuck in the past means contractors are not only losing customers but also losing out on profits from the business you do win. Homeowners have been steadily moving toward digital experiences. From shopping online to self-serve kiosks at restaurants, to getting vehicle repair quotes on an app, homeowners want streamlined, accurate digital information. And they want it fast. Roofing contractors that have adopted similar techniques, digitalizing the end-to-end sales process, are forging stronger relationships with customers, reducing the cost of doing business and increasing profit margins. Here are four ways you can make this happen in your own roofing business.
Homeowners who want a paper contract or who embrace a lengthy in-home visit are the exception among roofing customers. Today’s homeowners are already booking appointments online, comparing pricing and reviews using the internet and communicating with businesses like banks and healthcare providers via portals or chat. And the pandemic, with social distancing, has only accelerated the digital mindset.
Two-out-of-three homeowners already say they won’t book a second project with a home service company that isn’t tech savvy. So, keeping the old clipboard and notebook system is less likely to win new customers in the future. We can buy a car entirely online, so why not a new roof?
A digital sales process ensures that quotes are correct and can be delivered quickly, making the best use of a customer’s valuable time. Highly accurate aerial measurement systems eliminate the requirement for a home visit for the initial price quote, allowing
contractors with digital tools to respond quickly and professionally using the digital channels customers demand like email and even text.
Even partner inventory systems can be connected to digital platforms, so homeowners know exactly what they are getting and when materials will be available. This is increasingly important as inventory and material availability shifts due to the pandemic,
shipping issues and delivery truck shortages.
By meeting customer expectations for speed, accuracy and professional documentation, contractors can differentiate themselves in the quality of service delivered. This creates happy homeowners and a base of loyal fans that will come back for future work.
Paper and paper-based processes are a major money pit. Costs accrue from direct purchases of paper, printer ink, printer hardware, etc., and from the indirect costs of document management like version control, document storage and retrieval. In
fact, www.reduce.org estimates the total cost of a paper environment can be 13 to 31 times the direct cost of buying the paper itself. Plus, homeowners prefer digital documentation, making it easier to compare quotes and services.
Roofers that reduce or eliminate paper-based communication reap almost immediate savings. Apart from eliminating many hard costs, modernizing the sales process using digital estimates, contracts and communication, provides a better customer experience
and a more organized sales process.
Errors can easily arise in the estimating and contracting process or from miscommunications with the homeowner. Calculation errors, bad handwriting, missing information or incorrect data entry issues are just a few examples. But mistakes happen more frequently and persist longer into the project lifecycle when using manual data entry.
In contrast, companies that invest in centralized, digital sales systems can capture customer and product information quickly by using predesignated forms and fields. Think about foodservice – a waiter that writes down an order by hand is more likely to make
errors than one who builds your customized order using a digital ordering system.
Digitalization also allows for better transparency with homeowners. When corrections or revisions do need to happen, team leaders can make changes once and have them populate across all relevant systems, which saves time and prevents future mistakes.
Most contractors know their bid-to-win ratio. But what we forget is that the faster we can provide homeowners with accurate bids, the more total wins we can rack up in a shorter amount of time. By reducing note-taking, transferring info into computerized systems, tracking down inventory, estimating materials pricing and manually creating contracts, roofers can speed up the time (and reduce the effort) of creating competitive bids. Not only will this provide a better, faster experience for homeowners, it will create a better experience for the sales team. Being the first to bid doesn’t always win the business but it beats being last to bid.
At their core, costs tied to the use of old, limited or siloed processes make you less efficient than competitors and cut into margins. By shifting to a more modern approach, roofing contractors not only create a more efficient sales organization, they are also able
to meet homeowner demands for a digital experience and create loyalty along the way. This can allow companies to scale to meet the growing demand for more home services, even after the pandemic subsides.
Patrick Fingles is the CEO of Leap, a subscription-based software helping home improvement contractors reduce error, increase efficiency and digitize their business. With nearly two decades of leadership in the home improvement industry, Patrick has
dedicated his career to redefining the expectations of what’s possible from contractors. Learn more at www.leaptodigital.com.
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