Briquelle Simpson, Freelance Writer
Email has been the business communication method of choice for years, but emails don’t reach customers. The truth is that customers are dealing with a flood of emails every day. Your roofing company’s high-priority emails are getting buried under email ads, coupons and bills. For the most part, your customers might not even realize they got your email. So how do you fix this? The answer is business texting.
Think about it. People like texts. In fact, 87 percent of homeowners primarily want to talk to roofing contractors over text. That’s over 20 times the number of people who want to hear from you by email (only 4 percent – 9 percent other means).
If most homeowners want to be texted, why do so few roofers offer texting? Everyone knows the benefits of personal texting, but the advantages aren’t as clear for business interactions. Here are seven major ways business texting can help your roofing company.
A fast-paced world means more information and less time to read it. Make sure customers read your messages by communicating with them on their terms. Email is outdated and phone calls can come at inconvenient times. But texting is simple and homeowners want simplicity. They can easily open your text message and respond when they have a free moment.
Not only do texts have a five times higher open rate than email but 90 percent of people open a text within three minutes. With texting, you know customers see your message even if they never respond.
Do you want to send personalized messages without spending tons of time on them? Automated texts let you do just that. Write a text message template and then the platform can autofill the customer’s name and address for you.
Texting automations also prevent messages from falling through the cracks: they’ll always go out when they are supposed to. You can create your message in advance, save it as a template, then schedule the software to automatically personalize and send it.
How many times have you sent an email only to hear your customer never got it or the message was automatically
directed to spam and deleted? You aren’t sure if anyone sees your email and email responses are slim to none. But texting has an eight times higher response rate than email.
If you rely on email for all your customer communication, you’re holding your business back. Texting ensures your roofing messages make it to your customers and get seen.
Poor communication leads to bad customer experiences and reviews. In fact, 47 percent of negative reviews trace back to a lack of communication. Your customers want to know what’s going on with their roof. Typically, all they need is a quick update. If your
customers have to reach out to see what’s happening, you’ve already failed.
Text is the perfect way to keep your customers in the loop. It takes you a second to send them a message and then they know what to expect. A little bit of communication can shoot your reviews through the roof. Not to mention that customers are more likely to leave you a review if you ask them through text instead of email.
Texting also helps when customers aren’t happy with their roof experience. They can text you before they post a negative review about what happened. You’ll have a chance to smooth things out before it ever reaches the internet. As a bonus, you can use that
feedback to improve future customer interactions.
Only 12 percent of companies track customer communication. Most businesses have individual sales reps reach out to customers. But do you know what those reps are saying? Do you know what promises they’re making to your customers? Take that a step further: do your reps know how to spell and use correct grammar?
Those nuances make a big difference in how your customers perceive you. If you don’t know what or how your staff is talking to your customers, you don’t really know what kind of experience they’re having. Captured and controlled texting ensures you don’t
have any blind spots in your business communications. Provide your customers with a better experience and give yourself full insight into your company with one simple feature.
Using a texting platform keeps all messages in one place for better business continuity. All your business texts are consolidated for easy tracking.
Andrew Stockton from Elite Windows and Doors says that business texting is “not only communicating with the customer but the biggest thing is that companies have is their own internal data on the team, taking notes on what’s being said.” If one of your employees has to hand off a customer, the new rep can see all the past texts in the system. They’ll have all the information they need to provide a seamless customer experience.
Customers want a convenient roofing experience. If your competition offers texting but your company doesn’t, who do you think homeowners will choose? To beat out your roofing competition, you have to give customers a phenomenal experience and texting is the key.
Your customers want to be able to communicate with you and get an immediate response. If you adopt business texting before your competitors do, you’ll have a clear advantage. Your roofing company will be the one raising the bar that everyone else has to measure up to. And that brings more customers to you.
Business texting makes communication convenient for both your roofing company and your customers. With more homeowners wanting to text your company than ever before, you don’t want to miss out. The industry has several texting platforms to choose from, including Salesmsg, Textedly and, the newest option for roofing contractors, JobNimbus Engage.
Start reaching your customers the way they want to hear from you with text. Both sides will enjoy smoother communication, faster response times and a better experience.
Briquelle Simpson is a freelance writer and search enthusiast who loves to cover everything from law to software. Since 2014, Briquelle has contributed to several magazines and websites, including JobNimbus, Roofing & Exteriors, Ancestry and Podium.
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