Working your customer base!

Hang in there Mike! :) We made it through 2 years of slow work. The last year not only did we not make any money but we lost a substantial amount of money. But as they say, "when it rains it pours". And thats exactly what happened in 2009. All year long. Add in a small hail storm and some wind here and there and We are on track to come close to an all time high in sales this year. I've been tracking it and it looks like we will end up taking 2nd place ( out of 13 years ) by the end of the year. Although beating the old record is not out of the question. When they say this business is feast or famine their not joking. When the work finally picks up over there you'll be at the top of your game again in no time. There just aren't many guys out there with your skill level!

Tico, I don't know of any "respeted" and "trusted" competitors! lol Saying the afore mentioned was the extent of my participation in that thread. I have heard numerous horror stories about partnerships gone south so i avoid that for the most part. Mike, We had our advert cost at an all time high when the downturn in work hit over here. I used all the credit i could muster up to cover all the bills every month and we barely escaped disaster. Several local companies did not make it. We did not get many calls in spite of still having a big advert in the book. Even though its gonna be slow for ya for a while i think you will be much better off that you cut back on the ad cost. Also to get a grip on things we cut back on every single thing that we could reasonably, without losing out on neccessities. It took some time but we got through it. Now is the time to get a little more money out of your repairs that were referred thus much less competitive. New leads will be extremely competitive so its good if you can make it up there. Terry, thanks for sharing that with me. We did the thank you cards for a long while, I still have a huge box full of them , but we stopped sending them out. It didn't really seem to make a difference although maybe we didn't keep it up long enough. I did the flier thing as well and got "some" work out of it but it wasn't worth the time and effort. We also ran a referral contest with prizes for the top 3 on the year but only a handfull of folks joined in on that so once again it wasnt worth it. I came up with an idea about extending warranties by a year for every referral but i dont think thats necessary as after all the trial and error so far has led me to believe that we will get our referrals without doing anything more than providing great service. But if there is a worthwhile way to increase them i would love to give it a shot. :)

We quit advertising in the yellow pages several years ago. The calls we got that were generated through them did not justify the expense.

Since we do a lot of slate and tile repair along with gutter cleaning, we have started to offer maintenance contracts, a set price for gutter service along with a roof check and repairs on a time and material basis. I include a cover letter with the contract offering $25 off the annual service for every referral that accepts a contract. Virtually, a person can end up getting their annual service free just by referring people in their neighborhood.

Try sending a "Thank You" card once a job is completed. Inside the card you can write something like "If you are not 100%satisfied with our work, please let us know, if you are, please tell others" and put several business cards in the card.

Print up a flyer telling what services you offer (repairs, replacement, gutter cleaning, soffit, fascia, whatever) and go to a plan that is around 20 years old. Put a flier in each door. Most of these people have no experience with roofers since it is the first time their roof will need replaced. Just make sure to emphasize that you have been in business for XX number of years so they know you are going to be there if they have a problem down the road.

These are just a couple of the things we do.

you participated in the partnership liason thread,it's been bumped.there's alot of good ideas there. bring some food for thought back,it's something everyone can do.and then mix and match ideas. seeins everyones pretty much so spred out there'd be no one overlapping someone elses territory. unless you go to san marino :P