Chuck Magee - Where is Your Office? - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Chuck Magee, CEO os SSA. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Hello, and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips with RoofersCoffeeShop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and I am here today with Chuck Magee, CEO of SSA and Raise the Rank. And I have to tell you, this is going to be a great podcast. So much great information. Chuck, thank you so much for joining me today.

Chuck Magee:
Yes, Heidi, I've been looking forward to it. I can't wait to dig into it with you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I know, I know. You have such great information and you're doing such innovative services for contractors, that I'm really excited about this. I think it's going to be so good, and it's going to really open up some opportunities for our contractors out there.
But before we dive in, can you do me a favor? Introduce yourself again and tell us a little bit about SSA and Raise the Rank.

Chuck Magee:
Yes. My name is Chuck Magee, and I started in the construction and real estate industry back in 1993, so I've been in this game for quite a while.
I started off in the real estate and construction business with my current partner that I still have with my roofing company. He runs that company down in Baton Rouge. We were doing everything from recreational land to rehabbing of houses.
Then I came up with my first website idea in 1999, so that's how long I've been in the digital game. And the CRM, SSA, we came about with that eight years ago next month. So all of this has been out there for quite a while.
We're very excited about SSA and what it can do to help roofing contractors. This is the digital side of things too, because those are two huge needs that are really tough for the local roofer to pull off on his own.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, it is. It is really hard. And that's what I think I love about what you bring to this conversation, is the fact that you were, and are, a roofing contractor, with a roofing company, and you also understand digital and understand technology. You don't find that with a lot of people.

Chuck Magee:
Well, I was actually completely in the digital side of things and Will drug me into the construction stuff. That's how I got into physical construction, was my buddy Will did that. So I can thank him or strangle him, it depends on which day it is.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love it. I love it. So from that perspective, and I know you work with a lot of roofing contractors, and contractors and construction in general, what are some of the things that you're seeing out there in the industry? Some trends and some things that you think are really starting to make some changes?

Chuck Magee:
Well, one of the things is that everybody gets the fact that they've got to get into technology. They know they've got to start doing some advertising with Google.
A lot of these guys don't even know what Google Ads... It was Google Pay-Per-Click or PPC, but now it's called Google Ads. And for the most part, they know they've got to get some technology going. They've got to get into some Google, they got to get into some Facebook.
So one of the things that I'm really noticing, especially since COVID, and it really drove everybody to try to go after fewer touch points. Even though we, in roofing, when you're wrapping up a deal, you want to go physically pick up that check and you want to talk to that homeowner, because you want to get that Google review and you want to get that referral.
But the industry is coming to the fewer touch points. And that's one of the things that I really see the local contractor getting, is the fact that they really need to, have to. They just don't really know exactly what to do.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that is across the board because things are moving so fast. The social media platforms, the search engine platforms, Google, once you think you've got to figured out, it just changes all over again.

Chuck Magee:
And that brings up a really good point, because that's no more true than what's coming in the month of May, which is just a couple of months from now. May 2021, Google is making one of the larger Google algorithm updates that they've ever done.
They gave everybody a year's notice, and they never give you five seconds of notice. So this one's going to be a big one, and it's going to really tank a lot of websites that quite possibly were doing well.
Some of the things that are done on websites, it's going to present a real problem. People are going to look up and lose a lot of traffic, and they're not even going to know why.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Right. Right. Well, how can you help with that? Because, I mean, I think that's so important. What should contractors be doing to prepare for that Google change?

Chuck Magee:
I'm going to tell you right now, you better get somebody that knows what they're doing. Google calls it their user... It's the user experience. It's Core Web Vitals, CWV is what it's called. And that has so much under it when it comes down to it.
A simple way to break it down is user experience. So it's page speed, and the user's experience on that page. So the page has got to be fast, and in some things they're measuring in milliseconds.
Not just the page, how it loads, but certain things on the page like CLS, cumulative layout shift. That's when a page is loading on mobile, and you try to click something, and it shifts on you and you click the wrong link and that really aggravates you. That's called cumulative layout shift. And that's just one of the aspects of it.
But it right now you barely have enough time to get ready, even if you've got somebody that knows what they're doing. I mean, even your big boys, BMW, Mercedes, everybody is struggling with this one because it is so technical.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. Yeah. I mean, if you can get ready, but then be watching your website and if you're starting to see a lot of changes, be sure you're talking to the right people.

Chuck Magee:
If you start losing traffic. And Google has kind of backpedaled just a little bit here and said that they're not going to roll it all out at one time.
They're going to roll it out, but let's just say they're not going to clobber you if you're not completely ready. Because according to Google, I think 90% of the websites on the planet are not ready for this thing.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Chuck Magee:
Yeah, it's going to be big.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's going to be really big. One of the things that I love about your company, both SSA and Raise the Rank, and everything that you're doing, Chuck, is you are really taking progressive ideas and bringing them in to the industry.
And one of them that you and I've talked about a lot, is that you are offering online offices for roofing contractors. Especially contractors who, they want to roof. And right now they're spending the midnight oil working on papers and estimates and everything else.
You've come up with some really cool solutions to help them. Can you tell everybody about that?

Chuck Magee:
Yeah. And the reason that we started doing that was not necessarily that we really wanted to do it. Some of the things that I do, I got pulled into because of the need.
You think about it, some of the largest problems that these guys have... When you're talking about a guy that is one million, two million, three million, and you're trying to scale your company. Some of the things that you really struggle with is you don't have enough staff.
You're trying to answer the phone, you're trying to go meet clients, you're trying to sign contracts, you're trying to handle production. What happens is, the first thing that goes is the phones. And according to Google, in the study that they did, over 50% of all phone calls to small and mid-sized businesses go unanswered. That's a huge problem.
What we started with was just a virtual phone system, because that was something that pretty much... I've got clients knocking on the door of 30 million a year, and they still have some issues with the phone.
So even if you're one, two, three million dollars a year, or either you're bumping 30 million, it really doesn't matter. You're still going to have holes in your process because you just can't have all the staff that you really want and need.
So I started with the phone. We found that the guys were answering the phone, or not, because they're with a client or they're hanging on a 12/12 praying for dear life, and the phone's ringing so it goes to voicemail. And that potential lead, or that prospect at that point, is going to just keep right on calling until they get somebody.
Even if they do answer the phone, they're texting it to their sales guy. And the sales guy may be hanging on a 12/12, or closing a contract, so he's not making the call.
Things were getting dropped. And the biggest thing that we saw is the roofing company owner did not even know how bad it was. Didn't know how many leads they were actually losing.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I believe it. I believe it. Because people aren't going to tell you, they just don't call back.

Chuck Magee:
That's correct.

Heidi Ellsworth:
So a contractor, that's one of the things any size contractor can really look at, is being able to work to have the phones answered and have that be automated.
Let's tie that in to the importance of a strong CRM. I don't know if everyone really understands how critical that is for their business.

Chuck Magee:
Yeah. And it really is. My CRM, their CRM, any CRM, is better than not using a system of any kind or a process.
Even when you're in a CRM, you need to have processes inside of that CRM. You need to know what's going on from the lead all the way to the build part of the process, into the invoicing and collections and all that kind of stuff.
We started doing a virtual assistant as well. So we were answering the phones, and then it got even deeper. Now they need help getting all this information through the workflow.
It just kind of made sense for us, because everybody on my team knows how to use SSA and came from a roofing background. I mean, there's nobody on my personal team at SSA that's got less than five years working in a roofing company, and years using SSA.
So it just made sense to do the virtual assistant and help them with that. Then we even went so far as to do the complete virtual office.
If you're a one-man show, and you've got a pretty healthy business going, you can use our systems and you don't have to hire an office manager. You don't have to hire a phone lady. You don't have to train them. You don't have payroll taxes and all those things that come in there.
And then, "I'm sick this week," or "I can't get there," or whatever the case may be. You'll never hear those kind of things. You just click into SSA and start pulling up your reports and start looking at it.
But you need to have a CRM that will handle everything from a lead, to production, to collections, to job completed. And I see that a lot of them are managing leads or they'll do production, or they'll do whatever, but they really don't handle the whole show. You really need to have your full process in place.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And talk a little bit further about that, because you're right. There's a lot of times, softwares aren't talking to each other, or the contractors don't really know which ones to get, how that's going to work.
But what you've been able to put together is really combining the contact management part of it with the project management side of it so it's all seamless for contractors to be able to get... And on the cloud, right? 24/7.

Chuck Magee:
Yes. We have multiple platforms, and SSA is the number one. It's kind of forward-facing, is I guess what you would say, because it's the first thing that you need. Because we've got to take care of our leads first.
Some of the first things that I start asking these guys, when I start talking to them is, How many leads are you getting? What's your closing ratio? Where are your leads coming from? And what's your closing ratio on your sales teams?
And 90% of the time, they can't answer any of these questions. If we can't measure it, we can't manage it. So we've got to put SSA in there on the front end, and start getting these leads in.
We fire out a welcome email, and it's got videos and bios and pictures of your sales guy. So hopefully they're going to have seen that salesman before they ever get to the door.
Then we're going to back that up with another platform that is going to do lead nurturing. It's going to fire them out more text messages and emails, warming that client up. So hopefully what we're trying to do is soften the door when the salesman gets there, so they can close more deals. [crosstalk 00:13:56] swing back around and close more at the end.
So say they run a demo, and they go demo, no sale. At that point, we put them in drip campaign and we just start dripping them. Nationally, statistically, you should close three out of 10 deals that you run. That leaves seven, and statistically six more are going to buy in the next nine months.
You have to stay top-of-mind, and the only way to do that is with extended drip campaigns and lead nurturing. It just makes things so much easier and it makes it better, because at the end of the day, we're looking for a great experience for the client.
Because if you don't get a great experience for the client, you don't get a Google review and you're certainly not going to get a referral.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Right. Right. And your software and your system, your program overall, tracks it all the way through. All the way to the warranty and the referral and everything to close out that job, then continuing to keeping them in the loop, correct?

Chuck Magee:
That's correct. And we've got multiple integrations, you know, with Beacon and SRS and things like that for production.
But we also, for years we've been doing this, we started taking debit card and credit cards first. Because once you get them in there, you need to make it easy, and you want to keep that cash flow going.
So a couple of years ago we started taking each eChecks within our system. You can invoice directly from SSA. They're going to get their invoice, they can click on it, takes them to a secure page, and they can put an eCheck in.
And you're talking about less than 1% for a fee. You should be plenty profitable to be able to eat that, even if you didn't price that in in your price layout.
So that's something that's really gotten... It got really big during COVID, taking eChecks. And for the company owner it makes sense because the fees are small.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It makes a lot of sense. I love that. So what are you seeing with the... Kind of maybe walk us through, Chuck, a contractor comes to you, what's the process? How hard is it for them to get up and going, to get onboarded? What should they expect?

Chuck Magee:
Well, there's two different things that we do. I actually just got in last night, I've been in Memphis and I was doing some training with some clients there. And I met with a potential client for the SEO package.
With any of our SEO packages, SSA comes with that, because we need to be able to look inside of that company and see what's going on. So SSA is going to come with that.
Onboarding with SSA, normally you should be able to get completely into SSA and know what you're doing inside of 30 days. Vickie does some training, Brandon does some training, Heather does some training. I do advanced accounting training in there to get everybody completely immersed into the accounting part of it.
So there is some training that has to be done. And the thing is, SRS did a study a couple of years ago and they said that there was 92% of roofing contractors that were not using any type of system. That leaves it wide open, but then you got to ask yourself, how come so few are doing it?
Many times you'll see people want to do something, but they just won't do it. Until the pain of doing something new and getting into a real system is less than the pains that you're dealing with day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year, you probably aren't going to make a move to any CRM, mine or anybody else's. That's just human nature.
You've got to make that decision. You've got to make that commitment. You can take a NASCAR team and you can kind of compare it to anything if you want to be successful. They measure everything. Times, distance, tires... They measure everything.
So you've got to ask yourself as a roofing company owner, are you measuring everything, anything or nothing? Because if you're not measuring things and it takes a system, a CRM of some type to do that, then you're never going to scale your company, and you're never going to be truly successful. You just have to get into a system.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yup. Yes. That is so smart. I think there's so many contractors out there who, as they've had to change things... Even before COVID but then especially with COVID. How are you changing? How are you doing things different? Measuring and knowing what is actually happening, where you're at, is so critical for that.
One of the things that, Chuck, I would like to just kind of talk about one more time is the online office. Because I think it's just so awesome. I love this concept of providing...
If there are contractors out there, or there are roofing professionals out there, who are just like, "I just want to roof. I just want to run a crew. I just want to roof. I don't want to deal with all of the office stuff." You can provide that.
Go back to that one more time, because I just think that's important for everyone out there to know about.

Chuck Magee:
Well, yeah, you can literally be a one-man show, and bring us into the mix, and you can actually just walk into your office and it would be like walking into an office with an advanced office manager. Somebody that's answering the phones, somebody that's sitting there that is helping your sales team move pictures and contracts and scopes and supplements around.
So it would literally be like walking into a room and instantly having trained staff there. And you never hear, "I can't make it tomorrow," or whatever the case may be.
SSA is the first thing that gets in there. So we use that, and then we just basically just take control of the company for the owner, and they can be out there selling and dealing with production and they just don't have to worry about what's going on at the office.
Because one of the biggest things that I found early on with dealing with roofing contractors is they were pretty good, to really good, at selling jobs and dealing with homeowners and making homeowners happy. But they were not really good at handling the backend of the business.
And the backend of a roofing company is what will bust you wide open. If you're not watching your money, if you're not watching your production, your materials, your material returns. These are the things that will just absolutely bust you wide open.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. And to have somebody there, who you can trust, and who is on a contract basis, what a great idea. I mean, that makes so much sense to me.

Chuck Magee:
Well, instead of going into the office... I mean, I got a contractor, he went to the office every day, 5:00, 6:00. He wasn't getting out of there until 10:00 at night.
Now he can go home, have supper, sit down, open up his phone, pull up SSA, and he can look at what... We call it, check my vitals. And within 90 seconds you can see exactly where all of your money is.
You can see how much money you've got in the ready, how much money you've got in invoiced, how much money you've got in supplement. You know, just sit down and see what's going on instead of actually having to physically do everything.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. That is cool. The fact that it's on the phone, it's on a laptop. And also I love that bringing balance to your life too, not from 5:00 until 10:00 at night. I have a small business too. I understand that. And it's hard when you are trying to put all that together.
So, Chuck, tell everybody out there, how do they get ahold of you? How can they start down this path, if they're either interested in incorporating the processes with the SSA, with the CRM, the project management, the marketing, or going even the further way of really a full online office.

Chuck Magee:
Yeah. They can just look me up. I'm pretty easy to find online. You can look me up, Chuck Magee, or Raise the Rank or even SSA.
And you can message me through any of the platforms. You can message us through our Facebook platform, Vickie handles all that. You can just message me any way you want. It's chuck@raisetherank.com.
We give away a ton of information, especially when it comes to things like Google My Business, and things that, for me, are the heartbeat of a company. That's how we get introduced to so many people is, first and foremost, we want to help and educate. And if we can swing around and pick up a client at some point in the future after that, that's great. So yeah, SSA, Raise the Rank, and chuck@raisetherank.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That's awesome. And you can find all this information on SSA on RoofersCoffeeShop, because they have a full directory. We're putting out your podcast. We have different videos.
So if you're sitting out there and you're kind of like, "You know, this sounds too good to be true," you can actually go and see what other contractors are doing, and how this has really changed their lives and their businesses.
By incorporating this technology in a little bit of an easier way, then I think going all by yourself, you're able to really look at a full system with people, the whole back office, to help you.
Chuck, any last words for the contractors on some of the things they should be doing right now as they're going into season.

Chuck Magee:
You're getting close to storm season, so the biggest piece of advice I can give is, get a system, whether it's mine or somebody else's, but get in the system, and work your Google My Business, because that is the future of your company. And also this, you can build a successful company off of Google reviews.
Those are the things that you need to be focused on. If you don't focus on anything else, focus on those things.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. Google My Business and Google reviews. And watch out in May. [crosstalk 00:24:18] Okay.

Chuck Magee:
I can tell you in my world, the earth is going to shake in May. I can tell you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Oh, my. Okay. That means our world too. Okay, we're ready. We'll be calling you, Chuck.

Chuck Magee:
Sounds good.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, thank you so much. This has been so much fun. I want to do this again. In fact, maybe let's do this after May, and let's just do a whole half hour talking about what happened and what's happening. [crosstalk 00:24:46]

Chuck Magee:
[crosstalk 00:24:47] That sounds fun, because all you got to do is look in Google Search Console and start watching your traffic, and see what's going on.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to be watching it. I watch it every single day. So we'll be definitely there, let me tell you.
Well, Chuck, thank you again. Thank you for your time, your wisdom, and for really putting things together that make a difference in roofing contractors' and roofing companies' businesses. We appreciate you, and I know the industry does too. Thank you.

Chuck Magee:
Sounds great. It was my pleasure being here. Thanks for asking me.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you, and we'll see you again after May to talk about that Google stuff.

Chuck Magee:
Sounds fine.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Everyone out there, thank you so much for being a part of this podcast today. Roofing Road Trips is a part of the RLW, Read Listen Watch, section of RoofersCoffeeShop. That's where you can get your information how you want it, when you want it, and the way you want it.
All of these podcasts, please subscribe to your favorite podcast channel and find all of the great educational information on RoofersCoffeeShop. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1:
Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.