HER Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Jana Zavala from H.E.R. Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Hi, my name is Megan Ellsworth here rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I am back again for a Roofer of the Month podcast. I am so excited to introduce Jana Zavala here and she is our Roofer of the Month for the RoofersCoffeeShop R-Club. Hi Jana, how are you doing?

Jana Zavala: Hi. Hi there. I'm great. How is everyone out there doing?

Megan Ellsworth: I hope you're doing well. So, let's just start out by having you introduce yourself and tell us about your company, how you started it and all that good stuff.

Jana Zavala: Yeah. Well, I'm Jana Zavala. I started HER Roofing company, on my fourth year now. I've been in the roofing industry since the late '90s, right around 96 is when I entered into distribution. Then from distribution, I went into manufacturing. I was in manufacturing for a very long time. Had worked for a couple of major roofing companies, GAF and Malarkey, was a regional manager and a national trainer. And then I decided the last thing I haven't done was contracting, so I went ahead and opened up my company and started in contracting. And one of the things a lot of people asked me is how did I end up in here? I don't have a brother, a dad, a boyfriend, a husband, I don't have anybody in the roofing industry. I did this all on my own. And I think it's important to foster other women getting into the roofing industry.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, exactly. That is so amazing. I love it. Okay, so what kind of services does your company provide? Do you guys have a specialty?

Jana Zavala: Yes. So, we're a hundred percent residential. We do residential re-roofs, of course, roof repair. We do maintenance as well as gutters. And we do installations as well as ventilation, and we actually get called out for quite a bit of houses that need ventilation, added in ventilation as well as skylights. So, these are all things that are more retrofitted for the residential homeowner, and we really specialize for the residential side of business.

Megan Ellsworth: Very cool. That's fabulous. I love a skylight. Who doesn't? This is my favorite part of the interview and it is share something special that your company celebrates.

Jana Zavala: Yeah. So, the whole thing around my company is HER stands for honesty, equality, and respect, and that's very important to us. It's our core values as a company, we do celebrate it and talk about it. It's important that our customers feel comfortable in coming to us and having the conversations that we need to have and addressing any issues that they have in their home. And we're all about following those three steps all the way from when the phone call comes in to the end when we're closing out a job. It's very important for everyone at the company. We really strive on the equality and inclusivity, and of course the honesty and respect is very important.

Megan Ellsworth: I didn't know that's what HER stood for. That's so awesome. I love that. So, how do you all define superior customer service?

Jana Zavala: Well, the customer service happens right from the very beginning when the phone call comes in. And with technology these days, people want to be able to decide when they're at home after dinner that they need to get a new roof estimate. So, they hop on a website, they fill out a form, we get back to them and we can call them, we can text them. Everything is in a file. We actually have a CRM system as well as the photo, so everything is in the file from the touch of when we first go out for the first estimate to, let's say, two years down the road when they decide to finally do their roof. I think that's really important, having that resource for the customers.

I get told many, many times that they love to see the final result, the pictures and everything that we have regarding their overall project. Because it's not just a re-roof job, it's their home, and they would like to see the whole progress and everything that's involved. And being able to reach out to somebody and talk to somebody live if they want to or text them because everyone has a busy life these days.

Megan Ellsworth: So true. And that is such a vital aspect of customer service, just being the customer's friend almost, walking them through the process. That's so true. Piggybacking off of that, why should homeowners work with your company?

Jana Zavala: Again, going back to the communication, that is huge, but with our staff. We may not be able to do every job that we look at. Let's say we get called out because they have a roofing repair and ends up being a leak around a chimney. Well, we're not mason's, so we will refer them to somebody who is reputable, that other customers have used in the past. We feel that we want to be a resource to our customers. They do reach out to us and ask us questions and ask for guidance for other contractors. Well, we feel that it's an important part of the whole system when a customer calls us from the beginning to end, that we aren't just able to repair and do roofing, but we are looked at as a resource.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's great. So true. Thank you so much for being an R-Club member, and congratulations on being Roofer of the Month. We love HER Roofing and are really honored to be celebrating you all. So, congratulations.

Jana Zavala: Thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time interviewing me, I really appreciate that. And I love everything that you guys are doing out there. And I'm excited to... Hopefully going to see you at the IRE.