Manage Your Roofing Business Online - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Gabriela Fornino from Beacon. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Hello everybody, and welcome to this RLW, Read Listen Watch from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name's Karen Edwards, and today we are welcoming Gabby Fornino from Beacon Building Products and we're going to be talking all about managing your business online. But before we get into today's topic, just a little bit of housekeeping. This is being recorded, and it will be available on our website usually within 48 hours. So, if you're watching today and you've taken away some nuggets or some valuable information and you want to share it with others, you can find it on Rooferscoffeeshop.com under the Read Listen Watch menu. Also, we're going to go through the presentation. We will have a demo at one point, and then we are going to have a question and answer period at the end.

So, feel free to either submit your questions using the Q&A feature or the chat. The chat is open, everyone can talk to everyone. If you want to tell us where you're from, say hi, that's fine as well. We'll be keeping an eye on that as we go, but we will save those questions and comments for the end. All right, so let's dive in. Gabby, could you just tell us a little bit about you, your background and what you do there for Beacon?

Gabriela Fornino: Absolutely, and thanks Karen so much for having me on today. I'm our eCommerce change manager over on the Beacon team. I've been with Beacon for five years, previously working directly with the field and contractors on the use of Beacon Pro+. So, our team has advanced a lot lately. I'm based in the Chicago area now, and am able to talk to folks from all over Beacon and all over the country about Beacon Pro+ and other eCommerce tools that they like to use in their day-to-day. So, being hubbed under the marketing team, we're able to help our sales team's marketing team and all the contractors understand how much introducing some technology can actually help them save time and stay organized with their day-to-day.

Karen Edwards: I think it's really interesting that in your title is the word change, and we didn't really chat about that too much, but I'm curious, there's always intent and purpose behind what someone's role is called. And maybe you could just touch on why the word change is so important in your role

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, when you're thinking about the scope of technology to, we see it in our day to day lives even outside of the industry and how often things are changed. So, there's updates to things we're currently using. New features, and tools that we're constantly using. There's changes in the ways that everyone might be running, or handling their business. So, just introducing that in a way that's easily understood and actually captures attention and with changes, being able to allow room for feedback and commentary and suggestions so that way it gets developed really specifically for contractor and Pro+ user needs versus just natural assumptions or kind of taking a route that wouldn't be as helpful or beneficial to those that are using it. So, a lot of change that we see all the time. We know that change can be difficult. There's a lot of hesitation towards change in any form. So, just being able to create awareness surrounding that process and then bring in knowledge pieces to help ease that through.

Karen Edwards: I love it. You are the manager that is going to help that change process be easy, right?

Gabriela Fornino: Try my best.

Karen Edwards: All right. So, Beacon Pro+, maybe you can give us a little bit of history. How long has it been around? What was the impetus behind it, and a little bit about the current program.

Gabriela Fornino: So, Pro+ had kicked off and launched in 2017. It had been around with just a few building pieces in there, a few tools and resources and then there was some great additions that we had seen in 2018 that really established Pro+ as a full robust site that we wanted to get the word out and spread to anyone who participates and does business with Beacon. There's no cost associated with it, so it's really easy for anyone who wants to get involved and have access to the site with a Beacon account to be able to get in there. So, the idea was we saw little areas where there was groups of Beacon team members and teams that weren't currently using any system to manage their business or wanted to, but it was just kind of out of their price range or maybe they felt that their team wasn't large enough to have some sort of management system that they were using regularly.

So, this was to really offer and help anyone who does business with Beacon self-service and find details about their account in real time 24/7, whenever they wanted the opportunity to do that. So, it was definitely a little niche at first and has expanded widely again based off of suggestions and things that Pro+ users actually want to see versus what we just assume people need to use in their day-to-day that take away some of the difficult aspects of the day or kind of the constant need to call in or find information that might be hard to reach or hard to find. We just want to make it as easily accessible as we can for any Pro+ user

Karen Edwards: Yeah, accessibility is so important. I think that when we have a conversation about technology, technology is an everyday part of our lives. Not always in our business, but personally even, we're shopping on our phones, we're ordering rides and food deliveries and whatnot, but the use of technology should always be to address an issue, a challenge, solve a problem. And I always like to hear that contractors are trying a technology not because they think, "Gosh, I need to use technology", but because they're looking at their businesses and saying, "What do I need help with? What do I need to be able to do?" And it sounds like Pro+ is giving them that opportunity to overcome some of those challenges that they may be having no matter the size of their business, right?

Gabriela Fornino: Absolutely. And we're really hoping that it can help contractors to achieve their own goals with their own business by being able to implement this, and save them time to have in other aspects of their business that they want to focus on a little more heavily just by having this in their pocket whenever they need.

Karen Edwards: In their pocket, literally. Yeah. So, let's talk about it. Why is eCommerce so important?

Gabriela Fornino: So, since this is, we have a desktop version of a site, a mobile app available as well that anyone can take with them 24/7 on the go. So, for those who like to rise early and get started first thing in the day or work late into the night, especially within busy season, it's just really important to be able to have that access, right? We have wonderful points of contact at Beacon, and relationships with contractors that we've had for many years and they just get stronger by the day, but to be able to really have that as a self-service option in real time without having to wait for a call back or email back is just phenomenal. So, it really fits the mold in whatever organizational need a specific user might have. We have customized pricing on the system. It's unique to every single account, so everyone's seeing in real time their own account information, able to get customized pricing through quotes.

We see quick speed on here, able to get orders through a little more quickly than maybe they normally would or again, just to locate information about their previous orders or deliveries that they're wanting to know about. And just in general satisfaction from both ends, right on the Beacon team and on the user side of things, it's just really helping grow that relationship even more. Oftentimes, I think people see technology sometimes as a way to avoid human interaction or actually kind of get rid of that in-between step. And this is not to diminish any relationship someone has, or the face behind the screens. It is just to be a useful resource, and tool in those moments when you want to utilize it. So, I think that's really great, too, to not completely think that this is overriding our actual team.

Karen Edwards: Right. It's just making it easier, and more accessible. And I just want to reemphasize the speed you mentioned on the Beacon side, on the contractor side, but also on that end user side, whether that's the homeowner, a building owner, because we live in an age of instant information. I look something up online, and I need to know what it costs, where it is, how I'm going to get it, all that information. So, by having this tool, it's going to allow the contractors to be able to be more responsive to their end customer, right?

Gabriela Fornino: Exactly. So, not only the speed in which they want to find information for themselves, but they may need to share to other parties as well. It's all at their fingertips. So, I think that's very exciting.

Karen Edwards: Okay, so let's talk about some of the critical services that are included in the Pro+.

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, absolutely. And after we kind of talk through these, I'd love to show an example of a couple live on the site here. So, definitely our catalog. So, the Pro+ catalog allows you to search products available in your market, which is amazing that way if you're an East Coast customer, you're not seeing things that you're not going to need to purchase available on the West Coast. So, very centric to your area, so you're only finding what you want along with the resources involved with that, right? So, install instructions, brochures, other specs and documents that we offer. I can be specific to those market products. Pricing, so, I kind of touched on how each Pro+ account is unique to the person logged into it. It'll be tied to all of that person's unique pricing, and information, order details, quote information rebate signups, whatever that might be will be specific to the user.

So, being able to grab that real-time pricing, especially if someone's out there doing a project with a material that maybe they haven't used for a couple seasons or don't have quite regularly or just looking for an instant idea of material costs right off the bat. Having the actual, and specific account pricing uploaded on there is something that's really great and flows into other systems, which we'll talk about. And then those templates for fast ordering, so we know how common it is and we think about our day-to-day lives. Again, just our quick grocery list, we always have those staple items. The same with our material orders for roofing that we have our checklist that we always run through. We're able to replicate that. If someone has an existing order sheet that they like to use, or checklist they like to use, we'll put it right in the system.

Or custom templates can be created if there's kind of no structure to what someone's currently using, but that way they can pinpoint the materials that are their favorite that they're purchasing the most to make simple edits for quick ordering and not have to individually search items piece by piece. And then, again, be linked towards those items with the correct pricing and what's actually going to be fulfilled and completed on their orders. So, the templates are awesome. You think about an Amazon wishlist, or again, something with a store just checking off, it's just a no-brainer. And then we have our order history tool so we can see all submitted orders within a window. You could see returns that were made, account credits and look back at all the details, all the little intricate notes that were linked to an order, be able to download information about those previous orders with or without pricing.

So, it's easily to capture those sheets of materials or what was included on a project to share with whomever when pricing isn't listed on there. So, that's really great and a lot of people tend to first step into order history when looking into features on the site just to kind of recapture and again see their specific account info. And then our delivery tracking. That was one of the components as I mentioned when we first kicked off with Pro+, and then shortly after really advanced was some great new features we were excited for. We know how difficult it is for contractors to keep track of where their material is at all times. We have multiple projects going on at once. We have packed days, we have multiple people out on the ground at these job sites. So, for key points of contact to know when their materials have actually arrived just takes a weight off most people's shoulders.

So, having delivery tracking to get notified about different order statuses in our system and in different methods is really great. We can notify you just with a push notification to your home screen, send you a nice email about it, text you whatever's best fit. So, again, we want to provide all options since we know everyone runs their business a little differently. Some people prefer to spend more time mobily on the desktop instead. So, whatever they see fit and actually fits the mold of who needs to figure out where materials are kind of all lumps into the delivery tracking there.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, so it's one thing to talk about all of these things and try to imagine it in my head, but it's even better if I can see it. And you're going to give us a little sneak peek, right?

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with you here.

Karen Edwards: All right, I think I stopped sharing.

Gabriela Fornino: Wonderful. So, this is a glimpse into the Pro+ site, the landing page on desktop, our home screen on here. You'll see a lot of the tools, and features that we have right here in face value for what contractors see as soon as they log in. Different avenues, and options that you can choose from. I had mentioned a little bit about our order history. So, we have our orders option, which will show any orders that are in the pipeline along with submitted orders, down here with orders, and you can see if they're ready for delivery or pickup. You can see negatives for returns here, and you can actually look through all the details,and even search through your order history, which is great. We have a ton of people who have multiple pages worth of orders that are kind of hard to dig through. So, you can search through your order history just by a simple PO number, the street name from a delivery, your order number, whatever that might be, date or date range for the order to pinpoint and find what you're looking for to pull up the details on there.

So, we love the order history. Again, this is widely used and most people tend to click into this as soon as they're visiting the site. If we're back on the main screen, you'll also notice we have our templates up here. So, those order sheets that were mentioned to actually see lists of materials that can be built out and named however a user sees fit. Do you want to name it out by a manufacturer, and shingle type or maybe commercial manufacturer and the system type, whatever that might be to actually click in on, see some different options here and be able to find a list of materials that you like to use the most. We have them segmented out by category so it's easy to find, and add other options and materials here that you want to use on your order sheet in the future. And then just some simple edits that can be created into a quote, or an order online to submit to the Beacon team and have in the system and start to get scheduled.

So, these are what our templates are like here and again, very customizable to every user. We want it to fit the same order process, and materials that you're using regularly on a checklist that might already exist. And then we have our product detail pages. So, we have a search function at the top of the screen. We also have a browse category area where you can start filtering out, and browsing by specific categories for items. But for today's purpose, I'll go ahead and pull up a tribal item here. Let's maybe look for some starter. If we click in on an item, we're brought to a product detail page where you can do a lot of great functions by adding this item to a future template order sheet, getting a quote on it for unique pricing, adding it to a cart to purchase.

We have some related items listed out, and then we have product details and specs listed for items in the system as well. So, if you're looking for quick data sheets, stall instructions, brochures, warranty information, it's a one-stop shop where you can search through our entire catalog, different manufacturer brands and find those linked documents that you might be searching for.

Karen Edwards: Wow, that's a lot of stuff in there. And I want to ask the question, I know we've got some more to talk about, but what's the learning curve like and what does that support look like? Because you use this a lot, right? You work with contractors every day, and you're going really fast. So, for somebody like me who's seeing this for the first time, I'm like, "Wow, this looks great", but how long is that going to take me to figure out and what does that process look like?

Gabriela Fornino: Absolutely. So, we like to keep it simple. We like to keep it as straightforward as possible. If you're used to paying any bill online, or accessing any online retailer, you shouldn't have any issues or hesitations with using Pro+ that will never steer you down an incorrect avenue. It's really straightforward with the taglines here. So, the Beacon rep in your area can go ahead and offer you support, and information and show you how to use this. We have digital sales support in some areas for one-on-one demos. We have a Pro+ specific customer support, and customer service team that can be reached by chat on the website. And just for fun here, I'll start it off that you can reach out and it is a live team for help. It's not AI-

Karen Edwards: It's not a [inaudible 00:17:40] bot?

Gabriela Fornino: ...it's someone that'll actually answer, and be able to have a discussion with you if you have any questions about navigating and using the site. We have a live demo series that takes place on Mondays, and we also offer a Beacon Pro+ office hours every Friday Roundtable that anyone can join to come and ask questions. So, if anyone is interested in that, please reach out to your Beacon rep or local Beacon team letting them know you'd like to participate and get some information on how to use Pro+, we always have opportunities to get demos and instructions specific to which features and tools you'd like to use the most.

Karen Edwards: So, you're probably very involved in those office hours on Fridays and working with the customers. I'm just curious, what are some of the things that you're hearing or maybe that there are questions about or is this an opportunity where you find out new features that people might want?

Gabriela Fornino: It's a little bit of everything. We like to do some announcements about things that might be coming soon. We like to show, and do walkthroughs of the major aspects, which would be the online ordering, making sure to get set up for delivery tracking and things like that. If any questions people have, it's about things that they have suggestion wise. So, we are always taking into consideration what people think could be helpful and might be coming up next, whether that's a simple addition of a button within a tool or feature or a partnership that they're looking to have. So, any questions that come up or a lot of people do just have questions simply about, I'm looking to get someone set up as a user or I'm looking to make adjustments to my delivery tracking settings and I want to make sure I don't mess up what I'm currently getting.

Pretty straightforward tasks, and we're able to do some walkthroughs and run throughs just to ensure that everyone, that they're not making any mistakes or there's anything incorrect going on in their account and they can just accomplish what they're looking to do as quickly as possible. As you scroll down through the page two, there's a ton of resources at the bottom that give more information and details about all of the different features that we provide. So, we're always welcoming everyone to join any of these meetings to get some tutorials on there. But as far as questions that make it seem too difficult, I've never had a question that has gone unanswered or we haven't been able to accomplish a task yet. So, I invite everyone to join and challenge me on that. I would love to have one that we run into, or maybe a new feature that needs to be implemented to accomplish a goal.

Karen Edwards: Be careful what you put out there because someone's going to take you up on that.

Gabriela Fornino: I'm ready.

Karen Edwards: All right, so if you're done sharing, I am going to take back and put my screen back up here. Okay. Let me know if you can see.

Gabriela Fornino: I see it.

Karen Edwards: Awesome. All right, so I want to talk a little bit about, we talked about the critical services and now we've got some of the additional features. Can you tell us about that? The bonus stuff, right?

Gabriela Fornino: Totally. Yeah. So, these are other features that are really helpful. Some people do get involved in, and use day to day. They were all brought along with suggestions, and that we had feedback from Pro+ users that would be great to see in there. So, we do have a quick link to our online bill payment portal. That way without having to bounce around too many different websites, you can straight link into the bill payment site, schedule payments, download invoices, whatever you might need. We have storm support carved out with two partnerships. Our Beacon Storm plus map has two years worth of information powered by a really great storm reporting company there. You're able to kind of lead generate from our Beacon storm maps, too. It'll show properties in storm areas, have a lot of downloadable information that goes back again two years in history if you need to provide to an insurance company or property owner, whoever that might be about previous storms.

And we also have a partnership with HailTrace. So, we have a wonderful HailTrace powered map available on the site as well where you can actually see order overlay onto a storm map. So, you're able to see where a storm had hit recently, download and have all the details about the storm information, but then also overlap with your order history. That way you can reach out to property owners where you've done installs before, see if they need any repairs or if there's any need to check on them and just provide that extra customer service that you might be looking to expand on for your organization.

Karen Edwards: Is that included? There's no additional calls for the storm, and the hail reports, because I know that a lot of contractors pay for that.

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, it is included. So, if you have your Pro+ login, you're able to use those tools, your team and anyone else who's set up under your organization's account number is able to use those tools as well. So, really nice and again, not having to leave the system, have multiple tabs and windows open on your computer or phone, just kind of a one-stop shop for those needs.

Karen Edwards: Excellent.

Gabriela Fornino: We have our smart order tool powered by EagleView. I know there had been a wonderful RLW on that feature as well. So, our partnership with EagleView allows users to order measurement reports directly through Pro+ and then create a smart order off of it that will actually automatically create quantities for your order sheet. So, you use them with the templates that we have created for you, have those automatically populated quantities in the system so that way you're not having to do any math about how much of each item you need for your order and can get those POs submitted in just a few clicks. So, that's really exciting for those measurement reports on there and some unique custom pricing for those reports as well. We have another measurement tool partnership, which is our newest measurement tool partnership we have on the site with GAF QuickMeasure to order GAF QuickMeasure reports through Pro+ as well.

So, that's really great. And then we have our quoting tool. So, for project quoting, really great for commercial contractors, multi-family projects, any unique items you might be purchasing online. We want to make sure that everyone, any line of business is able to get into Pro+ and find a tool that they like and they're able to use regularly and have a strong resource in. So, this quoting option is great for all lines of business. If you're looking for unique, or customized pricing for items that you're not currently purchasing, you don't have on your normal price page or maybe a larger project that you're looking for that information on so that the Beacon team can get you some pricing on your project so you can keep track of it through and through, download information on it, make adjustments where you see fit and even just approve it into an order when you're actually ready to get it scheduled for a shipment or pickup.

Karen Edwards: Okay. And we talked a little bit about some integrations here with GAF, and Eagleview, so I'm glad we have this slide in here because earlier when we were talking about this, I'm thinking how many contractors are using Beacon Pro+ along with other platforms that they're using to manage their business, because it doesn't seem that we're ever going to be at the point where there's one magic solution and everybody has to work together. So, maybe you can talk a little bit about not only these integrations, but how you see contractors managing using Pro+ and their other tools.

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, it's absolutely not a one size fits all. We are knowing, and can see that there's different aspects of Pro+ itself or our integrations that all different size and lines of business contractors like to utilize. So, having these integration partners that are listed here, Leap, Roofle, Roofr, JobNimbus, Hover, AccuLynx and we do have some more coming soon this year in 2025. So, if you don't hear a CRM system that you're currently using on the list, keep your eyes peeled, it may be coming soon. But I think it's really important that we can meet everybody where they're already at. We don't want to have a heavy lifting ask of having to learn a whole new website if we already integrate with the system that you're using. We want to make sure that you can already pull over your pricing, and your unique templates and material order sheets directly linked with our Beacon catalog and your Beacon pricing, because there's no need, right?

We want to keep it simple. If you've already taken the time to learn one of these CRM systems, and are using it day to day, to my point of not having a million screens or tabs open, if you want to live in the system that you're already using, by all means we want to help you get there and be able to do that by turning on and enabling these integrations and seeing a Beacon button to use from in all of your Beacon details. So, I think it's really helpful, again, for teams that have multiple users getting involved in technology and every organization is different but may have a system impact of who's responsible for what daily task. And I think that using these CRM systems becomes really helpful for them to dig out individual roles within their organization, and responsibilities. So, we just want to follow suit with that and not having to have your team relearn a whole system or again, change someone's roles and responsibilities based off of what they have access to online.

So, be able to create those integrations and just meet everyone where they're already at has been wonderful. And again, we're all ears into anyone else and the other CRM systems that anyone else might be using that you would see that an integration or a Beacon button in there could be really helpful. So, it's something that most people when they are comfortable and really like the CRM system that they're working in, which all of our partners are incredible, their technology is amazing and always changing and advancing, too. We try to follow suit so that way the integration can align with other new advances that are happening in the CRM system just to make it one efficient system with someone's process from start to finish with a job.

Karen Edwards: Talk a little bit about the levels of security maybe, or permissions might be the right word, because you might not want everyone in your organization to have access to all that information. How does that work?

Gabriela Fornino: So, on Pro+ specifically, we do offer user administration where you can change and customize permissions for every user listed, whether that be adjustments to who can see pricing, who can place orders, any function that you're able to create quotes or anything like that, you can customize who has permission to what. So, we like to see those follow suit into integration partners as best we can. Sometimes the permissions have to be customized, and adjusted within the CRM system themselves, but you can always make updates in Pro+, too, that in most cases should follow over and if not, we're able to get you with one of our wonderful partner reps to help you kind of organize that so it's most efficient and someone's only seeing information that's necessary to their role.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Okay. Now, last week we were at the International Roofing Expo in San Antonio and the Beacon Booth just had so much activity. Were you there, Gabby?

Gabriela Fornino: I was there, and it was great time and it was so fun seeing everyone and talking to everyone. But yes, we had some amazing giveaways happening and for a good reason.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Yeah. So, I know it was a buzz and we're going to move on and talk about some of those promotions and incentives because you want to make it fun, you want to make it so that contractors are getting something back by participating and using it and then helping them at the same time. So, maybe you could talk and this is the current one that you have right now that runs through March 31st, but I know you do these all the time. So, let's talk about this one right now.

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, we have a bunch of different digital promotions that we offer typically seasonally through Beacon. We even have integration for digital that we offer sometimes specifically. So, keep your eyes peeled and if you're interested in learning more about them, let your Beacon rep know so they can get you on a mailing list for it to hear all about it. But really great at IRE, we were giving away some customized belt buckles for those that would register and sign up for our current promotion Beacon Bonanza. It's really great that it is able to be used by existing Pro+ users. So, we have some contractors that have been on Pro+ for years and years. We still want to allow everyone the opportunity to win, and earn something. And then we have some unique offers for first-time purchasers as well. But this has to do with orders that are placed through Beacon Pro+ for one of our integration partner softwares to earn some grand prizes, and then even potentially a gift card, which I think we have some more details.

But it's just really nice to again, have all hands on deck, have something to look forward to for making those purchases online, which some people are already in the flow, but maybe this is what it's going to take. You see something you might want to earn, or work towards here. And once you start getting involved with Pro+, or one of the other software integration partners, you realize how beneficial it can be and see the time that gets saved and decide you might want to do this moving forward and be able to take advantage of the future promotions we roll out as well. So, we hear a lot of great feedback and we're always looking into prizes that are actually exciting and people want to earn. So, we gain a lot of feedback on that as well.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, so for anyone who might be listening to this after the fact and not watching and seeing the slides, this Beacon Bonanza, the current one is you could win a trip to the 2025 CMA Music Festival. So, that's pretty exciting. And I really like the fact that it's open to existing users, because there's nothing worse than seeing a promo for a cell phone plan or a bank thing and it's like, "Oh, new users only." And that's so disappointing.

Gabriela Fornino: Right. The fine print, sometimes you can get so into it or even start working all the way towards it and at the end be like, I didn't even achieve it, I couldn't [inaudible 00:31:47] that.

Karen Edwards: All right. But we do have stuff for first time orders too, and you mentioned it earlier, but maybe get specific.

Gabriela Fornino: Absolutely. So, with Beacon Bonanza, this is leaning towards our residential contractors. You can get an entry into the grand prize giveaway for every order, $2,000 or more spent digitally with us. So, one order, $2,000 or more equates to one entry into the grand prize drawing, which is that trip package to the CMA Music Festival. We're giving away 15 trip packages actually.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Gabriela Fornino: So, you can bring a guest and have this whole trip to the CMA's really exciting. I know we have a ton of country music fans out there. And if you were at IRI then you can wear your Beacon belt to the CMA's [inaudible 00:32:32].

Karen Edwards: That's right.

Gabriela Fornino: But we also have our first Pro+ order bonus. So, if you haven't participated or have been in using digital at all since before last year even, you can get involved again for every five orders that are put on there, that would qualify for the first Pro+ order bonus. So, five entries into the grand prize giveaway, meaning five orders, $2,000 or more, placed digitally through Pro+ or an integration software partner, you can earn a thousand dollars e-Visa gift card. So, it'll get sent to your email. Just have to be a first time user, and make those five qualifying entries. And you also get the entries into the trip package, too. So, even if you're taking advantage of this first Pro+ or a bonus, you can also have a chance to win with your entries into the trip package giveaway. So, kind of a double dunk there.

Karen Edwards: Right, right. Yeah, that's fantastic. And so this is just a summary here. You have 15 grand prizes to the CMA Music Festival, thousand dollars Visa e-cards, so it's lots of fun.

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah.

Karen Edwards: Okay. How do you get signed up for it?

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, absolutely. We do have a landing page go.becn.com/bonanza. If you're on any of our email threads, or change, there should be links in announcements for it, too or reach out to your local Beacon rep for more information. We have some great flyers going around, but once you get to that link to landing page, it's very simple. Just register with your contact information, and then feel free to join our demo series on Mondays. They take place at 11:00 AM Eastern Time, and then our Pro+ office hour series every Friday at noon Eastern Time where you can come and either just watch a complete demo of the site to learn how to place an order online.

To qualify towards this promotion, or within our office hours, you can just ask questions about the process if you think you have it down or just questions about the promotion that we have in general or reach out to your Beacon Rep, they should be able to help you. If you need someone to sit with you, click through on the computer, ask questions to face-to-face, should be able to get your Beacon Rep in the area involved to show you the best route in doing so. So, very simple, fill out your contact information on our registration page and begin placing those orders. Again, this runs through March 31st, so anything ordered within the next month, will count towards this so everyone's able to earn those entries and those gift cards for the first time users.

Karen Edwards: We mentioned earlier about not eliminating the human factor, and the relationship and the face behind Beacon and your rep and I think there's a graphic on the screen right now and it says "All online orders triple-checked by your local rep." And I just wanted to point that out because yes, it's technology. Yes, it's easy, convenient, fast, it's on your phone, it's on your computer, but there's a real person back there who may go, "That's not a normal order for this customer and I need to raise a flag and reach out about that." Right?

Gabriela Fornino: Definitely. So, we know that order accuracy is a concern no matter how you're placing your order. And we know that doing things quickly online on the phone, to your point, maybe you just had a wrong color match, maybe you just typed a hundred when you meant to type 10. It happens. We see it happen in our day-to-day. We might be ordering clothing online, or a food order online and you forget to take off the tomatoes.

Well, we're there to help you out with that. Whenever you place an order online through Pro+, or an integration software partner to Beacon, you'll get a kickback email with information and details about the order that replaced and it becomes available in your order history immediately. Your assigned Beacon rep in your area will get a kickback email, and everyone at the branch or your Beacon location near you, everyone on the team inside gets an email when you place that order and all of the information you have on the order, any notes you list are also seen by our warehouse team members who are viewing your order as they're picking your tickets.

And then our drivers that are bringing those orders to the job site. So, triple check on there, we are looking for any little things that might need to be adjusted. We have eyes on anything that might be abnormal. Many people, we know the flow of their orders already. We know what to expect. And when we see something a little bit off, there's still that communication. There's still that phone call, or that email, whatever your point of contact preference is to reach out and say, "Did you mean to do this? Would you like me to switch this color?" Or maybe you have some requests to rearrangements you need to make to your order after it's actually placed. We are all ears. We want that communication. Please feel free to still reach out to us to make adjustments before it's delivered, or you come to pick that up. So, a lot of eyes on it, that triple check guarantee there with the local team that you're used to working with and talking to all the time.

Karen Edwards: Right. It's just a way for you to connect with that local team a little bit faster, and maybe at an off time, right? Because you might be up late working, or up really early working and no one would answer that phone, but you can get the process started for sure. So, we will open it up for questions if anybody has anything. I did check the chat, and the Q&A and a and I have not seen any come in, but while we give people a minute to see if they have any, just can you restate it sounds like your Beacon local rep is the best place to start with questions, but you mentioned Friday office hours and then you mentioned something else. Was it on a Monday?

Gabriela Fornino: Yeah, Monday. So, Mondays through Beacon Bonanza, we'll have a live demo series. You can get registered to join, and come and actually see a walkthrough tutorial of all the major features on Pro+, see how an order's placed, ask questions there as well. So, we want to have one tutorial walkthrough session weekly and then also open it up for all those questions in our Roundtable office hours. So, Mondays through Beacon Bonanza, again, we want to keep it simple. We want to make sure, right? I want to take advantage of this promotion, but I don't know how or I'm not quite comfortable with the system yet or I've used it before and some things may have changed. Join. Let us know. Let us know what you'd like to see. That way we can just do a walkthrough point, click. The site navigation is extremely easy, and I know many people get started and are able to go off on their own and just order immediately without any tutorial.

But I know this is your orders that you're getting placed. You don't want to have any hesitations. You want to make sure everything's accurate so it gets scheduled, and goes out properly. So, come join us. We'll do walkthroughs of everything. There might be some tips, and tricks and even little features that you aren't even aware of, some hidden gems in there that we can uncover. So, Monday. So, reach out to your Beacon team, your local, Beacon rep, the office that you normally call, let them know you're interested in getting started on Pro+, getting started to join our office hours or our live demo series on Mondays.

Karen Edwards: And this is all free, right? There's no charge for the contractor to download [inaudible 00:39:35] the app?

Gabriela Fornino: ...associated with it. We just wanted to be seen as beneficial. I know some people may see some tools, and features and resources on the site that they don't use regularly, but I'm confident that there's something on the site that anyone is able to take advantage of, whether it's for themselves or for their team that they're taking it back to and want to get someone else set up to actually take advantage of. So, no cost associated, we're just looking to help save everybody some time and get their questions answered immediately in the sense of getting their order information, pricing information right at their fingertips. So, anything we can do to help your business grow with the technology that we offer, our eCommerce offerings, just hope that everyone can see some value to.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah, I think it's great that this is a service that you're providing because everybody wants to be accurate. Nobody wants mistakes, nobody wants callbacks, nobody wants wrong order quantities. So, the more we can rely on technology to get that right for us, I think the better. And Gabby, I just want to thank you for being here today and sharing all about Beacon Pro+ and what it can do to help contractors run their businesses digitally. Thank you.

Gabriela Fornino: No, thanks so much for inviting me and being able to walk through this. I encourage anyone again to submit as many questions as they'd like, or even comment suggestions. We're all ears for it, so this is really great to get involved and chat with you.

Outro: Yeah, and thank you everybody out there for watching this RLW. Please visit rooferscoffeeshop.com under our Read Listen Watch navigation. You'll see this on demand. You'll see upcoming webinars, and also past webinars. It was great seeing you. Take care, and we hope to see you next time. Bye everyone.