A Magic Word

Contractors who understand the power of this word should see results that feel like magic.

By Greg Hayne

As a trainer of commercial roofing contractor service departments one of the things I’ve noticed with the contractors I train is that most of them do not understand how professional managers look at or think about their roofing investments.

Unless you are quite different than most, it is costing you sales.  Let’s see if we can start helping you change that.

I want to introduce you to a word that is not really “magic,” but when you understand it and apply it, many contractors feel like the results are magic.  The word?

Recovery A shopping center manager has a leak.  He calls you to fix it. You go out and find a puncture and fix it (first try).  You send in beautiful before and after pictures. Congratulations. All that work makes you--average and ordinary.  But your opportunity lies here.  Let me explain.

If that puncture is at an HVAC unit and your photos reflect that, the property manager will take your invoice, your photos and send them along to the tenant and say, “Dear Tenant, your HVAC contractor punched a hole in our roof while working on your unit.  The proof is attached.  Please reimburse in the amount of $X to cover the cost of the repair.” This is recovery--recovery is the money they paid you recouped by tenants paying for errors made by their techs.  From their perspective, that makes you free.  That property manager will love that and remember YOU the next time they need assistance.

Not all property managers (PMs) are doing a good job of recovery because some PMs aren’t very good, are too busy or are simply too lazy to put the effort into recovery. Sometimes the PMs’ roofers are doing such a crappy job of documenting the repairs they make that it doesn’t even dawn on the manager that the possibility of recovery exists.  Our experience is that there is a lot more loss of recovery due to poor roofing documentation than poor PM management.

You can help PMs with both issues.  First, make sure your invoices for puncture repairs near HVAC units show the proximity of the repair to the unit.  (Or, if the unit itself is leaking, prove it with a water test and show them the pics of water inside the unit).  Then contact the PM and tell them, “Hey, just wanted you to be aware that on the repair we did for you the other day that the leak was due to a puncture near an HVAC unit and many of our customers with shopping centers will recover it.”  All property managers are too busy.  But if you make it easy for them to do recovery, they are much more likely to do so. Even if they don’t, you have set yourself apart from your competition.  That will result in more work and the extra work that comes will seem like, well, magic!

The Hayne Coaching Group has an innovative and proven training, implementation and support program called “Creating Great Service” where we teach the best practices of the best service contractors in the country and then help our client roofers implement those best practices into their organization.  Click here for more on Creating Great Service.

We also offer facilitated peer groups for non-competing roofing contractors, including one with a focus on developing and growing commercial service departments.  Click here for more on our facilitated peer groups.