Roofer of the Month - Armored Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Katie Clymer from Armored Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast!

Katie Clymer: I've been around roofing and Armored Roofing my whole life. My parents met here back in 1982. I started working with Armored in 2011, and in 2022, I became a managing partner and owner. And at the beginning of this year, I became president of Armored Roofing. I am following in my father's footsteps. He previously owned Armored and operated it for 30 years. I'm currently on the board of directors for Roofing Contractors Association of Texas, and I'm a member of the National Women in Roofing.

Armored provides commercial and residential roofing for pretty much anybody in Texas and Oklahoma. We do have a random service area, but there's no project that's too big or too small that we can't handle. We love to take on challenges, and we like to help those that are just needing a little repair. So, our specialty, I would say, is our commercial roofing with an emphasis on single-ply membrane roof systems. We've done almost every system there is out there, but we really enjoy our single-ply systems.

I counted it up yesterday, actually, and we have over 150 years of combined knowledge in the roofing industry within our company. How crazy is that? We have had some amazing employees that have stuck around with us for a long time, and we've also had amazing office and front-end staff that has been with us for a long time. It is just amazing to see the loyalty that we have with our employees, so we celebrate them every chance that we can get. They're the reason we're here. They're the reason that we continue.

Superior customer service is what I strive for daily. Our customers become like family to us. We know them, their kids, their brothers and sisters, and even their pets. We welcome them into our world and provide them with knowledge about the roofing industry today as well as how we'll make informed decisions on what is best for their property. We don't oversell projects. We don't sell you more than what you need. If you need a new roof or just a repair, we're going to let you know either way. We do not have to sell everyone a new roof. That is what we do. It's we don't have to.

If we can get away with a small repair to get you by, we're going to do that. We're going to do what's best for the customer. We're not just in the roofing industry to make a quick buck. We're here for life, and that's how we strive for is we're here for the long haul. And at the same time, we're human. We drop the ball from time to time, but that helps us learn and we acknowledge those mistakes. When we make mistakes, we acknowledge those, and we strive to do better. So, I think that's the best part about our company is our customer service.

We have been in the roofing business since 1955 here in Wichita Falls. So, we are at 69 years here in one location in Wichita County, in Wichita Falls, Texas. We are voluntarily licensed with the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas. We are members of the BBB of North Texas. We are licensed with the state of Oklahoma for commercial and residential roofing. We have credentials like nobody's business. And there's a reason for that because we want people to trust us, trust that we know what we're doing. And we are not going to go door-to-door and try to sell you a new roof. We don't cold call you to schedule an appointment. We have a great reputation with local vendors for all of our material needs, and we will never ask you to pay us money upfront.

The things that some companies do is not what we do. We are here for the long haul. We're not going anywhere. We're going to be here after the storm comes through. We're going to be here three, five years down the road. I think we've shown that with our track record, and we just continue to do that. Somebody asked me today, "What's your end game with your company?" And I was like, "We don't have an end game. We want to make this company continue for a long time. That's our game." So, that's where we're at today.

We became R-Club members because we realized the value and knowledge that Roofers Coffee Shop can provide, not only for us but also for property owners. My favorite thing right now within Roofers Coffee Shop is the Read Listen Watch because sometimes I don't have the capability to watch a podcast, but I want to hear it. Or I do have the time to sit down and read it, and I don't want to watch or hear it, so I love that that is an option for me to be able to go through and see like, "Oh, hey, I like that. I want to read that real quick."

Last night, I was going through, and I was like, "Oh, I really like these new podcasts that are out." And I was like, "I'm just going to read them because I can sit here and read them for five minutes." And it's just been really great to be able to have that option to absorb the information in different ways.