Service and Maintenance are Good for the Customer and the Environment

RCS Influencer Charles Antis says that his company was born on maintenance.

Note: You can see Charles’ response to this month's Influencer topic in the video below or scroll down to read the transcript.

A little fact about Antis Roofing is that we were born doing service and maintenance. I didn't have any employees and I didn't have the ability to exercise large roofing jobs 30 years ago, but I did have the ability to solve everything that leaks from rain.  I would go to a management company and say, "Do you have an HOA that has a leak that nobody can solve? I'll do it." And when I solve it, then you'll know I have talent. And that's how we built our business. And eventually we started selling re-roofs, but we learned that there was great value in providing maintenance.

Can you imagine buying a Toyota and never getting the oil changed? That's what people end up doing and the roof life is thrown away. We see roofs thrown away at 10, 15 years when they should go 30 years. A fact that I learned after I joined the board of the National Roofing Contractors Association is that our landfills in this country are 20% filled with roofing materials. I think that's kind of a tragedy that we allow that to happen, when we can prolong roof life. And when we prolong roof life, we allow the homeowner, those who we're selling to, or the business we're selling to, to preserve funds in their company or in their family.

I think there's a great benefit to the environment from service and maintenance. There's a great benefit to the consumer, but the last benefit is to you. If you're working to sell maintenance instead of just re-roofing, it really helps you in those lean periods, because roofs, like cars, need maintenance.

I love our maintenance department. It's what excites me. I love the fact that when someone else is saying you need a new roof for $1 million to get 30 years, I can come in and say, "No, I can get you 10 more years for a hundred thousand dollars." That excites me.

The last thing I'll mention in regard to maintenance is the Honda Center.  That's where the Ducks play here in Orange County. They were about to spend $2 to $3 million on a new roof. We were able to go in there for about a hundred grand and solve over 30 leaks, because their roof was not failing everywhere, even though they were getting bids for a new roof. We have a responsibility to preserve our environment and to take care of our consumer and to take care of our company and make it as solid as it can be, and that's why I love maintenance.

Charles Antis is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. See his full bio here.