How to Build Success with Roofing CRM Software

In the roofing industry, your job is to make sure that your work withstands the test of time and whatever Mother Nature decides to dish out. You work to provide stability and security for families who put their faith in your handiwork.

And just as it takes skill and dedication to build a great roof or restore a broken one, it takes an equal amount of work to get the same quality and stability from roofing CRM software. But in the end, this software will help make your life easier and your profit margins higher.

It’s your job then to build a strategy, find the right CRM software for the job, and start working towards greater success. So where do you start?

Which Came First: The CRM Strategy or the Roofing CRM Software?

You know that old philosophical question about the egg and the chicken? The debate between whether CRM strategy or CRM software comes first is just as heavy-handed (but not as tasty). But while the debate for hen and offspring will probably rage on for generations, one thing is certain: CRM strategy should always come first. 

Why? Let’s look at it this way. 

Say you were going to invade a neighboring village. You start passing around the pitchforks and torches, making sure everyone gets one (or two), and then proceed your march to battle. 

You arrive and find out your neighboring village has built a giant stone wall around their village, dug a mote and filled it with crocodiles, and they have trained every villager down to the last man to be incredibly good sharp shooters. 

Without a strategy based on your ability, available tools, and of the challenge ahead, you’ve come to battle with all the wrong tools, leaving all the right ones at home. Essentially, you’ve brought a knife to a gun fight, and it’s probably not going to go well for you. 

Well, I mean, you could head out to a job site with a roll of duct tape and call it good, but you and I both know it won’t hold up, and the client probably won’t be too happy. 

CRM software is your toolset, CRM (customer relationship management) strategy is how you make it happen, regardless of the tools you use. You need to create a personal workflow that can maximize the process of receiving a new lead, quoting the job, assigning the job out, invoicing, following up, and assuring future customer loyalty. 

All of this is your CRM strategy and can be done regardless of your tools (or weapons).

Applying the Strategy to Roofing CRM Software

Now that you have your battle plan, it’s time to find a software that can help you execute that plan to its highest potential. Remember, the idea here is that the software will enhance and magnify your ability to implement and perform your strategy daily. 

Now, this usually means doing a long, arduous search through a bunch of CRM tools only to find out they are built for programmers, engineers, doctors, or just about anything but roofing contractors. 

However, there are CRM software out there built for roofing contractors; they can be found. So what does a good roofing contractor CRM look like? Generally, from our experience, the workflow required goes something like this:

• A lead comes in. Once a lead comes in, whether it’s through a phone call you made or received, a flyer, TV or radio ad, or what have you, you need to write all the information down. In JobNimbus, you can add the contact information, the status and type of contact, and the cost associated, if any. You can also add any other notes you have from your conversation with that new lead. Then what?
• You need to move that lead to sales. In JobNimbus, you assign a sales rep for that new lead, and the rep will be automatically notified via email about the new contact. They can then move forward with the sale, provide an estimate, and win the bid.
• Once you’ve won the lead, you need to move it to production. The sales rep can assign this new customer to a project manager or directly to a contractor to get started on the job. The contractor can see the entire conversation history and every event that has occurred up to that point.
• Moving beyond just being a roofing contractor CRM, JobNimbus is also project management software, which means the contractor can follow the workflow, update, assign and complete tasks, etc. The contractor can also track every expense in a living invoice that can be sent directly to the customer when the job is finished.
• The invoice is sent, the payment is received, and all that’s left is to follow up with the customer later to make sure that the service you’ve provided is up to standards and hopefully gain repeat business or, with luck, word-of-mouth referrals.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily your CRM strategy, but most roofing contractors work with a similar strategy to maximize time and effort. And, with roofing CRM software like JobNimbus, you find that it all works rather naturally and can be shifted and adjusted for the specific requirements of your CRM strategy.