Slow Down and Look for What is Needed

RCS Influencer Charles Antis says the purpose of inspections is to bring opportunity to your client.  

Editor’s note: Continue reading to hear what Charles and Aaron Antis have to say about roofing inspections and how to provide more to your customers. You can read the transcript below or listen to the podcast. 

Charles Antis: Howdy, Roofers Coffee Shop. This month's question is, how do you incorporate and what is your strategy for including inspections into your roofing contracts? Wow, I think there's a big opportunity there. And when Aaron and I talked about it, we thought the same thing. It's really, how do you utilize that first inspection? So Aaron, take it from here. 

Aaron: Yeah. So I think probably one of our biggest things that we tried to incorporate is when we go into a community and when we're asked to inspect a community is to really try to slow down our inspections and look at the community as a whole. What is really needed? What's absolutely necessary? Just because they asked for a reroof doesn't mean that's necessarily exactly what is needed in the community. 

Aaron: And so, we really make sure that our photo documentation is on point, and so that there's a lot more collaboration between the field and what our field inspectors are seeing, and what the estimators are seeing, and then what ultimately the field production is going to be doing. So that we can really show in our proposals in great detail exactly what is going on and what is necessary. Rather than just presenting a basic proposal that has just some specifications, but they don't know exactly what's going on and maybe they feel like they're being sold a bill of goods. 

Charles Antis: A bill of goods. Well, speaking of bills, how about a duck's bill? We've always said that if we had a mascot for a roofing company, it would be a duck. And why a duck? Because a duck's feathers perfectly overlap, feathers above over feathers below, and water cascades off the duck's back. And the same is true with the components of a roof until you have a leak. 

And what you just mentioned is how we value when we show up. We don't only photo document, but we take detailed notes that says, "Wow, this roof has got 20 more years to live. It's all of the chimneys that are failing." And at Antis we call that special ops. We go in and we rebuild all the chimneys. Then we get the 10 to 15 more years out of the rest of the roof life instead of sending it to the 22% of our landfills that are filled with roofing product. 

So, if you value your first inspection, and if you photo document, and if you take great notes, and then you bring this opportunity back to the client, you're able to give them better valuation and get more roof per years per cash spent. And that's what we try to do here. Does that sound fairly accurate? 

Aaron: Pretty accurate. I like it. 

Charles Antis: Now, we call that special ops. But about 10 years ago, didn't we call it black ops or something briefly? Do you remember that? 

Aaron: Sure. I can't remember. 

Charles Antis: We did, we called it black ops. And we have a special ops. Special ops, that's our strategy for using inspections. Thank you. 

Aaron: Awesome.

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