RoofConnect

RoofConnect is a totally new vision in the commercial roofing industry, a network of roofing professionals offering value and unequaled asset management for clients looking to strategically lower life cycle costs of their facilities. RoofConnect works to improve the roofing services industry by recognizing companies that have what it takes to deliver on expectations continually and in a timely manner, hand-picking them to receive opportunities to meet the responsive need of clients that go through RoofConnect for solutions. Basically, if a roofing contractor is a partner of RoofConnect that company is recognized for being part of a group known for consistent, superior service across a national footprint.

RoofConnect, based out of Sheridan, Ark., pulls together the most reliable contractors from every corner of the U.S., assuring that customers can call upon a strategic partnership offering emergency roofing repairs, maintenance and re-roofing around the clock, all year. As the organization’s slogan emphasizes, “We never close.”

Filling Holes

Incorporated in 2001, RoofConnect spent three years establishing its backend practices before taking its platform to market in 2004. After establishing agreements to protect organization and member interests, RoofConnect stepped into the roofing industry to fill a void. David Workman, president, CEO and board member of RoofConnect, explains, “Our roofing industry lacked true national organizations. So a group of quality contractors, very active in the National Roofing Contractors Association [NRCA], got together and built a business organization of companies known for their excellent safety records, for being financially sound, for their competitiveness and for their 24/7 service availability.”

RoofConnect consists of just over 60 members – “all independent roofing contractors,” says Workman – who have a combined 110 locations across the U.S., with service that reaches out to include Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and Guam. “Our members are … picked based on their ability to respond to service and emergency [needs], and their ability to man local projects quickly for a national account,” adds Workman.

Members have to meet a list of strict requirements for entry into the RoofConnect family. Among these include: a minimum of 10 years in business, a solid performance record, a superior level of experience, innovation, financial stability, full-coverage insurance, bonding capacity, written safety plans, completely electronic capabilities, first-rate manufacturer relationships, and, last but not least, NRCA membership.

The majority of RoofConnect members not only meet the minimum requirement, but go beyond; the average member has been in business for over 50 years, and generates over $15 million in annual revenue. Finally, the members are selected based on their location, as RoofConnect traditionally does not have multiple partners in one service area.

“Members are based in the regions they serve,” Workman says – meaning they are the local guys who provide trusted, quality work in the communities they understand best.

Protecting Customers

Workman says that RoofConnect has a three-pronged approach in its servicing, one that emphasizes the importance of communication between RoofConnect staff, member contractors and customers. “If we aren’t all three working together, we can’t be successful,” adds Workman.

When customers contact RoofConnect – which can call upon any of more than 7,000 employees in the organization’s affiliated companies – all their needs are met, immediately. RoofConnect uses web-based means for nearly instantaneous communication with contractors when it comes to work orders, invoices, etc., so it is able to dispatch one of its members based out of the locale of the customer’s need, whether it be one reroof job, one repair or a multiple roof assignment.

If a national or large regional client has a hundred buildings that need servicing, and the buildings are spread out, RoofConnect has the project management skills to accomplish such a complex commission. RoofConnect maintains a web-based system that allows it to dispatch work orders, and to receive an ETA response, member contractor response and work summary report. With these capabilities RoofConnect can take one call from a client and then dispatch and coordinate committed crews across the U.S. as needed to meet 100-percent of multiple facilities needs. These full-service, nationwide capabilities allow large clients to save a considerable amount of time and avoid unnecessary hassles determining the most qualified contractor for each location in need of attention.

RoofConnect also provides pricing that is guaranteed to be competitive and in line with local rates for each customer service area.

“In the last seven years we’ve learned what it takes to service a national customer, what their expectations are, and how to deliver on those expectations continually and in a timely manner,” says Workman. “We are able to meet the needs of any client anywhere across the country, at anytime.”

Full Coverage

Indeed, RoofConnect can draw upon the resources and experience that clients are looking for and demanding. The RoofConnect network is a source for all roofing needs: leak emergency service, one-time service calls, roof restoration, repair, historic renovation, as well as new construction, reroofing services and ongoing maintenance and preventative service.

Capabilities include weather-related emergency response through its SWAT (Severe Weather Assessment Team). SWAT customers receive priority standing, guaranteed response time, free severe weather preparedness checklist and evaluation, post-storm roof condition analysis, project supervision, expert knowledge of restoration, minimal interruptions throughout rebuild process, and ongoing status reports through photos and written coverage.

Through its partners RoofConnect offers every imaginable roof system on the market, including traditional asphalt-based systems, modified, bituminous, single-ply membrane systems, liquid coatings and systems, as well as sprayed polyurethane foam, metal, and the very latest in cool roof and green roof systems. RoofConnect has available solar systems that can be incorporated, and the contractor network has completed the installation of numerous such energy systems.

“We feel solar is going to be a big part of the industry [in the future],” says Workman. Installing roofs that will be able to take renewable energy applications is a focus, and RoofConnect members knows it’s important to construct with future energy-efficient initiatives in mind.

Strong and Sturdy Results

RoofConnect attributes much of its success to maintaining a strong network of “services, technology, materials, workmanship, information sharing and communication.”

The company also believes in treating “each customer as an individual,” says Workman. Customer requirements vary, as do expectations, and so RoofConnect individually caters to all its customers.

RoofConnect also works diligently to provide its partners with business opportunities, while promoting “best practices” that will make these companies even more successful within their local markets. Newsletters, internal email lists and regional meetings across the country keep RoofConnect membership on the same page in terms of messages of national importance.

Staying on top of industry know-how, current events, and best practices is aided by RoofConnect’s participation in trade shows and its membership with several nationwide organizations. RoofConnect belongs to a number of associations, including the Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress, Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing, the Roof Consultants Institute (RCI), Professional Retail Store Maintenance (PRSM), the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), the Northeast Roofing Contractors Association (NERCA), Western States Roofing Contractors Association (WSRCA), Midwest Roofing Contractors Association (MRCA), and more.

With broad industry involvement, and cutting-edge services that have the highest quality, most cost-efficient impact on a client’s entire roof portfolio, RoofConnect is a single point of contact, but not a single-minded national company.

Workman adds, “It’s very exciting for me to be associated with a national sales and marketing group, partnering with the premiere roofing contractors in the country, to provide roofing services to a growing number of clients.”

In less than a decade RoofConnect has proven wildly successful thanks to its collective enthusiasm and expertise. It also comes down to quality – the quality of the organization’s members, and the quality of the network that binds them. Offering a strong sales and marketing arm for its contractors, as well as a means to reinforce procedures that enhance the industry’s reputation and infrastructure, RoofConnect has established a solid platform for continuing both the life of clients’ roofing assets and the strength of its members in servicing those clients.