Just a few days back, Storm Group Roofing received our third Angie’s List Super Service Award in a row as well as the 2015 Best of Houzz Service Badge. Throughout 2015, we accumulated 70 consecutive reviews on reputable Guild Quality and 23 positive BBB reviews. I’m not aware how other companies operate but I love to brag about our reputation even more then our sales. As a matter of fact, we always base decisions on how it will affect our reputation among clients rather than our sales.
This is why we don’t go door knocking for business. It’s not because we don’t want to boost our sales, but because we are nervous the overwhelming amount of clients would have a negative affect on the quality of our work. With the amount of calls we would receive under this door knocking model, we could double our sales simply by bringing in a few more sales people and subcontracting a few more roofing and siding jobs – but the question is: would we be able to continue delivering excellency in customer service? Or would it cause us to fall to the industry average of taking days to return phone calls for days or reply to emails?
Ten years ago when I began installing for other contractors, I was disgusted with many of the practice that I witnessed. Too many promises weren’t kept and I have seen a lot of angry customers and homeowners as a result. If an installer shows up on the job and gets yelled at because their sales man promised the roofing service two months, there is nothing you can do but make it right. I promised myself that I would never lie to my customers about delays, prices, or play any gimmicks once I started my own Minneapolis roofing company.
Here at Storm Group Roofing, we firmly believe that the quality of our workmanship matters. Everyday we strive to install the best materials whether roofing, gutters, or windows but if this proper craftsmanship isn’t complimented with a top-level customer service, even the best work can be ruined.
What’s the big deal about receiving an Angie’s List Super Service Award for the third year in a row?
Because it is not an easy award to earn. Three years ago we had 60 “A” reviews in a row when we received our first “F”. I couldn’t sleep that night, I was crushed. What did I do to earn it? I was running late for the 8AM appointment and tried calling the phone number Angie’s list provided me. Unfortunately, it was a disconnected landline and I couldn’t connect and to make matters worse traffic was a parking lot. When I arrived at 8:25AM, the homeowner met me at the garage and told me she no longer wanted my roofing services. That same day Storm Group Roofing got its first bad review. Of course this was years ago and we realize that we cannot please all people. Expectations are high these days but we have to keep learning from every review we get to keep improving our services.
The most common types of negative reviews in the roofing industry are: complaints about the job and nightmare experiences. Complaints about the job reviews include: late for appointment, lack of follow up, and miscommunication on price. These are things that can easily be improved upon and I believe every company will get some of these reviews from time to time, because no one is perfect and everyone make mistakes. Nightmare experiences are not acceptable in any business In the roofing industry, these include: poorly installed roof that must be replaced within a year, bad practices like “pushy sales tactics”, messy jobs that take months instead of days, upcharges, legal issues, bad contracts, cancellation fees without any work, etc.
So, why are we so proud about our reviews?
Because we have 23 positive reviews on BBB and have never received a complaint. Because we have never had a warranty issue we didn’t resolve in a timely manner. Because we stay behind our roofs and even when something happens we are back immediately to fix it. Whether it is a clean up issue, wrong material installed, or lack of communication, our team is committed to making it right. Over the last few years, we have received over 600 online reviews on 10 different sites and that gives us a good warm feeling that we are still going into the right direction: serving our customers the way they want to be served. We are very proud and honored to see that so many people decided to “Live Under Our Roof”.
