Build Your Business March 09:
Building a Profitable Service Department

by Chris Margarites

Define Goals & Make Assessments
If you are going to make money in roofing during the next 12 to 24 months, you will need to be able to create your own work, and that will take a service department designed for that purpose. Why? Because service departments can create high profit work. Remember, you cannot create the need to replace a roof, but you can create the need to take care of the roof a property owner already owns. Building a service department isnot very hard if you give it the attention it deserves. First, defined its purpose. Here is an example: "The purpose of our service department is to create high profit work for our company through a marketing plan that will focus on helping roof owners in our market extend the life of their roof." Then set some goals. Example: "By the end of 2009 we will have two technicians who focus on roof service 80% of the time. We will have a properly equipped truck for each tech. We will create and send a direct mail piece to specific markets six times in 2009. We will have a system in place to take requests and dispatch the calls to the two technicians. We will have a price book, invoices, business cards and a brochure and be ready to start marketing service work by May 1st. For 2010, we will... You get the point.

Assessment: Where are we now, where do we want to be, what is the difference between the two? Start with the Service Technician. Do we currently have a tech that can be on his/her own all day without supervision? (going forward I will say "he" but it means he or she). Is he trust worthy? Does he like people? Can he ask for payment at the end of each service call (an important skill)? Is he good with paper work? Can he do simple math? Does he like being in roofing? Does he take pride in his appearance? Is he sales oriented? Patient? Thorough? Mature? Friendly but not chatty? Organized? Ambitious? Timely? Is he teachable? Quality minded? Technical? Notice I left technical last. That is the least of the qualifications. Everything else is much more important than technical. You can teach that. It is more important that he/she is a thorough and quality minded person. If your answer to many of these questions is no, start looking outside the company. If you cannot find a interested or qualified person, don't be afraid to hire from outside the roofing industry.

Next, assess your hard goods: Trucks, tools and safety equipment. Do we have a dependable truck ready or do we need to buy one? Don't forget, it will have to be lettered with your new message and phone number(s). Make a list of the company provided tools they will need. How about the materials the truck should be stocked with? Make a list with the help of the tech. What tools do you expect the tech to own?

Assess the business tools he will need:Service invoice(s); Company information stickers; Business cards for your tech; Cell phone or two way radio; calculator; a price list. You will also need an efficient system for taking customer calls, booking the appointments, dispatching the call to your technician, communicating the status of the call, collecting invoices, money and restocking the service vehicle, etc.

Next month we will talk about what is at the heart of this series: creating work.

Chris Margarites is the President and Founder of EternaBond Inc, the manufacturer of MicroSealant Repair tapes. Chris built and sold a contracting company that was 40% service/60% installation. He sold the company to a publically traded NYSE company on the strength of the service department.