Ace Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Jody Roberts and Rachel Hoover of Ace Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to the hottest podcast in the roofing industry. Get ready to meet the stars of the rooftops, the shingle sensations and  the gutter gurus. Each month, we'll climb up to the top to shine the spotlight on one remarkable roofer who's nailing it. We'll dive deep into their stories, their triumphs and  the secrets behind their sky-high success. Don't miss out on these industry insights, incredible tales of resilience and  the passion that keeps these roofers at the top of their game. Tune in, subscribe and  follow us on this incredible journey as we crown this month's Roofer of the Month. 

Alex Tolle: Hello, everyone. I'm Alex Tolle with rooferscoffeeshop.com and  I am here for the June Roofer of the Month podcast. I'm so excited to celebrate some of my favorite people up in Montana. I have Ace Roofing here, Rachel and Jody. How are you guys doing? Good. Thanks for having us. 

Jody Roberts: Yeah, doing wonderful. 

Alex Tolle: Awesome. I'll go ahead and let you guys introduce yourselves, talk a little bit about Ace Roofing. Rachel, if you want to go first. 

Rachel Hoover: Sure. My name's Rachel Hoover. I have been working with Ace Roofing for about five years. I do the marketing and all things creative. Yeah, it's a great team. Love being a part of it and  we have a lot of fun. 

Alex Tolle: Amazing and  Jody? 

Jody Roberts: Hi, I'm Jody. I'm the President and General Manager of Ace Roofing and  I've been with Ace going on six years now. I got to watch it grow through our 20-year history here and  looking forward to speaking with you today, Alex. 

Alex Tolle: Awesome. What kind of services do you all provide at Ace Roofing? 

Jody Roberts: Ace Roofing, we're unique. One, because of our climate and  two, because of the services we offer. Roofing at a mile-high and harsh montana conditions comes with a lot of eccentricities and  so the way we are able to be nimble is we pretty much offer every roofing service out there, from commercial roof inspections to commercial roof installations all the way through residential. We have a robust repair and maintenance program, as well as we can assist clients through insurance claims assistance. We do a lot of consulting with the State of Montana and commercial clients on ensuring that they're getting the entire roof life cycle and in helping them... We map out what that CapEx cost is going to be, as well as just preventative roof assessments as well. We do believe that every roof at some point is going to need to be maintained and replaced, but we want to help it get its entire life cycle with the cost of roofing nowadays. 

Alex Tolle: That's amazing, you guys really cover... I mean, to be able to cover so many different types of roofing is quite impressive. How many locations do you all have? 

Jody Roberts: We're currently up to three locations servicing the State of Montana. 

Alex Tolle: Okay. But you service basically the entire state, right? 

Jody Roberts: Correct. Each location services the entire State of Montana. We split it north and south, but we have 100% continuity coverage of Montana, as well as down into Wyoming and Eastern Idaho. 

Alex Tolle: Wow, you guys are all over. That's amazing. Rachel, can you share something special that your company celebrates? 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah, I think something that I've loved about Ace Roofing is I think we're really good about celebrating our people. We really have an incredible team, from our sales team to our estimators, our commercial guys, our production guys, everybody really cares so much about the level of work and excellence that they put into our projects and  so I think that we do what we can to try to give back and to highlight our team, whether that's on our socials or connecting them with other industry professionals. We have a number of our team that serves either on Montana Roofing Association, National Women in Roofing, so we're super proud of the team that we have. I think, with that, we also try to support community initiatives, things that are near and dear to our team's hearts. There's Big sky Bravery and different things that we've partnered with that really goes back to the interest and the passions of our team and supporting what they care about as well. 

Alex Tolle: That's awesome. I have to highlight a little bit more about your involvement. I've met so many of your team members at trade shows and  with the Montana Roofing Association, with National Women in Roofing, you guys are so involved. It's just so great to see your team all over the place and  meeting the rest of the industry and  just being involved. There's no better word for it, I guess. 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah. I think the industry has been so good to us and  I think that it's a way for us to sow back on a regional level with the Montana Roofing Association, but also Western States National Roofing Contractors Association. I think that we definitely see the value in investing back into the industry and helping it get better, so we love to have the opportunity and I love that our team is passionate about that as well. But yeah, it's always fun and  we love seeing RoofersCoffeeShop. You guys are the best. 

Alex Tolle: Oh, thank you. Jody, can you share how you guys define superior customer service at Ace Roofing? 

Jody Roberts: Yeah. At Ace Roofing, the biggest thing that we believe in is answering the phone. It seems very rudimentary and simple, but we get 100 customers every month that I am amazed when they say, "I called so-and-so. They never answered their phone." But answering the phone aside, we provide personalized solutions. Every roof is unique, every homeowner has a unique need and  we want to ensure that we're hitting all those steps and really tailoring it to the customer's project. We're not always just selling a roof. In our climate, we are in a storm-driven climate, so we're selling a lifetime or an investment in their home. That's important to us. We're accountable from start to finish. Every job that we do, the customer has someone who's experienced and a single point of contact that they can work through the entire time. We also go through and we have a robust punch QAQC process. 

Jody Roberts: We ensure the client felt like the needs were met. We review the contract to ensure that we hit all the points. We have a great warranty and we're reputation-backed by our industry partners, GAF, Carlyle, Malarkey, Owens Corning. They stand behind us and let us offer their enhanced warranties. The biggest thing is we run a roofing company and we believe that roofing can be professional and it can be a top-tier business. Our biggest thing is we're clean, we're professional and  we treat customer's properties like we'd want our own treated and  our project management team in the field, they're working alongside customers to walk them through the stressful process of construction. 

Alex Tolle: That's great and  all of that is so important. I love that your first thing was about answering phones, because it is amazing how many times I will call, not even just a roofing company but just a company in general and  they don't answer the phone. I'm not going to make the effort to call them back, so if you're not answering phones, you're missing potential customers. I love that that's how you started it because that seems like the first step, is just being there, being available to those home and building owners who may need you. 

Jody Roberts: Exactly. The biggest thing is just the communication. Whether it's phone, text, call, emails, urgency of communication and follow-up, that's the biggest thing we believe in and  that can cure [inaudible 00:07:29] lot of other problems that we're going to have along the way with construction. 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah. The only other thing I'd add to that is Ace has chosen to make the investment to make sure we have enough people available to answer the phones and to have timely communication, because when people call in and they need us, already they're having a stressful issue and  the thing they shouldn't have to stress about is somebody getting back to them or be able to find somebody to help them. We just want to make the process just as seamless as possible, that we can take care of people, they know they're in good hands. I think that that's also something I just love about Ace, that we've really invested in making that happen. 

Alex Tolle: Yeah, I love it. Very important. Okay. Rachel, you've been kind of my point of contact for the R-Club membership for a while, so I know that you've taken advantage of quite a few of the perks. What is your favorite part about the R-Club and then maybe just RoofersCoffeeShop in general? 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah. I love RoofersCoffeeShop. I mean, since joining the industry, I think you guys have been a tremendous support to me, but I love tuning in and getting to hear from roofing professionals across the country. I mean, in Montana, we are fairly rural. We can be a little bit isolated and  so getting to hear people having the same struggles that we're having or dealing with the same things, I think it's encouraging, knowing it's a large industry but it's also very small and  getting to know who are the people that can be a good support to me or that I can bounce questions off of. 

Rachel Hoover: I think just the wealth of knowledge that exists and  you guys have really set up such a great platform in hosting people that have this industry knowledge or are working through things and  we're all kind of working through the same stuff. I've loved that. Also, it's just so fun getting to see you guys at all of the shows and  I think that there really has been such a fun camaraderie of also just the Women in Roofing and the support on that level too, but I really do think it's just the knowledge and the support that I think we get from being a part of this network has been really great. 

Alex Tolle: Yes, I love it. It's so great to be able to build these friendships within the roofing industry, because whenever I go to a trade show, I'm texting you. I'm like, "Are you going to be here? Where can I see you? Can we meet up and get dinner?" It's just fun. I love traveling for work and I love meeting everybody there, but it's nice to have your friends there, so appreciate you being a part of RoofersCoffeeShop and glad that we've built a good friendship around it. 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah, we love being a part of it. 

Alex Tolle: Okay. Lastly, it's kind of a fun song, what would your walk-up song be? I'm going to go with Rachel first, if that's okay. 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah. My walk-up song right now would probably be Femininomenon by Chappell Roan. 

Alex Tolle: All right, that's a good one. 

Rachel Hoover: It's just [inaudible 00:10:06]. 

Alex Tolle: All right. Jody? 

Jody Roberts: Yeah, this was a tough one. When you brought this up to me, I had to do some thinking. But for myself and for Ace, I think it's going to be Back in Black by ACDC. A little bit old school, a little bit unforgettable. That way, we can keep the industry moving forward here. 

Rachel Hoover: [inaudible 00:10:25]. 

Alex Tolle: Two totally different songs, but I feel like they kind of have the same vibe. 

Rachel Hoover: Yeah, I love that. [inaudible 00:10:31]. 

Alex Tolle: All right. Well, Rachel and Jody, thank you so, so much for joining me today. It's so great to hear more about all that you're doing with Ace Roofing. We are so excited to honor you as our June Roofer of the Month, so thank you again and  we will catch you all on the next Roofer of the Month podcast. 

Outro: That's a wrap on this month's episode of Roofer Of the Month. Thanks for joining us on this journey. We'll catch you next time for more rooftop celebrations. Make sure to subscribe and follow the rooferscoffeeshop.com podcast page for more and  go to rooferscoffeeshop.com or askaroofer.com for more information.