By Brenda Littau. 

Turn routine maintenance into lasting loyalty. 

For homeowners, a roofing relationship often begins with a problem: a leak, missing shingles or water appearing where it should not be. For roofing contractors, that first service call can become much more than a small repair. It can be the start of a long-term relationship that leads to future maintenance work and, eventually, the replacement job. 

Tracey Donels, owner of Service First Solutions, believes contractors can grow their businesses by focusing on repair and maintenance as a relationship-building strategy. Rather than viewing smaller jobs as distractions from larger reroofing projects, contractors should see them as opportunities to prove their value when homeowners need help most. 

“The customer’s issue isn’t that they need a new roof,” Tracey said. “Often the customer’s issue is they have a roof leak and they think they need a new roof.” 

That distinction matters. A homeowner dealing with an active leak is looking for someone who will respond quickly, explain the issue clearly and provide a solution that fits the situation. In some cases, a repair may be enough. In others, maintenance can extend the life of the roof and give the homeowner time to plan for a future replacement. Either way, the contractor who solves the immediate problem earns something more valuable than one service ticket: trust. 

A strong maintenance program gives contractors a reason to stay connected with homeowners between major projects. Regular inspections, minor repairs and proactive recommendations help homeowners understand the condition of their roofs before an emergency forces a decision. It also gives contractors a better understanding of each roof’s history, recurring concerns and likely replacement timeline. 

When the time comes for a reroof, that history can make the decision much easier for the homeowner. They are not starting from scratch, gathering estimates from unfamiliar companies or wondering who they can rely on. They already know the contractor, have seen the quality of the work and have experienced the company’s communication and service firsthand. 

Speed is a major part of that experience. Tracey emphasized that quality workmanship is essential, but responsiveness can be just as important when water is entering a home. Homeowners may not remember every technical detail of a repair, but they will remember who answered the phone, showed up quickly and helped protect their home. 

That level of service can set a contractor apart in a competitive market. It also creates a steadier source of revenue when homeowners are reluctant to commit to a full replacement because of economic uncertainty or rising costs. Maintenance and repair work help keep crews active while building a customer base that can support future growth. 

For contractors, the goal is not to push a replacement before it is needed. The goal is to become the trusted roofing resource homeowners call first, whether they need a small repair, preventative maintenance or a complete reroof. 

Service First Solutions is also expanding that growth-focused mindset through new owners-only peer forum groups. Designed for roofing company owners who want to build their businesses rather than prepare them for sale, the groups will include five to six companies that meet twice a year in person and four times a year virtually. Participants will share challenges, tour one another’s operations, build accountability and learn from peers who understand the day-to-day realities of growing a roofing company. 

For contractors looking to strengthen their customer relationships and their businesses, the path may start with the smallest job: solving a homeowner’s problem today so they know exactly who to call tomorrow. 

Listen to the full conversation here!

Por Emma Peterson, traducido por Alberto Torres. 

Participa para tener la oportunidad de acceder a sesiones educativas de primer nivel, eventos para establecer contactos, almuerzos y una de las exposiciones comerciales más importantes de la industria. 

RoofersCoffeeShop® se ha unido a Western Colloid para enviar a cinco profesionales a la Western Roofing Expo (WRE). Reconocida como uno de los principales eventos regionales de techado e impermeabilización en Estados Unidos, la WRE es una exposición organizada por la Western States Roofing Contractors Association (WSRCA). El evento se llevará a cabo del 27 al 29 de septiembre en el hotel Paris Las Vegas y contará con educación, oportunidades para establecer contactos y mucho más.

Los cinco (5) afortunados ganadores de nuestro concurso recibirán un paquete con valor de $500.00 para asistir al evento (viaje y hospedaje no incluidos). Este paquete incluye acceso a: 

• Sesiones de Western Roofing en español: ¡Este año, el evento contará con cuatro seminarios y dos sesiones de almuerzo y aprendizaje impartidas en español! Los temas van desde cómo contratar al equipo de techado adecuado hasta cómo maximizar las reclamaciones de seguros comerciales. Además, la increíble lista de presentadores incluye a Amparo Sancen de Latinos En Roofing, Monica Vornbrock de The GLO Group e Imelda Perez de CertainTeed. 
• Sesiones educativas: En cuanto a las sesiones educativas en inglés, el evento de este año contará con cuatro bloques diferentes. 
  • El primer bloque (de 8:45 a.m. a 10:00 a.m. el lunes 28 de septiembre de 2026) contará con una variedad de presentadores, incluida Heidi J. Ellsworth de The Coffee Shops™. 
  • Entre los aspectos destacados del segundo bloque (de 10:15 a.m. a 11:30 a.m. el lunes 28 de septiembre de 2026) se encuentran la sesión sobre estimaciones de John Kenney de Cotney Consulting y la clase sobre mitigación de riesgos de Trent Cotney de Adams and Reese. 
  • En el tercer bloque (de 8:45 a.m. a 10:00 a.m. el martes 29 de septiembre de 2026), no querrás perderte la mesa redonda sobre techado del Comité de Jóvenes Profesionales de Roofing de WSRCA, dirigida por Rachel Garcia de Malarkey Roofing Products, así como la charla sobre salud mental de Paul Reed de Roofers in Recovery. 
  • Y en el cuarto bloque (de 10:15 a.m. a 11:30 a.m. el martes 29 de septiembre de 2026), nuestros amigos Mindy Dahlquist (TRA Snow and Sun), Brian Chamberlain (Carlisle Construction Materials) y Tracey Donels (Service First Solutions) presentarán sesiones informativas y dinámicas. 
• Piso de exhibición: Como siempre, el piso de exhibición promete ser una gran oportunidad para conocer las últimas innovaciones y las tecnologías más recientes de la industria, con demostraciones de productos cada hora. Y, como ya es tradición, los profesionales del techado podrán recorrer el piso de exhibición de manera gratuita, lo que lo convierte en una oportunidad inigualable para conectar con otros profesionales de la industria. 
• Almuerzo legislativo: El primero de los dos almuerzos que se llevarán a cabo durante el evento de este año estará a cargo de Craig Brightup de The Brightup Group y Chad Collins de la National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). Durante esta sesión se analizarán cambios y acontecimientos importantes que están ocurriendo en Washington, D.C., y que tienen un impacto en la industria del techado. 
• Almuerzo anual: En cuanto al segundo almuerzo, esta será tu oportunidad de escuchar a la conferencista principal de WRE 2026, Shereen Thor. Shereen es una comediante que se convirtió en coach profesional, y su conferencia será un gran recurso para profesionales y dueños de negocios en cualquier etapa de sus carreras. 

¿Quieres tener la oportunidad de ganar acceso a todo esto e impulsar tu negocio en WRE 2026? ¡Participa en el concurso Spin to Win de RoofersCoffeeShop y Western Colloid! El concurso cerrará el 22 de agosto de 2026 y los ganadores se anunciarán en vivo durante el episodio de Weekly Blend del 24 de agosto de 2026. 

By Emma Peterson. 

Enter for an opportunity to access top-tier educational sessions, networking events, luncheons and an industry-leading trade show floor. 

RoofersCoffeeShop® is partnering with Western Colloid to send five professionals to the 2026 Western Roofing Expo (WRE)! Known as the premier regional roofing and waterproofing event in the United States, WRE is a trade show hosted by the Western States Roofing Contractors Association (WSRCA). The show, which runs September 27-29 at the Paris Las Vegas, features education, networking and more. 

The five (5) lucky winners of our contest will be given an all-inclusive package ($500.00 value, travel and hotel not included) to the show. This package includes access to:  

• Western Roofing en Español sessions: This year’s show will have four seminars and two lunch-and-learn sessions taught in Spanish! Topics range from hiring the right roofing team to maximizing commercial claims. And the incredible speaker list includes Amparo Sancen of Latinos En Roofing, Monica Vornbrock of the GLO Group and Imelda Perez from CertainTeed. 
• Educational sessions: As for the English-language education sessions, this year’s show boasts four different blocks of session.  
  • The first block (8:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 28, 2026) will feature a variety of speakers including The Coffee Shops™’ own Heidi J. Ellsworth!  
  • Some highlights of block two (10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. on Monday, September 28, 2026) include John Kenney of Cotney Consulting’s estimating session and Trent Cotney of Adams and Reese’s risk mitigation class.  
  • In block three (8:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 29, 2026), you’ll want to make sure to catch the WSRCA Young Roofing Professionals Committee’s roofing roundtable, led by Malarkey Roofing Products’ Rachel Garcia as well as Paul Reed of Roofers in Recovery’s mental health talk.  
  • And in block four (10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 29, 2026), our friends Mindy Dahlquist (TRA Snow and Sun), Brian Chamberlain (Carlisle Construction Materials) and Tracey Donels (Service First Solutions) will all be hosting informative and engaging sessions. 
• Trade show floor: As always, the trade show floor promises to be a great opportunity to see the latest innovations and newest technology in the industry as product demos will be hosted on the hour. And, per tradition, roofers will walk free on the show floor – making it an unmatched opportunity for peer-to-peer networking.  
• Legislative luncheon: The first of the two luncheons that will be held at this year’s show, the legislative luncheon will be hosted by Craig Brightup, The Brightup Group, and Chad Collins, National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). It will dive into key changes and developments happening in Washington, D.C. that relate to roofing. 
• Annual luncheon: As for the second luncheon, this is your opportunity to hear from the WRE 2026 keynote speaker – Shereen Thor. Shereen is a comedian turned coach whose keynote will be a great resource to professionals and business owners in all parts of their careers. 

Want a chance to win access to all that and boost your business at WRE 2026? Enter the RoofersCoffeeShop and Western Colloid Spin to Win contest! The contest will close August 22, 2026, and announced live on the August 24, 2026 Weekly Blend episode. 

By Jessica Bravo. 

A look back at one of the top events for commercial roofing service professionals. 

From March 2–4, RoofersCoffeeShop® attended ServiceCon 2026 in Houston, Texas, an event dedicated to helping commercial roofing professionals strengthen and grow their service departments. 

Conversations with industry leaders 

Megan Ellsworth spoke with several industry experts about the future of roofing service and the importance of strong operational systems. 

Chad Westbrook from Service Alignment shared insights on aligning service operations for long-term success. 

Cody Kline from CommercialRoofer.com, joined by his eight-year-old son Jagger Kline. 

Other conversations included Tracey Donels from Service First Solutions, Bryan Mitchell from Service AdvantEdge, Luke McCormack of Roofing Talent America and Emmitt White from Tidewater Roofing and Rapid Roof Care. 

Collaboration and networking 

The event also included peer groups and breakout workshops where attendees had the opportunity to ask industry leaders their most pressing questions. These sessions gave contractors and business owners actionable ideas they could bring back to their companies to strengthen and expand their service offerings. 

Contractor panel 

The event featured interviews, networking opportunities and a contractor panel moderated by Megan Ellsworth. Attendees shared ideas, discussed challenges and learned how service divisions can become a powerful driver of business growth. 

For many contractors and roofing business owners, developing a strong service program has become a gateway to scaling their businesses. ServiceCon brought together experienced leaders in the industry who shared practical strategies and real-world lessons on building successful service operations. 

Events like ServiceCon show how collaboration and open conversations within the industry can lead to real results. 

Be sure to watch all of the interviews from ServiceCon 2026 and stay tuned for updates on the next event.

By Jenny Yu.  

Industry experts explain how service and maintenance departments lay the foundation for scalable roofing businesses. 

In a recent CoatingsTalk™, Megan Ellsworth spoke with Chris Huettig, vice president of technical services at KARNAK, and Tracey Donels, founder of Service First Solutions, to talk about the importance of forming strong service and maintenance departments. 

After 15 years as a contractor, Tracey decided to utilize his experience to provide coaching, training and consulting for commercial roofers. “We help people grow by focusing on operations first and sales second,” Tracey stated. When working with clients, Service First Solutions prioritizes the development of a robust service and maintenance department. “No one can put on a perfect roof. The thing that gets us started in business are those small jobs that can help us build the trust and the relationships with those customers going forward.” 

Chris, with over 30 years of experience in the industry, agreed with Tracey's approach. “If you're putting on new roofs, you're going to have to service your own roof, so you have to be efficient and have a group that's able to handle those,” he said. “A maintenance program builds your company out, balances it out.”  

According to Chris, simply having a service crew isn’t enough. You also have to know how to sell it as part of your business offerings. “When you’re selling maintenance to building owners, it can sound like something they don’t really need,” he said. “If you frame it as more of an asset protection program, it sets a whole new table. It’s more meaningful to a building owner.” 

Tracey echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of clarity when communicating maintenance programs with building owners. “If you’re going to go out there and sell your services, you have to know what you’re going to offer,” he said. Tracey noted that many contractors confuse inspections with true preventive maintenance. “Preventive maintenance actually has some maintenance, whether it’s cleaning the debris, clearing gutters, making some minor repairs.” 

Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar to learn more about how dedicated maintenance programs create repeat business, reduce costs for building owners and scale your business. 

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Revealing how disciplined processes and accountability turn roofing services from reactive work into a reliable growth engine. 

A new year has begun, and crews are stepping into the new year with winter jobs still in motion and unpredictable weather already shaping what comes next. On this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth brought in Tracey Donels of Service First Solutions to talk about goal setting for 2026 and how contractors can grow their service departments. 

A thriving service department can be defined by how reliably it responds, how clearly it moves from call to closeout and how confident a customer feels before anyone even climbs a ladder. For the contractors looking to boost their sales across the board, starting with a high-functioning service team is key. 

Professionalism, as Tracey described it, is not something a company puts on like a logo. It is how a team of experts hold themselves and their capabilities to complete their duties, as well as how one communicates with customers and meets expectations.  He tied that expectation to structure rather than size, emphasizing that professionalism comes from having defined processes, consistent discipline and clear ownership at every stage of the service cycle. From the moment a call comes in, to the time the invoice is sent, someone must be responsible for what happens next. That clarity allows service work to move forward reliably, even when volume increases or staffing shifts, because the process does not depend on any single person carrying everything in their head. 

A service department does not need seven trucks to feel established, but it does need a system that still functions when someone is out sick, when storms flood the phone lines with calls or when one person suddenly has to carry the weight of two roles. In many ways, service might start to resemble the efficiency of a drive-thru line, prepared to serve customers from the moment the order arrives. 

As Tracey explained, growth often begins with paying closer attention to the roof already in place. He shared, “I would say first and foremost, prioritize recommended repairs. If we have a small service department, often we are being very reactive, right? And that’s okay if we’re solving the emergencies, but we’re often stopping there.” He used that point to describe a shift away from service that ends at the repair and toward work that anticipates future issues while crews are already on site. 

By widening the lens and adopting a proactive approach to service work, contractors can show building owners how smaller fixes today prevent larger failures tomorrow, protecting interior operations and reducing the disruption of repeat calls. The change is subtle, but it moves service out of emergency mode and into something more durable: a working relationship built on foresight rather than reaction. 

Additionally, accountability, in Tracey’s view, only works when it is made visible. “I'm a firm believer in scorecards. I'm a firm believer in everybody having actions they have to partake in whatever job or role they have in the company. Everybody has a number,” he explained. He framed measurement as a daily habit rather than a quarterly goal, something that keeps the department honest about what is working well and what is slipping between the cracks. 

 By tracking backlog, responsiveness and completion, service becomes easier to manage without becoming mechanical. Over time, those numbers turn into something more than metrics: they become a way of keeping promises in view, week after week, until the department grows into something the whole company can lean on. 

Listen to the podcast to learn more about building a professional service department with Service First Solutions!

By Emma Peterson. 

Whether building a service department or strengthening the one you have, get started with Service First Solution’s workbook.  

Service in the roofing industry is more than just a department of your business — it offers a route to long-term growth for your company! But developing a strong service department can be challenging. Many roofers find themselves falling into traps like reactive servicing. An example of reactive service would be only taking leak calls in the off season when you have extra time.  

The opposite of reactive service is proactive service. This is characterized by prioritizing service as more than an add-on to your existing business, but a full, standalone business unit. The benefit of this approach? Not only is it a way to create more revenue sources, but it builds trust and relationships with your clients. 

Want to build a service department that is proactive and growth-focused? Start with Service First Solution’s free workbook! This workbook is full of incredible insights straight from Service First Solutions’ CEO Tracey Donels. It contains six chapters, each explaining a different key step that Tracey teaches about building service departments. In addition to an explanation of the step, each chapter has interactive questions that help you dig deeper into your own business and service department.  

And these six chapters are just the start of the information contained in the workbook! There are bonus pages full of checklists, sprint planners and more that will guide your operations. Overall, this workbook is the perfect place to find a reliable strategy for building your service offerings proactively! 

Download the free workbook today.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Tracey Donels of Service First Solutions. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on the road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. 

Karen Edwards: Hello everyone and  welcome to another episode of Roofing Road Trips from Roofer's Coffee Shop. My name is Karen Edwards and  today I am welcoming Tracy Donnells from Service First Solutions to talk all things peer groups. Tracy, welcome. 

Tracy Donnells: Thank you very much, Karen. How are you today? 

Karen Edwards: Good, good. It's great to see you. I did see you at the IRE recently, but you were just zipping by going one place to... I think I waved, but we didn't really- 

Tracy Donnells: Yes, as were you. I stopped by at the coffee shop booth to do my little video and other than that, I didn't go to a single planned event or... Between the show, the talk, the peer group, we were busy the entire week. It was nuts. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah, it was a great event. So plug for the show. If you didn't make it this year, put it on your calendar for next year in Vegas. But one of the things that you did there was host a peer group. So we're going to dive into that. But before we do that, I'd like you just to tell us a little bit about Service First Solutions and what you do, peer groups being one of them. 

Tracy Donnells: Yeah, so Service First Solutions, what we are is we are a coaching, training and consulting company that focuses exclusively on growing your commercial roofing repair and maintenance department. It's right there in the name, Service First Solutions and what we say we do is we grow roof service. So I've been a commercial roofer or in the commercial roofing industry for about 20 years now and  I've spent every single minute of it in the repair and maintenance realm, whether in a truck, behind a computer, putting out estimates, doing an inspection, managing crews, scheduling crews, overseeing a department or being an executive of a large company overseeing a $9 million service department. So now for the last four years, me and my small team have been going around the country and exclusively doing that, helping people start, grow and scale their commercial service departments. 

How we do that is really threefold. Like any training or coaching consulting company, we'll come in to work with you for two days, three days, four days, whatever's applicable. We travel to you, work directly with your staff, one-on-one time or one on 20 time you're getting a person. And we also do yearly programs where we work with anyone in your team for up to four hours a week and we come and see you once a year and you get access to all kinds of great tools and techniques and templates and stuff like that to be able to again, start, grow or scale your service department faster. And the peer groups are something a little bit different and they're almost the thing I like most in this business is really connecting people. So in the peer groups, what we do, the service focused peer groups is we take contractors from around the country, typically eight to 10 contractors and we put them on the same Zoom call to share best business practices one time a month. And then we get together three times a year for two, two and a half days. 

Now these are contractors from across the country, they're non-competing contractors. We allow two representatives from the service department to join the peer group. We want the leaders, we want the people that are managing, pushing the service department. Some of our peer groups are manned by managers. Sometimes it's an owner and a manager, sometimes it's a service executive and an estimator or a coordinator and an owner or something like that. But what we do is we get these people together. Again, two representatives from each company and once a month we get on the call and just like we did yesterday, we say, hey, what are our problems? What are your problems? Maybe I have some of your problems solved and you have some of my problems solved. And we don't know how we can help each other or really how fast we can grow until we open up around a group of trusted peers. 

So that's really the essence of the peer group is those contractors one time a month and then three times a year where we get together and we have a day-long meeting called a strategic planning session with your peers that care about the same things you do within your business. And we always try to include some other kind of educational event. Most likely, a lot of times it's a tour of another roofing company. So this week or I guess technically last week, time flies, we had a group of eight contractors, I think about 13 or 14 different representatives from those contractors and  on Monday before IRE, we went to Belden Roofing and wonderful Brad Belden opened up his doors, him and Danny Mendez took us through a tour of their entire grounds, told us what everybody does, let us take pictures, let us ask questions, told us the story of Belden Roofing, the ups and downs and  really got to sit with the leaders of that company and ask them all kinds of questions. 

So that is really when we get together, a real highlight of doing this is seeing some of those shops and meeting some of those... It's called the masterminds in roofing and hearing their stories. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah, I think one of the things I like about a peer group is it's really easy to get not stuck, but you're so focused on your day-to-day, your service area. It's easy to feel like you're on an island and you don't always know, am I doing this right? Am I utilizing these tools and resources to the best of my ability? And by being able to talk to others in your same shoes in a different part of the country, it really benefits everybody. And I think one of the hardest parts and  you tell me that this might be one of the hard part is you kind of have to let yourself be vulnerable. Right? You have to open up those doors and let people see inside the good, the bad and  the ugly. 

Tracy Donnells: You definitely do. Like I said, you're never going to grow until you say, hey, I don't know everything. What do you have that you might be able to teach me? And you say, being around like-minded people. And I think that's especially important when we talk about service. The repair and maintenance department often operates its own little department, its own few little people in the back of the company. It's usually not a big team. And if it is a big team, it is most likely very separate from the rest of the company. So a lot of times the project team and the service team maybe don't see eye to eye all the time and stuff like that. So it's great to surround yourself with people that go through what you go through, have seen those problems, have jumped over those hurdles. And once you surround yourself with like-minded people, it makes it a lot easier to open up because all of a sudden you get that immediate trust because I know you've walked through my shoes, so here, let me be honest with you. 

When I first got into this industry, but maybe two, three years in when I was still at Cape Host, my bosses sent me through a whirlwind tour of Florida and  in five days I got to go visit service departments, which at the time every single one of them was larger than mine. I got to tour great shops like Sutter and PSI and Crowther and Springer Peterson. I just went in and pretended like I was a dummy. Hey, I don't know nothing. And these great folks opened up their doors, walked around and  I was going to say, oh, I like this. Let me ask you a question about that because I think that might work for me back in Texas or what's all this? Oh, no, no, no, that's not going to work at all. But what's going on over here? 

And after those five days of doing nothing but asking questions, I came back with almost a master's degree in running a service department. I put all those tools to use and I was able to grow my department to the $9 million department it was. But I would've never been able to do that if I would've just kept thinking I had all the answers. What do they say? You can't see the forest through the trees? 

Karen Edwards: Right. Right. Yeah. One thing about this industry is everyone is so willing to give back and to share knowledge and to share information. And I know that you did some presentations last week during the Roofing Expo and you do them at shows and  that's your way of giving back to the industry. And as you mentioned, you had several hundred people in your class because this is a topic that you don't always know how to run a service department. You may know how to install a roof or find a leak and make a repair, but it's more about processes and procedures. Yeah? Wouldn't you say? You're nodding. 

Tracy Donnells: Yes. Too often in the roofing world, especially as we're a small company, as we get successful, we start putting on some bigger roofs, putting out some bigger invoices, service becomes the stuff we have to do, not necessarily the stuff we want to do. And I really think that's because we don't understand it. Too often I hear, service is the hardest work I do, but from the best service companies I hear from, service is the easiest work they do because they have those processes set up, they have those procedures set up. 

I often use the Chick-fil-A analogy. Most service departments are out here operating like food trucks. They have one or two people in back. They do great work, they do good customer service, but they cannot handle a rush. They don't have time to train anybody or anything like that because they're always busy putting out fires for customers, usually important customers. But if we put take that model and twist it around and take it like a Chick-fil-A drive-thru and think about what are the steps, what are the procedures we're going to handle each and every time that a leak call comes in or someone needs a roof inspection? If we can set up these procedures and train good quality people, not roof experts, they don't have to be roof experts, very little in service has anything to do with roofing. It's all about customer communications and customer service. 

Karen Edwards: Very true. Very true. 

Tracy Donnells: We can set up those policy and procedures and service can now become the easiest work we do. If six people walk up to a food truck, that number five person, number six person, even maybe number four person, they're going to be waiting for quite a while. If six full cars pull up to Chick-fil-A, that's just Tuesday. 

Karen Edwards: Right. Yeah. And so we want those service divisions to be just like that. I'm curious, I want to go back to the peer group because you mentioned getting on a Zoom call. Tell me a little bit about do you follow the same agenda each time? Do you have different topics? What's the length of the call? I'm curious what goes into that. 

Tracy Donnells: Yeah, so we do stick to it on an agenda where the lengths of the calls are typically about an hour and a half. Sometimes they wrap up a little bit shorter than that. We like to allow the time because we don't want to cut off a really good conversation. We don't want to run out of time because we're not going to meet for time and we're busy and we may not get back to that point. So we open up every call with an update of what's been going on since the last time we talked, right? Quick little two, three minute update. And then we go through whatever our travel plans for the next time we're getting together. So I have a peer group. The next time I get together with a peer group, I'm taking a group to Mobile, Alabama and  we are going to tour Thomas Roofing, which is one of my customers. But we're taking a different peer group to Thomas Roofing. So they're not in this peer group, they're in a different peer group and  they're going to open their doors to a totally new set of people. 

So we talk, what's been going on? Where are we going to go next? And then we typically dive right into our issues list. And the issues list is run very similar to the EOS level 10 style of IDS in a meeting. We put issues up on the board. We typically vote for whichever the one that we want to talk about and we discuss and then we go from there. And that's typically a routine monthly meeting. Now the agendas at the day long meetings in person, they're very similar, but we're going to be there for eight hours and usually we have one really big discussion topic that we're going to tackle. 

So last week, the group that met in San Antonio, since this is the first time we're getting together for the year, we discussed what our revenue goals were going to be for the year, what our non-revenue goal was for the year, something that's working on the department, not necessarily in the department and then what were the two biggest hurdles we saw that were going to be coming up for us to be hitting those goals? And it was amazing, once we got eight companies, two hurdles a piece up on the board, well five of them had the same hurdle. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. 

Tracy Donnells: So that obviously became the number one issue that we're going to talk about. And right then and there, we dove into a two and a half hour conversation about hiring, training, compensation, all kinds of stuff like that. 

Karen Edwards: So tell me a little bit about confidentiality, because if people are vulnerable, they're opening up, they're sharing, they're not dirty laundry, but some challenges, but some successes as well. Is there an NDA? How does that work? 

Tracy Donnells: Yes, we do sign an NDA each year as we renew the groups because the groups have a tendency to change and grow and stuff like that. So we do sign an NDA. And again, we don't have any competitors in the groups. We do have some groups that have roofing companies that I would say are relatively close to one another, even for me, a person coming from Dallas and how big Dallas is. But it's amazing what a state line can do to divide business. So for example, I have one contractor in Milwaukee and one contractor in Chicago and  one has no interest in going to Illinois and one has no interest in going to Wisconsin. So they're okay being in the same peer group. 

Karen Edwards: Are people that graduate or outgrow or... Do you find that people love the peer group so much they're sticking around no matter what? 

Tracy Donnells: So most are usually sticking around no matter what. We did recently change to where all of our peer groups renew at the beginning of the year now. And so what that allows, it allows me, us to shift up peer groups because sometimes we're going to make really good friends in the industry. But if I'm in a different peer group, I'm not going to disassociate with these five great people I met over here. I kind of look at it like my FEI class. I got a lot of great friends in FEI, but I don't see them every year. But every time I see them, we pick right back up. So a lot of times our peer groups will grow and  so we have a couple people that will say, hey, I like this peer group, but I want to go meet some other people. So we have two contractors this year that are in the same city that are flipping peer groups because they enjoy the groups, but they want to see who else can we learn from? What else is out there? 

Karen Edwards: What's the size of an average peer group? 

Tracy Donnells: So usually eight to 10 contracting companies and then one to two representatives per company. And I say eight to 10 because we typically like to start when we're about seven to eight. But if we have someone who may possibly join the group throughout the middle of the year and  we don't put anyone in a group without first asking of the group. So the group that I just met with in San Antonio, I'm going to be addressing that group about possibly adding a new member that I think could be very beneficial to the group because they're a common size, they have other similarities let's say in the industry and  they're in a market that no one else in that group is in. 

Karen Edwards: I am wondering if you have any success stories. I know you said people tend to stick around because it's about relationships and networking, but without being specific, share some of those success stories that people have experienced. 

Tracy Donnells: For sure. I mean, it really comes down to not only saving time and money and making the right choice... Or let's say not making the wrong choice. So I might meet someone in a peer group and  I don't know if they have the exact right answer for me, but they may have tried something I was going to try and they can say, here's why you should not do that. Don't go down that road. So a lot of times we're just learning from experiences, but sometimes there's something really quick. So I remember we had a peer group about a year and a half ago and  we were talking about a certain piece of equipment in the service department for leak detection. And they were talking about buying this piece of equipment and somebody had just bought the piece of equipment about two months earlier and  by switching the vendor, they saved like $1,800 just by having a conversation that who knows if he would've had that conversation elsewhere. 

But the quick little time savings like that, right? We had customers who share training programs, who share marketing ideas. Hey, what's your preventive maintenance program look like? Oh, do you have a one sheet that really pops? Oh, I like how yours is designed, let me look at it. Hey, I really want to start a employee newsletter, but I haven't really seen any roofing newsletters I really like. Do you guys have any newsletters? And then boom, all of a sudden you've got seven different examples of roofing newsletters in your email inbox. By the way, Corellis in Chicago may have the best employee newsletter. It is so cool. It is so cool. 

Karen Edwards: It's awesome. 

Tracy Donnells: And you wouldn't know about that until you asked the question, right? So if you have a network of peers like this and you come across an issue, why not ask them a question? Because the worst answer you're going to get is, nope, you've got to do that on your own. Just by asking a question, we may already have the simple solution, we may have time savings or we may have money savings. 

Karen Edwards: And your peer groups are focused mostly on commercial roofing service departments. 

Tracy Donnells: Correct. Commercial roofing service. Now, if we focus on the commercial service department, everything else in that commercial company is going to grow. My old firm, we eventually grew that department to, yes, eight and a half, $9 million in revenue. That was great, but what really mattered to me was 50% of our project revenue on the other side of the business came directly from our service clients. And that really not only helps you with the finances of a company, but it can really take the stress out of a company because now 50% of the customers like us, we don't have to prove ourselves to them again. They're giving us a chance or they're giving us the benefit of the doubt, right? How valuable is that sometimes [inaudible 00:18:06]? 

Karen Edwards: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's all about the relationships, the building trust and  they've seen you, your work and your performance throughout the years in service so that when it does come time to replace that roof, then you're going to be the first call they make, I'm sure. All right, so someone is listening today and they want to learn more about these peer groups and Service First Solutions. How do they do that? 

Tracy Donnells: Easiest way is to email us at info@growroofservice.com. Growroofservice.com. That's exactly what we do. We'll get exploratory meetings set up with you ASAP and  we'll see exactly what it is. What's the best service to be able to help you grow? So much of it is timing. If the timing's not right, we're not going to be successful, you're not going to be successful. So a lot of it goes into when is the right time to start, but also how much time do we have to dedicate to this process? Proper service is all about dedication of time and response of service. If you're going to go to school, you can't go to school without putting in the time. So between our different packages, we have different options based on where you're at. And we've had several companies that will start with a peer group and then they'll have us come visit them maybe a year in or something like that. And then maybe after, oh, well now we have a revenue generator and we have a coordinator, we've built two crews and now we're going to sign up for a yearly program. Something like that 

Karen Edwards: Right. Yeah, I like that, that you're really meeting the contractor where they are and customizing for their needs. That's really important. 

Tracy Donnells: Yeah. I mean, it's definitely a process, right? I mean, the new motto we're putting all over our shirts and our stickers is, "The day you plant the seed is not the day you harvest your crop." You have to do it right at the front side, but then you have to tend to that soil and take care of it and do all kinds of stuff. Otherwise, you're not going to get that result in the end. 

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Wow. Tracy, thank you for being here today and having this conversation. I hope that we've given some folks out there some things to think about. 

Tracy Donnells: Yes. Thank you so much, Karen. 

Karen Edwards: And that was Growroofservice.com. And you can also find Service First Solutions on Roofer's Coffee Shop. They have a full directory with contact information, articles, information about what they do and  hopefully we'll help you achieve the goals that you have set for yourself for the coming years. Tracy, again, thank you. Thank you everybody out there for listening. Be sure to follow us on social media, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform because we want to see you on a future episode of Roofing Road Trips. Take care. Bye-bye. 

Outro: If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit Rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next Roofing Road trip. 

By Jesse Sanchez.

Peer collaboration, clear processes and a focus on service are setting the tone for 2025 growth.

For roofing contractors wondering how to scale from a one-truck operation into a full-fledged service department, the final day of ServiceCon 2025 offered more than just theory — it offered proof of concept.

Tracey Donels of Service First Solutions took center stage in discussion with Heidi J. Ellsworth and provided a clear message: growth isn't just about more trucks — it's about building the internal systems that can support them.

“What we really talked about is how do we scale those internal staff members to be able to support the external staff members,” Tracey said during a live interview at the event. “If we don’t provide good service, if we don’t have a good quality product to sell, all the sales and marketing is not going to work.”

Held in Houston, this year’s ServiceCon gathered contractors and service professionals from across the country, each at different stages of business development. But what united them was a shared interest in one thing: sustainable growth through better service models. From peer group workshops to idea-heavy presentations, the conference represented just how critical infrastructure and communication are to long-term success.

One recurring theme? Documentation. “Everybody talked about documentation, about how important it was or how much it helped them once they finally took the time to document what their processes were.,” Tracey said. This simple step, he noted, makes training easier, highlights inefficiencies and increases accountability across teams.

But the standout value came from the power of peer networks. Tracey leads national peer groups that bring together non-competing contractors in a confidential, collaborative setting. These groups meet online monthly and in-person three times a year. He stated, “Within 30 minutes I have five possible options to try to tackle that problem.”

Service, he expressed, is recession resistant. In an uncertain economy, building owners are looking for cost-effective ways to extend the life of their investments — and proactive roof service can be a key part of that.

Watch the full interview and discover how peer-driven insights and process-driven growth could reshape your service department in 2025!

By Jesse Sanchez.

Access to exclusive peer groups gives commercial roofing leaders a real edge in the service department game.

When Tracey Donels joined Karen Edwards on Roofing Road Trips®, the conversation quickly cut to the heart of a major issue in commercial roofing: growing service departments in an industry where operational silos and burnout are all too common. Tracey, a seasoned commercial service pro and co-founder of Service First Solutions, shared his thoughts on what’s holding many companies back.

“You’re never going to grow until you say, ‘Hey, I don’t know everything. What do you have that you might be able to teach me?’” he said. This mindset drives one of the most powerful tools his company offers: service-focused peer groups.

More than just another networking opportunity, these peer groups are structured to bring together 8 to 10 non-competing contractors from across the country. The goal? Solve real problems in commercial roofing service departments — and do it by learning from the people living those challenges every day.

Each month, peer group members jump on a Zoom call and work through issues using a format inspired by EOS’s Level 10 meetings. Members openly share what’s working, what’s not and where they need help. That candor, Tracey said, is key.

Peer group benefits go far beyond venting sessions. Contractors share processes, compare tools and sometimes save thousands by avoiding costly missteps. In one case, Tracey recalled, a peer’s advice on buying leak detection equipment led to another contractor saving $1,800 simply by switching vendors.

But perhaps the greatest value comes in the form of clarity — seeing a path forward when service feels like chaos.

“Too often in the roofing world... service becomes the stuff we have to do, not necessarily the stuff we want to do,” Tracey explained. “From the best service companies, I hear service is the easiest work they do — because they have those processes set up.”

The peer group model mirrors Tracey’s own journey. Early in his career, he visited five major service departments across Florida in one week. “I just went in and pretended like a dummy,” he said. That willingness to ask questions turned into a $9 million service department under his leadership.

For commercial roofing leaders ready to move from survival mode to scalable success, Tracey makes it clear: you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about how contractors are using peer groups to transform their service departments!