b'Business Managementtrainservicedepartmentsthecontrastisstriking.produces invoices, interacts with the customers and, When a roofing company owner is actively engagedbasically, is the prime contact point for all incoming andinvolved,resultscome.Whentheyarenot,requestsandquestions. Althoughthisindividual results are either puny or non-existent.Are therewill need to learn the mechanics of scheduling in exceptionstothis?Sure.Willyoubeoneofterms of which customers get priority over others them?No, because if you were the exception, yourand which crews should be sent to handle certain department would be growing and you wouldnt betypesofroofingsystems,fundamentally,thisrole reading this article! doesnotrequireroofingskills,itrequirespeople ThesecondobservationIwouldmakeabouttheskills.Thisroleneedstobefilledbysomebody mistakescontractorsmakeisthattheybringgood at customer service.thesametypeofattitudeandapproachtotheirInasmalldepartment,theserolesareoften servicedepartmentsthattheyuseinproductionhandled by one individual, which is understandable, work. The construction industry, in general, is setbut most roofers tend to choose someone with the up to foster adversarial relationships. There isroofingskillsoversomeonewithgoodcustomer adriveforproductivity,becausethegreatertheservice skills.That is a mistake.Now, if you are productivity, the greater the profit.This is completelyreadingthisandsaying,ButGreg,howcanyou understandable and necessary.Unfortunately, theexpect somebody with no real roofing knowledge to individualmostcontractorsputinchargeoftheirhandle roofing technical issues? You cant.But service departments day-to-day operations usuallyhere is the other side of that: How can you expect has come from that sort of mindset and that is notsomebodywithnorealcustomerserviceskillsto good in a service culture! The operative word inskillfully handle customer service issues? You may ServiceDepartmentisserviceandservicethink your roof guy can do both, but almost always really means customer-service oriented. This ishe cant. At least not well. What you are sacrificing often the opposite of the production mindset.Hayneby doing this is the customer service, and frankly, CoachingGroupconductsbehaviorassessmentsdoingwhatmakesyourjobeasier.Hopefully, on our clients key employees and the last time wethough you can begin to understand that this choice checked, the number of reports we have for peoplealso is the thing which makes your customers life who are really great at customer service was lessin dealing with you more difficult. And the service than 5%. For you to be successful at service youbusiness is about making your customers life easy, need somebody who is customer-service oriented.not yours.Next,wewillstarttalkingabouthowtofindthatInalargerdepartment,therecouldbemultiple special someone.peopleinvolvedineitheroftheseroles,butthat Part 2Skills (or Roles) Needed. doesnotchangethefactthatyouneedpeople Therearefundamentallytwospecificskillsetswith super customer service skills to interact with needed in your office in order to build a successfulyour customer base every bit as much as you need servicedepartment.First,youneedsufficientsomebody who can handle technical issues in the knowledgeofbasicroofingissuesandsolutions.field.In the next Issue of MR Magazine, we will Thenamethatweassigntothisroleisservicestart talking about how to actually do that.superintendent. This is the individual who will beGregHayneownsRoofManagement,atraditionalroof responsible for making sure the guys doing repairsconsulting company with a nontraditional twist.A few years and other work in the field have the right materials,ago, Greg became intrigued by the exceptional service some cangettheirtechnicalquestionsansweredifroofing contractor service departments were providing to his they get stuck and, generally, provide any and allbuilding owners.He decided to find out exactly how these technical help required. He should be able to helpparticular companies got so good at servicewithtroubleshootinginthefieldandshouldbeI believe there are better, smarter ways to work. We help responsible for and able to check jobs to make surecompanies find and implement those better ways.~Greg the guys are performing as they should. HayneSecondly, you need a service coordinator. This individualreceivesincomingservicerequests, scheduleswork,processesofficepaperwork, www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer 17'