Richard Rast RSI Columnist

For many commercial contractors, roof repair and maintenance can be a feast or famine business. When there's a feast following a major weather event, you may be flooded with hundreds of leak calls a day. Your service crews scramble to handle all the leak repairs they can, and it may take weeks to report back on what was done on each roof and get out the invoices. You push your project managers, crews, and estimators to keep up with the demands, but there's barely enough time to produce proposals to cover immediate repairs and keep clients happy. Everyone is in reaction mode, focusing on quickly fixing leaks — and you miss the opportunity to win the more extensive permanent repairs that all those roofs really need.

Then, inevitably, things slow down. You may finally get around to presenting some proposals for additional recommended repairs, but by that time the leak emergency has passed and you'll have a harder time getting the building owner to buy in. And if the roof leaks again, they may even question whether you did your job rather than consider that their leaking roof has many issues that need remediation.

And when things slow down so much for so long, famine sets in, and you are facing lay-offs of valuable service crews. You've seen signs in the service department that say NO WORK, NO PAY. No one enjoys this pressure — and lay-offs will leave you vulnerable when the next rush comes. These challenges are the downside of service work, and many contractors are tempted to give up this potentially lucrative side of their business because the weather, and their customers, come and go in such extreme swings. It's a business that can be difficult to manage in both the busy times and the slow, and the potential for missed opportunity looms large.

When it pours, literally and figuratively, the bucket of leak-repair backlog fills quickly and consumes your resources; but it's only so big, and the revenue won't sustain your business. Meanwhile, there's a big barrel that could be filling with additional repair opportunities. Every leaky roof has multiple issues, so every leak call is a potential up-sell for a more extensive repair project — not to mention a long-term maintenance contract. What if there was a way to fill that barrel at the same time you're dealing with the all-consuming bucket?

It takes planning and organization, but you can capture the follow-on repair opportunities in the midst of managing hectic leak response. The best way to prepare yourself is to adopt tools and practices designed to help you gather information and put it into an invoice or proposal for additional recommended repairs quickly — while the ceiling is still wet and the leak is still on your customer's mind. You can send service sales people to follow up immediately after the leak call, and with the right technology tools, document the conditions quickly and thoroughly into a winning proposal. Digital field data collection, GPS and satellite technology, and proposal-building software are cutting-edge tools you can adopt to better manage the rush, and at the same time build up a steady backlog of permanent repair work that you can schedule at your own pace — so your service trucks are always running, rain or shine. As a result, your maintenance and repair business will be capable of satisfying more customers during the feast, and producing more scheduled recommended repair proposals to eliminate the famine.

RICHARD RAST is the president of Roof Express LLC.