Survey Bridges The Gap Between Contractors & Consumers
This week, Roofing Contractor hosted a very interesting webinar titled, “Homeowner Trends All Roofing Contractors Need to Know.” The hour-long webinar was sponsored and presented by three members of Roofle Technologies’ leadership team including Roofle CEO Travis Harvego.
While the focus of the presentation and those on the call were primarily roofing contractors across the U.S., the webinar could have easily been titled, “Homeowner Trends ALL Contractors Need to Know.”
Unlike some industry webinars that can drag and begin to feel like more of an infomercial for the sponsoring presenters, this one was phenomenal with the 3 Roofle reps providing helpful, multi-generational insight into contractor practices and consumer preferences.
That insight was courtesy of a new survey of both contractors and homeowners that shed light on how both parties feel about hot topics like charging for a visit, providing online estimates, shopping for quotes, the importance of service agreements, and the most important factors for consumers when choosing a roofing contractor. And once again, this could apply to all home service providers and professional contractors.
How Do You Promote Yourself As A Contractor?
One of the great things about this webinar and Roofing Contractor webinars in general is the repeated use of real-time participant surveys during the presentation.
Right out of the gate, participants were asked to name their number one method for promoting themselves as a contractor.
Using “Google and other Search Engines” was the number one choice among those polled with 39% of the vote followed by “Word of Mouth” with 32% and “Social Media” with 16%. Relying on repeat customers and door-to-door advertising ranked lowest, and the survey shed some light on generational differences and preferences among today’s homeowner.
Compared to Baby Boomers, Millennials and GenX’ers state a greater preference for finding contractors via search engines and social media. This generational divide was also quite visible in the survey results when it came to questions of online estimates and pricing transparency.
We are seeing this trend of GenX and Millennials relying more on Search Engines and Social Media. They like experiences. They want something to back up what somebody else has said. I would say in the next couple of years, I think we’ll see those social media bar graphs get higher and higher and word of mouth just get smaller and smaller. -Roofle CEO Travis Harvego
Millennials Will Just Hang Up And Call The Next Guy
To hammer home this point of younger generations seeking out experiences, third party validation and pricing transparency, Roofle’s Mike Goldstein shared some anecdotal evidence courtesy of his 21-year-old daughter who has friends who are planning weddings and shopping around for reception locations.
“They will go and look at the online reviews. They don’t trust word of mouth nearly as much as my generation. They are also looking for a price. If they can’t find a price online, they will call the venue. If the person who answers at the venue says, ‘Stop by so we can show you the venue and talk about price,’ they will hang up and call their number two choice on the list.” – Roofle’s Mike Goldstein
Bottom line, he says younger generations are looking for reviews, and preferably verified reviews which sites like Amazon have done a good job of pushing into the mainstream. They would rather trust a computer than a salesperson and, when it comes to choosing a contractor for a major home project, they want to base a decision on independent third party reviews rather than a referral.
How Do You Feel About Charging For A Visit & Online Estimates?
The next portion of the webinar took a deeper dive into the topic of price transparency by examining whether those contractors surveyed and those on the call charged for visits and provided online estimates.
Only 5% of the roofing contractors in attendance said they charged for a visit, and that was an industry norm as reflected in the broader survey results.
When it came to providing online estimates, one-third of those surveyed in the live poll said they provided online estimates while 66% said they do not, and Roofle’s CEO again shared some insight on why these numbers may be lower for the roofing industry compared to other home service providers.
“There are some fears on the part of a business owner who is faced with being more transparent with their pricing. How do you choose an instant estimator that will give the consumer the experience they are looking for? Other industries are much further along with offering robust online estimates, but roofing is just beginning to evolve.” -Roofle CEO Travis Harvego
The Waiting Game: Speed-to-Lead and Speed-to-Completion
The Need for Speed was one of the last topics tackled in the webinar, and the survey results, both live and in the printed report, suggested that more and more contractors are sensitive to the average consumer’s need for instant gratification.
“We live in a world that is on demand. Everybody is expecting things immediately. This is the reality of the world we live in.” -BNP Media’s Mitch Henderson
“We like to say seconds are better than minutes, minutes are better than hours, and if it’s over an hour to respond, you’ve probably lost the sale. – Roofle’s Mike Goldstein
When it came to the question of response time from the second a new lead hits the inbox, the live poll results of those contractors attending the webinar showed that 60% of contractors are responding in 30 minutes or less with 30% of those saying they are actually responding in 5 minutes or less.
Another question regarding response times posed to attendees and those surveyed in the report addressed average speed to job completion once the homeowner has accepted a quote to install a new roof or repair an existing roof.
Here again, the survey looked at what today’s homeowner expectations are and what today’s roofing contractor is delivering on average. For homeowners, 43% expect the work to be completed in 1-2 weeks, while 40% expect the work to be completed in 2-3 weeks.
On the roofing contractor side of the equation, 20% of those surveyed said lead times were Less than 1 week, 33% said 1-2 weeks, and 31% said 2-3 weeks.
Download The Official Survey & Watch The Full Webinar
As mentioned, this was one of those can’t miss webinars where the hosts shared some really great information in the slide deck and in the course of conversation.
The 25-page slide deck takes a deeper dive into those generational differences that will benefit not just roofing contractors but any home service provider looking to modernize and adopt to changing homeowner preferences.
For a replay of the full webinar and the 25-slide survey results, visit Roofing Contractor.
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