Crews Who Go to WAR For You? Relationship Tips For Better Installs, Less Call Backs, Happy Customers

Whether you like it or not, your crews are either your worst enemy or your best friend. They're the thing that destroys your business or the things that grow your business. And whether you're an owner or whether you're a sales rep, our ability to control our crews really depends on the relationships that we build with them now. Jeff, by the way, Jeff, thank you for inspiring this video I posted on Instagram. And if you're not following me on Instagram, I invite you to join the journey. I post some fun stuff on my story there. It's oofstrategist I or you can follow me on Facebook. My name, Adam Bensman. So I posted a little poll and I said, hey, tell me what you want me to do a video about. And Jeff inspired this when he says, do a video on building relationships with crews so they go to war for you. Now, that wasn't the exact language that he used, but it's the language that I interpreted because I knew that I had crews, that when I showed up for a job, I often was not satisfied with the way the job site looked. There were errors that were occurring, and the truth is, the callbacks that I'd get from customers that destroyed my. My integrity were issues that should never have even happened in the first place. These were mistakes that were being made by lack of professionalism, not having attention to detail, or simply not installing jobs properly. And let's be real, whether you're an owner or rep, the last thing that you want is your phone ringing with customer complaints or problems coming up, and you end up turning into a firefighter as opposed to a salesperson. So in this video, thank you to Jeff. I'm going to be teaching you how to get your crews to go to war for you. Welcome. And welcome back. If you have been following along, my name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist, and everything I do Here on the YouTube channel is designed for one simple reason, and that is to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience. And that last part, giving every customer an amazing experience, is in addition to our just cause and focus, because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. We have fun with what we do. We make a great impact, and our customers who are happy make us happy, and they send us more business and everybody wins. So let's get straight into today's video. First, a funny story. So I learned this getting crews to go to war for you, because at the end of the day, when people like you, you develop a relationship and when people like you, they do things for you that they wouldn't do if people they don't like. So let me just give you an example. Let's say an old friend that you haven't heard from in 10 years, who maybe insulted you, from long ago, sends you a Facebook message and then asks for a favorite, are you likely to do that favor? No. No, you're not. But if someone reaches out to you who you've recently developed a relationship with and you like, and each time you connect, you feel good and you say, hey, do you mind doing this one thing for me? What do you think their answer is going to be? Yes. So this isn't about manipulation. It's not about getting anyone in your back pocket. It's about developing relationships where your crew loves working for you, you love working with them, and the customer has an amazing experience. So, funny story, I just want to share. I used to buy my crew beer and I'd only get it at the end of the day because, come on, I know how our crews are working longer hours and harder hours physically. And you know, they're up out often in the blazing sun, roasting. So one day I go and bring my crew a bunch of beer and I put it in the passenger seat of their truck and I said, guys, thank you for kicking butt for me this week. I know it was a long week. I wanted to get you guys some beer because I know it's Friday and anyway, so I start doing my thing and chatting with the customer and I walk back to my truck to grab my file folder. This was back before CRMs. And then I turn in, in the driveway, looking up, and there on the ridge is my crew harness off, you know, totally casual time, doing his cleanup with the Corona in his hand. I was like, okay, this is not exactly what I imagined when I thought I'd bring you beer. So first things first, don't bring your crew beer. And if you do, make sure they know to not drink it on the roof of the customer. Not a good luck. Alright, now, getting your crew to go to war for you. I want you to think about how most roofing companies treat their people versus how you get to choose how to treat your people. Most roofing companies are focused on one thing, the dollar. It's greed, right? So all they care about crew, you're going to go out, you're going to get this job done, you're going to get it done on time and I want it perfect and they want to do it in this way, where they're completely hands off. So what ends up happening is you leave the job site and later on, the customer calls because they're upset. There's a stain on the siding, a window screen's torn. There's an oil drip in the driveway from one of their trucks or a compressor. Something didn't go awry. And this is something that we need to realize. We cannot be hands off with our jobs because callback backs are no fun. So instead, what we want to do is instead of focusing on the money and being hands off, we instead want to be engaged and work alongside the crew. So here's a few different. I'm going to list these out for you. A few different ways for you to stay focused on developing relationships with crews so they go to war for you. So let's start with number one. One is treat them with respect, okay? Now, oftentimes, treat them with respect, okay? There are crews from all walks of life, and at the end of the day, without our crews, we wouldn't have roofs to install or customers to serve. We need to treat our crews with a level of respect that we would treat anyone else. In fact, I shouldn't say anyone else. They deserve a high level of respect and care and honesty and heart that we would give to a loved one, a family member, or a customer. So number one, treat them with respect. Number two, surprise them. Okay. Oops, spelling error. Surprise them. I wish that my tablet came with spell check, but it doesn't. All right, so what do I mean by surprise them? On a hot day, stop by the gas station, get a case of water, get some Gatorade. Something that just shows, hey, I notice and acknowledge and I care about you. If you budgeted $7 a job for a case of water at the grocery store, and especially if you can bring it with some ice or even whatever, you're going to learn what your crew likes. You're going to see that these guys drink Red Bull. These guys are Mountain Dew people. These guys are Coke or Pepsi people. These guys are water people. Just learn your crew and surprise them with a little gift. All right? Number three, join them on the roof. Okay? But here's the thing. When I say join them on the roof that you're installing, what you don't want to do is get up there and be the boss man like this. You don't want to be like, all right? And then be this authority, get down and dirty with them. I would sit up with my crew and I would often guy who was nailing and I Would grab the bundle of shingles and I'd feed him shingles and I would do this for five, ten minutes. Didn't matter. Just to show, hey, I'm going to help, I care. I want this thing done just as much as you want it done. And I am getting my hands dirty with you. And I know I'm not out installing and I know that there are some people that say, hey, that's a violation of our workers comp and what we can do on the roof. I'm not talking about picking up tools, I'm talking about being a human, enjoying them on the roof and engaging with the process. Next, this is where we start to have a little fun. When you join them on the roof, little things, alright, it's important for you to start to do your inspection. It's much easier to spot issues as they come up as opposed to later. And I vividly remember a mistake that I made once we brought in new crews because we got really busy and as we got busy, we were focused on building jobs. We didn't have observation of our jobs. So we started to get a few callbacks and believe me, I hate callbacks. Not because I don't like dealing with the customer. I hate callbacks because I feel like our integrity as an organization, organization was compromised. The value that we believe we can bring was not delivered upon and at the end of the day it was our fault. So I had to go out there. By the way, this is where I get to use my baby face. So I just showed up at all the houses we did. And I said, hey, my name's Adam, I'm here to do a quality inspection. I'm part of our quality assurance team, which I was. I just happened with the chief operating officer that was doing the quality insurance, our quality checks. And I'm just going to hop up on your roof and just do a quick inspection, make sure the crew has done everything they need to and make sure everything's all buttoned up. And if there's any little things we need to come back for, we just want to get a jump start on it so you don't have to give us a buzz. And we got you taken care of. And I started to get up on these roofs and I started to notice that one crew, they weren't snapping lines and the shingles were like an ocean wave, not good. We ended up having to redo that roof. But my point is, if I would have caught that during the install, I wouldn't have had to redo the roof, which would have been a better experience for the customer and a happier experience for the sales rep. So when you join them on the roof and you participate and actively engage, Then what happens is it's very easy for you to. To connect and say, hey, guys, we need to do this same thing. I noticed some of the rake edge shingles were hanging way far over, so, hey, can we cut these back? And as you start to do that, what happens is your crew says, hey, this guy. When they show up on the job, they know what rep. Believe me, my crews were like, oh, I loved working with this guy. And, oh, man, I'm on another one of his jobs. I wanted them all to say, I'm so excited to be working with this company. When you treat them with respect, they get excited that you're the one there. You surprise them with water, Gatorade, Red bull, whatever it is. By the way, I sometimes even brought lunches. Funny story. I went to chipotle so much on this one area I work because it was right there for lunch that the owner said, I want to treat your entire company to lunch. And he gave me 20 free lunches. So I picked up chipotle for the crew and brought it out to the job site, and it made their day, because I wasn't going to eat 20 chipotle burritos in a day. It'd be a long time. All right? And then when you join them on the roof, you build this respect. So as you start to spot things, they correct them soon. And what's important, then they realize you're watching, but you're doing it in a way where you're not the ruling dictator. And they hate that you're up there with your wingtip shoes, making all this money, driving your lifted truck while they're working harder for you, for harder than you, for less money. So it levels the playing field, but also establishes trust in a relationship. All right, then the last two things I'm going to do is do a final inspection while they're there. Okay? Do final inspection. Inspection. Now, this is one of the first things that gets overlooked when we get busy. And it's really important that when you finish the job, you show up right when the crew is finalizing it. And I know some companies have a separate production person for this, Whether it's the production team or you. When you do that final inspection while the crew's there, you can spot what might need to be done. Make sure the cleanup is done efficiently. Okay? Now, when you go through this final inspection alongside them, they like it because they don't get a call back, they're onto the next job tomorrow morning when you say, hey, I need you to come back to finish this job. Because of X, Y and Z, the cleanup wasn't good. There's a stain here, they get frustrated. So if you help them squash it in advance, what happens? You don't get callbacks. Customers have better experience. Crew likes you, alright? And the final one, I want to bring up something that we all face, okay? And this is just connecting, connecting and communicating. Now, communication is the number one complaint of roofing contractors. I know that that's hard to read. Connecting and communicating is what that says. That's the fifth tip. Connecting with your crew early, setting clear expectations. It's often a mix up when you told the customer that they're going to be there when they actually show up, all these things. So opening that direct line of communication caringly and asking questions for confirmation. And I know at times, since we have all walks of life and sometimes there can be language barriers with our crews. Do your best, alright? Do your best to communicate. No one is ever going to fault you for trying with your heart of hearts to communicate, alright? So connect and communicate in advance. And when you follow these five steps by treating your crew with respect, surprising them with fun little gifts, even water, and joining them on the roof shows that you care. Doing your final inspection before they even leave, and then connecting and communicating to help you serve your customers better. And so you're not trying to go on vacation on that one Saturday where you have an install going and not knowing when the crew is going to show up or how it's going to look like. When you follow all of these, your crew will want to work with you and your company over the competitors. And at the end of the day, they will go to war for you. Now, that's all I have for today's video. If you like this video, then I have a playlist that I think you're going to really like right here. Actually, let's be real, it's what YouTube thinks you're going to like. But YouTube's pretty smart and if you haven't yet done it, I invite you to join me inside the pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. You can get free access by clicking right here and I'll send it right to your inbox and I'll see you on the next one.