Homeowners Are Using AI to Compare Roof Estimates. I Tested It.

How are homeowners using AI to compare roof estimates and choose a roofing company? Well, I ran an experiment plugging 3 actual roof estimates into ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, acting like what I would predict a homeowner would to figure out what the trends that AI had in comparing these estimates and most importantly, what questions they were encouraging homeowners to ask the roofing contractors. So watch this video all the way through because I'm going to highlight the 7 top trends. And then if you watch the video all the way through, you'll see at the end I'm going to share 3 little bonus tips that really honestly surprised me of what AI prompted homeowners to ask their contractors. Now, this video was inspired by real-time conversations I was having recently at FRS. That's the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Association conference down in, of course, Florida that I just got back from. And I kept hearing roofers sharing that their homeowners have been using AI to evaluate estimates. So I couldn't help but do this experiment for myself. And I'm sharing this video with you to help you provide the most thorough and helpful estimates you possibly can to not only inform your homeowners, but to help inform AI through the evaluation process so you can earn more business. Welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman. You may have seen some changes here on the channel. All exciting things. The Strong Roofer has replaced the Roof Strategist because, listen, Your company is only as strong as you are. And if you did not see the news yet, I am so proud to announce that I have joined the TAMKO family. TAMKO has acquired RSRA. We've relaunched as the Roofing Strong Alliance, and now membership to this training and growth community is available at no additional cost to the TAMKO EDGE contractors. You can learn more or apply to join using the link in the description. And yes, our vetting process has not only remained like it was, it actually got even stricter. Now I'm going to grab my notes because what I did after analyzing these 3, which I have up on my computer, these 3 estimates and these 3 different LLMs, is I wanted to identify the theme so I could deliver them to you versus it said this and you should do that. So let's take a look at theme number 1, which is itemization. Now there are a couple of prompts and I'm looking off at my computer because I still have these up regarding, again, ice and water shield wording. And it says, again, one of the quotes said, in quote, install new ice and water shield membrane according to building code IRC and synthetic felt on the remaining areas. And then I said, that's fine, but it doesn't specify how many feet up from the eaves, valleys, chimney areas, or penetration. So when I talk itemization, I also mean the level of specificity with each line item. Some people might just say install ice and water shield. But I'm seeing a trend that AI is looking for more specificity. Here's another one. It says, are you replacing all flashing or reusing any? And then it prompts a question for follow-up. Ask, will all pipe boots, chimney flashing, step flashing, and counter flashing be replaced? And it says— it further says many leaks come from flashing and not shingles. You want specifics. Now, I've been preaching both of these for years, that specificity is so important in your estimate. And now, as homeowners are using AI to evaluate estimates, it is really important to have a, a detailed level of itemization and specificity. All right. Number 2 is specifics on warranty information. Now, that warranty information is broken into 2 categories. One is workmanship and the other is manufacturer. If you take a look, you'll see in this example it says no manufacturer warranty explanation. They say blank lifetime warranty architectural laminate shingles. But they don't explain the registered warranty level, any enhanced coverage or labor coverage. And this leaves ambiguity. So what is the takeaway? Again, specificity regarding your warranty, whether it's your company's labor or workmanship warranty or a manufacturer warranty, and then the details of that manufacturer warranty that is being delivered. All right. Number 3, this is where things start getting really interesting. Attic ventilation kept coming up. And again, I have been sharing this for nearly a decade that so many roofing companies aren't even addressing attic ventilation. In fact, sadly, I've— I have witnessed many roofing companies not even training their sales team to evaluate proper ventilation in a roof. So if we scroll down here, it says the biggest red flag I saw overall, and this was for the 3 estimates, None of the 3 proposals discuss attic intake ventilation. They all talk about exhaust vents, ridge vents, slant vents, box vents. But I don't see discussion of soffit vents, baffles, attic airflow calculations, or net free area. Poor ventilation is one of the reasons new roofs fail— excuse me, fail early. And I think as roofers, we can all agree ventilation is very, very important. And again, without specifying, because again, just the exhaust ridge vent is commonly listed, but not a proper attic ventilation assessment. So not only is this an opportunity for you and your team to provide a very thorough evaluation of the homeowner's roof, but documenting the attic ventilation requirements. All right. This one should come as no surprise, is the category of financing and payment terms. But as you start scrolling through some of these, or I start scrolling through some of these, one thing that was interesting, it said, quote, and you can tell this one I believe was from Gemini with the black background. It says, "High sneaky credit card fee. They charge a 3.75% processing fee if you pay by credit card. So on a $12,460 project," which was this example, "that adds an extra $467.25 to your bill just by swiping a card." So The other examples that I don't have screenshots for at the moment were regarding the payment terms, whether it was a deposit or a draw schedule. These are items that AI is interested in exploring, and it's something you may wish to consider including in your estimates moving forward. All right. Number 5 was reviews. Now, it is amazing how many times I witnessed these different tools ask about reviews, say, hey, before you hire them, look up the reviews and find out how long they've been in business. So if you can include some of your reviews in the estimate, knowing that's what a homeowner may plug into ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or whatever is the latest greatest at this time, by the time you're watching this, to mention your reviews and the time in business. Now, the cleanup process, this was surprising to me. Like it said in here, let me pull this up. Where was it? It was again, quote, no mention of cleaning gutters or using a magnetic rake for nails. The cleanup process is something so frequently overlooked. I personally have observed very few roofing companies even talk about the cleanup process. And even if you might be thinking, well, all roofers do it the same, we use tarps, we clean up the property, we sweep them. With a magnet for nails. It's got to be listed on there, which goes back to item number 1, which is itemization. So mentioning your cleanup process and using a magnet and sweeping for nails. And surprisingly, by the way, one of the follow-up questions that I saw prompted was, yeah, look at this. This actually jumps into category 6, which is protecting the home. Again, not often listed in an estimate. Now, many roofing companies may list this in their sales process, but it is not listed in the estimate that's being uploaded to AI. So you may wish to include details about protecting the home and the cleanup process. Here's an example. It says, how do you protect landscaping and clean up nails? Asked, how many magnetic sweeps do you perform? Now, although as a roofer, you might be thinking that that's a silly question, there's only a few roofers I've seen that'll say that they sweep 3 times. And if they— again, you have to do what you say you're going to do. So if you're not sweeping 3 times, don't say that. If you sweep 3, tell them that you sweep 3 times. If that's the protocol for the crew. And then again, how do you protect shrubs and the driveway? Now, you'll be amazed again, if, if it seems like common sense, but we don't spell it out, it's got to be spelled out or it's going to go over the homeowner's head. All right. And then the category number 7 is insurance, licensing, and permits. It's kind of what I'll call that, that the legal bucket. You know, I know license isn't required in every state. But if it is, include your license. If you have insurance, state that you have insurance and consider providing proof of insurance because it's a common follow-up question. And then of course, whether or not permits are required, which I recognize are not required in every area. But you'll see again right on here, the two most important questions regardless of who you choose are proof of insurance and references. A contractor who hesitates on either is a significant red flag. Now, what I've gathered by this before I share these, these 3 kind of categories of follow-up questions that AI had prompted would be for you to reconsider with the new modern homebuyer how you prepare your estimates. In the old days, we had our presentation. By the way, the old days weren't that far ago or weren't that far back. We had our proposal in our in-home sales experience, maybe a deck, whether it was virtual or a flipbook that went through a lot of this. But now with the use of AI, a homeowner may not upload the presentation that was included. So including this information on your estimate gives the homeowner one central place to look during the comparison process and for AI to have all the information needed to get a clear picture of your company, who you are and how you operate. But here are the 3 prompted follow-up questions that surprise me a lot. So let's take a look. Number 1, who actually installs the roof? This is my number 1 question. Do you use your own crews or subcontractors? And then follow up, how long has that crew worked for you? A company can have great reviews while using a completely different subcontractor crew every month. So I've addressed this in the past, the importance of communicating clearly to homeowners the relationship you have with your crews. And of course, most importantly, the importance of having a great relationship and consistency with your crews in the install. But then this one, it says, pro tip for selecting your roofer. Once you get these answers, ask the company you like best, quote, who will be my dedicated on-site project manager on the actual day of the tear-off? And will they be there the entire day? Roofing crews are often third-party subcontractors. So knowing you have a dedicated English-speaking company representative physically on your property supervising the project makes a massive, massive difference. In build quality and cleanup. And again, this is being prompted by AI. So you may wish to consider including these details in your estimate. And again, operationally— and people have heard me say this— the roofing industry is getting even more sophisticated and it's becoming even more sophisticated with more information available to homeowners to ask really intelligent questions in highlighting gaps that, that less structured companies don't have someone who's on site and it may not be all day, but at least stopping by. And homeowners clearly are going to begin to want that because this is the information that they're being educated on. Okay. And here's another, another follow-up question that was asked, asking the, the company, how many roofs do you do each week and how long have you been in business? So be prepared to answer these questions. Now, the final one that I'm going to land on is this, and it's price negotiations. Now, this was prompted, and this is simply my prediction, that one of the estimates I uploaded included a statement regarding price matching, that this particular company would match any price as long as the proposal and estimate was exactly the same. Now, it did highlight, it said, hey, this might have been some marketing or sales language because it's up to them whether or not they want to price match. But if it was me, I'd go back and ask them to match the price of this other company because their estimate was relatively close. So you may begin to see some price negotiations encouraged by AI, especially if you open that can of worms in your estimates. So what do you do with all this information? What you do is you start thinking about the modern homeowner and you begin adapting your company for these modern times to create an even better experience for the people you serve. I hope this advice helps you create really powerful estimates that give you the opportunity to earn more business. And if you like this video and you want even more tips and strategies to make the moves today that you need in our fast-changing times, then consider joining the Roofing Strong Alliance. There's a link in the description to learn more, and I'll see you on the next one.