Roofing's 1-Star Reviews... and How to Use Them to CRUSH Your Competition

I analyzed one star reviews from roofing companies. I'm going to show you how to use them to crush your competition. And I know you might be thinking, hey, roofing is different in California than it is out east. And it's different in Minneapolis than it is in Texas, in Florida. Well, guess what, I made this fun because I analyze one star reviews from companies in Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta and Orlando, coast to coast, storm and retail north to south. Getting a sample size of, you know, pretty much the United States. And you're going to be able to use this information to absolutely supercharge your irresistible marketing. And for my sales friends to help you dial in your sales message. You'll see what I mean as we get into it. Look over my shoulder. Let's rock and roll. Made this video in response to this recent one says, I analyze 1642 reviews and here's what homeowners actually care about. And I absolutely nerd out on psychology. What makes people tick, what drives people to action, what people want, what they're afraid of. And there's a lot of information hiding in one star reviews. So I grabbed this analysis and I literally copy pasted these 1 star reviews from companies in all these different states and I plugged it into ChatGPT to analyze these reviews and I gave it a prompt, by the way, I said, hey, I want you to act like a market researcher and analyze the 1 star reviews from roofing companies on the attachment. And I even said I want you to prepare a report that includes the number one most common words or phrases used to describe one star experiences. This will give us an insight into what homeowners don't like about roofers. Well, I'll share like how we can use that and why it's important a little bit. Number two, the most common emotional words and phrases. That's of course very similar to my other video, wanting to know, you know, what really is riling people up. And then number three, categorize the review complaints into the top five categories. Now that that is the most interesting part. So hang with me till we get to that because that's really going to be the most eye opening aspect of bringing this information to life to use these one star reviews and to kill your competition. Now when we look through the one star review analysis report, the frequently used words, what was interesting is a lot of complaints about leaks. And the other interesting thing is there was not only a lot of complaints about leaks from an install, but complaints about a contractor or roofer being called out to fix A leak and not succeeding in doing it and saying, hey, the leak was persistent. So anyway, I. That's that number two on the list, the word unprofessional. How wild is that? Because if you. When you watch my other video, this one right here, the I analyze 1642 reviews, you'll see that the word professionalism ranks high on the list. Teaser alerts, actually, number one on the list. Now, the other thing that came up, scam, dishonest, crooked, no response, never called back, yada yada. Frequently used phrases. This is. This is good by. The reason that frequently used phrases are even more important for you to understand than the categories themselves is because when you are able in sales or in marketing to use the exact language someone is using to describe themselves or their own experience, you are joining the conversation that they're already having with themselves, which creates this instant connection bond, like, you know me deeply. So things like, did not show up, never called me back, left a mess, Roof still leaks. Here's my favorite one. Poor communication. How often do you hear that? Now you'll notice it doesn't say bad communication or terrible. It says the word poor. Poor communication. Project delayed. False promises. Okay, took my money and ran. And ending with had to hire someone else. Now, the most emotional words and phrases were really boiled down to two categories. Anger and frustration. And then disappointment and betrayal. So let's get into the anger and frustration. Horrible experience. Rude and disrespectful. Now I want to ask you, what does rude and disrespectful have to do in relationship to professionalism? Hmm. Yeah, right. That's a thinker. They dropped the ball. Oh, interesting. So unprofessional. Complete nightmare. That's a good one, too. That's some strong language, isn't it? Anger and frustration. Now again with the fear and concern. They ruin my ceiling. I'm scared to use them again. They damaged my property. And now let's get into the top five complaint categories. This will create all the themes of what people don't like about roofers. That's why when you maybe you've tuned into my channel, if you're not welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Pensman, and listen, I love helping great people and great teams play their best game. And at the end of the day, what we do is about winning through both collaboration and service. And sadly, the roofing industry can be very corrupt and greedy because people see how much money you can make and they. They cut corners and lie to themselves. And I don't know. I don't like it. I got burned out. I actually left this industry three times. And a lot of those reasons were because people, people like, I don't know, me and you probably that get into roofing for the right reasons. You know, we are either one, falling into it from roofing sales because hey, there was no nowhere else, no other opportunity that you could create this level of income and freedom in your life that exists without barrier to entry. It doesn't matter where you came from. Or two, you're starting a roofing company because you worked for another one that wasn't doing things the right way. And when we get like grouped into this, hey, you're a roofer like everybody else, it sucks. It's really hard. And that's why I want to spend the time identifying these top five categories and complaints because we can use this in our marketing, our language to sell against and crush the competition. So now that we know why we're doing this, let's identify these top five complaint categories. Number one, the single most important one, poor communication and follow through. Okay, Poor communication, follow through. I said this in my other video. You'll hear me say this a lot. The easiest way to make millions in roofing is to answer the phone, show up and do what you say you're going to do. Like there it is. Secret to success. Answer your phone, show up, do what you say you're going to do. You do that, you will be successful. Sadly, many people have a hard time doing that. Don't believe me? Look at the one star reviews. Number one, poor communication, follow through, common issues, no return calls. By the way, there were complaints. When you look through these lists, when I copy pasted all these on here, you will see that there are complaints. Not only are not returned calls from homeowners having issues with an install and then saying, hey, I need some help but but also not return calls from wanting to give them money. Hey, I called them, I set an appointment, they didn't show up, they didn't follow through. So and so showed up, said he'd get me an estimate, never did. So the no return calls and then again no shows for estimates or scheduled work. How unbelievable. People are wanting to write you a check for 10, 15, 20, $30,000 and you don't return a phone call or show up for an appointment like that is insane. You should make it easy and inviting for people to connect with you. More on that in my marketing videos, by the way, because sadly, even great companies sometimes really struggle doing this in terms of setting appointments and making it easy for people to talk with you. All right, no updates on delays. That's a common one. In fact, I've seen this come up from great companies that, you know, there's rain delays, there's things pushed out. In fact, I had a family member of mine that just reached out with a roofer and they're like, man, you know, there's been delays, we didn't get any updates. But we get busy and we forget to update people. So again, that's number one, poor communication and follow through. Now let's rip down to number two. Leaks and incomplete repairs. Common issue, new leaks after a repair or an install, man. Wild. But of course, roof still leaks. Despite multiple visits and then unresolved leak sources, leaks still come up, man, they're like our Achilles deal. I'll never forget, I had this one customer of mine, it was a massive home, one of my largest commission checks. And water is a tricky thing. So like there's a can light, it's actually a sloped ceiling kind of like this one and there's a can light like that right there. And water had entered the roof. Man, I think it was three or four visits out there. Good things happen to good companies. I get this and it happened to me. But what ended up happening is there was a box vent like way on the other side of the slope and it wasn't flash, right? Water had come in like grabbed a rafter, dripped down that, caught the edge of some sheathing, drip down that and then came down through the can light. So in other words, like the leak entrance was like 30ft from. I don't know if it was actually 30, 15, 20 is a long ways completely counterintuitive. Anywho, leaks, big problem if you've had them, you know that that's, it's tough business. All right, number three on the list, dishonesty and insurance manipulation. Now the fact that insurance manipulation is high on the list, I'm going to shoot you straight here. This one surprised me. Dishonesty didn't upcharge, not disclose. Scare tactics to sell the roofs, of course, filing hail damage where none exists. Lien threats before insurance payout. I also read individual reviews as I was combing through these of people complaining that the roofs were damaged, created damage to file claims. So that was, that was mind blowing. Dishonesty and insurance manipulation. Number four, poor quality workmanship. Now what's really interesting when you go and watch which I'm going to link to at the end of this video, the 1642 reviews that I analyzed, you will See that on this list there's one thing that is not anywhere on it and that is product information. Product or installation is not on there. In other words, when we look at our service as a roofing company, we're almost like a house cleaner. A house cleaners work should go unnoticed. In fact, my first business, I was 16 years old, I started a mobile car detailing business and that's how I worked my way through high school and college. And your best work goes unnoticed. Like that's the thing. It's only bad when someone notices it. And roofing is the same way. So your five star reviews don't people talk about professionalism, service, the experience, communication, being fast, friendly, timely, all of this is what's important. But on the flip side, a heavy weight of these one star reviews is about the work. Isn't that interesting. It's like the house cleaners work that should go unnoticed. So our work that's not great is causing the problems packaged in with two things. So poor quality workmanship, which again we can kind of like group into leaks and incomplete repairs. But the, the fifth category is unprofessionalism and then unsafe crews. I couldn't believe how often unsafe crews came up again. For many of us, like we don't really, we, I don't know, don't think through this. If we're in a sales position, we're just like, hey, you know, our crew's doing their job, they know what they got to do. But yeah, unprofessionalism was number five. So what's interesting is as we compare this to the five star reviews, professionalism is ranked number one on what homeowners share in a five star review and at number five, what they share on a one star review. Product and installation, not really mentioned in five star reviews. Highly mentioned in our one star reviews. In the five star reviews they share things like communication, timeliness. In one star reviews, the number one thing is poor communication and follow through. Now one of the takeaways that I had from this is in the five star reviews, again, professionalism came up at the top. But let me ask you this, how do you market or how do you sell professionalism? You don't, you show it. And if we look at the depth of these reviews and start thinking through the psychology of them, both our five star reviews are on professionalism and communication, which you can't sit at the home and tell people that you are, you have to, to show them. And the definition by the way of integrity is doing what you say you're going to do. So if your marketing says we do what we say we're going to do, you just do that. And then you look like a hero. If you don't do that, you look like not a hero. And you'll end up in the scam dishonest category here on the complaints. Now the communication again, high on the list for five star and high on the list for communication concerns on the one star. So what I want to do now is show you how to use this information to fulfill the promise I opened up in this video for you to use these one star reviews to crush your competition. How will you use these one star reviews to crush your competition? There's two ways you can do it. The easy, superficial way, which is I don't know what most people are going to try. And then there's the advanced way, which is a little harder but incredibly effective and will truly allow you to crush your competition. That's how I'm going to end this video. Now, the easy way is to use this exact language in your sales and marketing because remember, people buy to seek pleasure or avoid pain. And it's important in both our marketing and sales communications to use the exact language that our prospects, in other words, our homeowners are using with us. So if you can say things like, hey, Mr. Homeowner, my mission is to understand your roof and your needs, show you your options, and help you make a decision, even if it's not with me. And I can sit here till I'm blue in the face and tell you everything that makes me better, different than everybody else. But what I want to do is actually just show you that by the experience you have with me today. Because I analyze five star reviews from roofing companies and the two things that really stood out to me that homeowners want the most is professionalism and clear communication. And on the flip side, if you look at one star reviews from roofing companies, you'll hear horror stories of poor communication, people that don't show up. Of course you have the, the plethora of shoddy workmanship in there. But the worst part is then I had to call someone else. And I know, Mr. Homeowner, that you can choose anyone that you like and that you trust to do your roof. But my advice to you is to gauge your experience based on the experience with the person that's sitting in front of you. Because how it starts is likely how it's going to end. So someone that shows up on time, communicates clearly, is patient, professional, and answers your questions will Continue to do so throughout the process. But you can only imagine that if it starts one way with someone showing up late, not keeping their word, like calling you back on time or delivering an estimate, that it will only get progressively worse throughout the process, especially after they've taken your hard earned money. So that's the superficial way, okay? Use the exact language. Show them what they want. Show them what they don't want. They're going to make the obvious choice. Now to bring this to light in the the most profound way where you can make the biggest impact and truly crush your competition, it's by actually changing who you are. Now ask yourself as a team, who does my team or who do I need to become to be the roofer that someone would be an idiot not to do business with. You should choose me because I'm so incredible. And being that person is being professional. This is not something that you can just put on your website and just say, hey, the most. You know, like by the way, if you go search for your competitors that are running pay per click ads, you're going to be amazed that there's like 101 number one roofers in your area. That I'll say number one roofer or top roofer and it's kind of laugh, it's like laughable. But that's a story for a different day. The difference is when you say the most professional roofer, that means nothing until they experience it. Same thing with communication. You can say that you communicate clearly, but guess what? You have to do it. Many roofing companies love the word integrity. In fact, some of them put it in their name. But whenever you say the word integrity, you need a definition. What does that mean to you? Now to me, integrity is being your word. If you say you're going to do something, follow through on it. So the pro way to take these one star reviews is to use them as fuel to share with your customers and then reinforce your commitment to being professional, being communicative, and being the company that someone wants to do business with. Being the person that someone wants to do business with. You do that, you're going to win business all day, every day and crush your competition. Now, before in the video, I told you that I analyzed 1,642 Google reviews to reveal exactly what customers actually care about. Jump into this video right now to find out. Sam.