Why You Should Hire a Tech-smart Contractor - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Eric Neill and Joe Mischler from Neill and Son Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast!

Megan Ellsworth: Welcome to the Ask a Roofer podcast where all your roofing questions find their answers. Your hosts Megan Ellsworth and Lauren White peel back the layers of the roofing world to reveal the knowledge, tips and FAQs you've been curious about. From shingles to skylights, metal to asphalt, we are here to demystify the system above your head. So, get ready to ask, learn and explore the fascinating world of roofing one question at a time on the Ask a Roofer podcast.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Ask a Roofer podcast. My name is Megan Ellsworth and I am so excited to be chatting with Neill and Son Roofing. Hi guys, how are you?

Eric Neill: Great, how are you doing?

Megan Ellsworth: I'm doing fabulous. I'm very excited to meet you and chat all things tech-smart contractors. So let's dive right in and have you just introduce yourselves and tell us about Neill and Son Roofing.

Joe Mischler: Yep. I'm Joe Mischler. I'm one of the co-owners here, Operations Manager at Neill and Son Roofing. We're excited to be here. Thank you for having us again. We appreciate it. And I'll let Eric kind of go a little bit deeper into what and who we are at Neill and Son Roofing.

Eric Neill: Yeah, so like Joe mentioned, my name is Eric Neill. I'm the CEO of Neill and Son Roofing. I am the son, which is a little unorthodox, but how Neill and Son Roofing came to be was I think my dad's the greatest contractor on the planet and growing up around that, I knew I wanted to work with him and build a business with him. And along the way of working for him, we decided to do, he was more of a general contractor. We decided that rather than do everything, let's get great at one thing and that's why we decided to get into roofing specifically. And it's just taken off like a rocket ship, and we're super blessed.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's amazing. Congratulations. How exciting. Okay, so what technologies and software have you all implemented over at Neill and Son Roofing and you use daily?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, so we're younger. We're 24 years old, so technology is everything to us. We don't really know anything different. So we use a couple of different softwares. Mainly we use JobNimbus, which is our CRM, which has been tremendous. We love JobNimbus. We're big advocates for it. We use a measurement tool called Roofr. We use Google Workspace for our communications within the business and then of course we're using the different IKO availabilities in IKO. The IKO ROOFPRO Worx website, which is great for us as contractors to keep up to date with our Square accounts, warranty information, things like that. So we use a couple different things, but those are about our main four.

Eric Neill: Yeah. Like Joe said, we definitely use the CRM, which is a customer relationship management tool. It's really the lifeline of the business. That's one of the main pieces of technology that in any business you have to have, it's essential. And using that compared with the aerial imagery tool with Roofr, that's our one-two punch. It's been great for us and we use it every single day. Every single member of our team uses it, and it's super user-friendly and it's been great.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great, that's amazing. I also love how young you guys are. I'm 26, so it's nice and refreshing to chat with fellow youngings. Okay. So why would you say is it important for roofing contractors to use technology?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, I think it's really the day and age that we live in. It's a fast-paced world. People want to be able to get from point A to point B as fast as they can, and you can't really do that with paper like you can with technology nowadays. So I think it's pretty cool how we have implemented a couple of things to make the process for our customers just easy and more enjoyable. When you're not worried about, "Where's my warranty information, where's my contract saved", things like that, it kind of helps you just have more confidence in the system and in our process. But it's definitely enabled us to do more faster by having these technologies in place. So right now, if you're still stuck in the day and age of paper contracts and things like that, you're definitely missing out on opportunities to be more efficient and make your business better and more scalable.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely.

Eric Neill: Playoff of that is just technology really allows you to focus more on the service of the customer and not so much the paperwork in the backend. You get to really focus on the customer journey from start to finish and really dial in on the process of how to do that properly by utilizing your technology to make your life easier. A lot of people struggle with dealing with a lot of different clients at the same time, but with that structure, with the technology, it allows you to work smarter and not harder. So us being young, like you mentioned, we live in this day of age where that's what we want. We want to work smarter and not harder. And utilizing technology and especially utilizing technology within the roofing space, it's very fresh, it's new and it's exciting for us and it comes second nature to us. Maybe not second nature to some older contractors, but it's something that we've utilized and it's awesome.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, how exciting. Kind of going off of that, would you say homeowners should work with a contractor that is tech-savvy?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, when you have technology and you have the physical cloud-based trail, it's not just a paper trail, to me, that gives homeowners a little bit more confidence in how it's being tracked. How my project's being put through from A to B, where am I at on the schedule, all those little things that matter with having the software and technology that we have helps the consumer just be a little bit more confident in what we're doing. As well as it's kind of like we said, it's the new day and age. You can get anything in the world in two days, so for your biggest purchase that you're going to make on your house other than actually buying it, it's important to have those higher-end technologies to keep all those things in line for the customer.

Eric Neill: I think it's also important too that being a tech-savvy contractor, you're properly estimating, which that in the past, you don't necessarily get that. You're just hip-shooting given numbers not based off of true facts. But we're able to actually show the customer where we get our numbers from, we can be more transparent with our pricing and it allows us to gain more trust with our customer. Like I said before, if you don't use technology, you're not going to focus on the customer journey and you need to worry about customer satisfaction. With the technology compared, you can actually focus them through the process from start to finish. And that's the benefit really of being a tech-savvy contractor is you can focus more on the customer.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely.

Joe Mischler: One more thing to add to that is it's easier to educate that way too. There's so many tools and things that you have at your fingertips to help the customer understand the system, not just the shingle. So that's been great for us too is the educational side of things.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, there's so much that goes into a roof system and so many people have no idea. So that's such a good point. How have your customers at Neill and Son kind of responded to your use of technology and having all their data in the cloud and this streamlined process?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, I think most people are pretty surprised when you actually show them what we have. It's cool to hear the stories. The guys that are selling out in the field, they're able to show everybody that aerial imagery of their house, make it more personable and really show them what we're going to do. And it's great. I mean, I think it does give people that confidence that we are a smaller family-owned business, but we have what bigger corporate franchises have with their technology. So we have the best of both worlds. We're able to give you that white glove treatment and have those core values of a family business, but we also are good enough in the backend with our technology to be able to follow through on the promises that we make.

Eric Neill: That was awesome, Joe. I'm not going to lie. I forgot the question. That was really good.

Megan Ellsworth: That was a great answer. Good job.

Eric Neill: I don't want to follow that, but what's the question again?

Megan Ellsworth: The question was just how have some of your reacted to this great use of technology and streamlined process that you all have?

Eric Neill: So, I have direct a correlation with this because after every single job, I make sure to contact every client that we have. And I talk about our process, right? I'm self-auditing us all the time because I want to be the best, we want to be the best and in order to do that, I'm going direct to consumer. I want to know from start to finish how it could get better. And I have had several people just talk about how like, "How could we get better?" And they just say nothing. They're just like, "It was a fantastic experience."

And a huge part of that fantastic experience is having that backend just you have all the information at your fingertips and across the board, everybody throughout the organization is in contact with or has the same information with every single person. So, no matter who's talking to them, they can pull up their file on their computer and they can talk to them knowing exactly what happened there, knowing exactly what we're going to do there and talk through it in a way that nobody else is doing that. Nobody else can have that white glove treatment, like Joe said. And it's really made a big difference in how we approach our customers and how they really respond well to it in the backend with getting reviews and getting things like that because those are real. They're people really advocating for us, and it's awesome.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah. You're creating fans kind of.

Eric Neill: Exactly.

Joe Mischler: Yeah, that's the goal.

Megan Ellsworth: In a sense. So if you had to choose one piece of technology that y'all use on a daily basis, what would it be that's the most important one?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, this is an easy one for us. We always joke about it. It's our CRM. Because like Eric's been saying, the main point of our business is creating happy customers and creating advocates for us. And you can't do that if you're not properly tracking all their data, letting them know where they're at in the system and everything like that. So we always look back to where we started without it and we look at it now and we go, "There's absolutely no way we could do what we're doing without it." So it kind of has separated itself from the pack in that regard.

Eric Neill: I completely agree with the CRM. I'm also going to just reference the era imagery. It's just technology that allows such scalability. You wouldn't be able to, if you had to do everything by hand, it would almost be impossible to get that accurate. And so those two things combined is what we use every single day. It's made all the difference, really. And really using them together, like Joe was saying with the CRM, I mean, it allows you to just have such a great customer experience.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that white glove experience like you said. So are there any technologies or software that you use to help homeowners visualize their house with the new roof? Like, color testing or anything like that?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, so there's a couple different things. These have been around for a while, but they're great. IKO has the IKO Roof Viewer, and so you can go online and you can use their example roofs that they have there. Or you can take a picture of your house, which is nice, and simulate the different colors and different aspects of your roof. They also have, it's a little bit newer, but it's great, is they have their videos online for the different products and different colors and it kind of takes you through multiple different styles of homes. So it just gives the homeowner a little bit better of an idea of, "If I have a red brick home, would this look like?" Because at the end of the day we're putting this on, it's going to be there for a long, long time and we want to make you happy with your color selection. So there are a couple different things that we can do and that's what we mainly use.

Eric Neill: Another great visualizer is, another measurement tool actually, it's called Hover. You're also able to 3D render a property and be able to interchange all products, be it windows or siding or roofing or soffit and fascia and gutters. You're able to put anything in any combination. So even if a homeowner is looking to get other projects done on their house, you're able to look at all those projects, not just the roof and kind of see how all the color streams can come together and make it more about design and functionality. So that's another great tool that we use to visually see a 3D rendering of a house, of somebody's home and let them see it once it changes.

Joe Mischler: We're sitting right now in our conference room with a big TV hanging. So, whenever we have a client that really wants to see what it's going to look like, we'll bring them in here, we'll put it up on the TV and it's pretty cool to have that interaction and that relationship with them to get their exterior, their home to what they've always imagined it being.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's such an exciting feeling. And to be able to see it and really fall in love with it before you're putting all this money down into this huge project, it's so important. So yeah, that's really exciting. I love that. Those visualizers and all that technology is so cool. So this might sound like a redundant question, but how can homeowners find contractors like you guys that utilize technology and give that white glove service?

Eric Neill: Yeah, I'll take it. I think a huge thing of a contractor that's going to use technology, it's going to really focus on their online presence. Their Google Business profile is huge. Everybody uses Google to find everything nowadays, and you want to find contractors that are very reputable. I think that's something that's not... There's a lot of stigma behind contractors. That's something that we're trying to change. But using an online platform to being able to look and look at what other people are saying and be diligent in your research and look at the reviews. You don't buy a shirt on Amazon without looking at the reviews. So, if you're going to spend a significant amount of money on a huge investment for your home, you should be taking the time to do your due diligence and going online and really doing your research. So that's what I have to say about that.

Joe Mischler: Yeah. And then everything starts with your digital presence, like he said, but once we're at your house, you'll see the difference between a company that prioritizes their research in technology and using different technological tools. I think most people use aerial imagery, but not everybody uses CRM and not everybody uses CRM to its full capabilities. So it's understanding as a homeowner and educating yourself before the process begins, "What am I looking for in a contractor? Am I looking for just the cheapest price and somebody random to come do it or am I looking for that trustworthy person that's gone through all the different steps to make sure that they can follow through for you, not just right now, but also 10 years from now?" If there is a problem and you call me, I still have all of your data. I have your warranty information for you. I know who you are, I remember you. I have photos of your project. It's just a whole different level of service, and that's what technology allows us to do.

Eric Neill: Another thing is a telltale sign of whether a contractor is using technology in their process is really their contract presentation. If a contractor is coming up to you and giving you a sticky note with a price, you probably shouldn't go with that contractor and they're not a very tech-savvy contractor and there's no legal documentation that's going to protect you as a homeowner and protect the contractor, right? It's a two-way street. You're making an agreement that it needs to be digitalized. It needs to be signed that way so that it can be kept on file, and you always have that to fall back on, both the buyer and the seller.

So that's a great telltale sign on if a contractor uses technology and if they have digital signatures and digital contracts that you can always have access to and not just a printed out one and not just a scratch piece of paper. I mean, that's a huge telltale sign of where contracting is going. And the presentation through the digital contract too is just giving you all the information you need, the insurances, everything that you need to know as a consumer, rather than just a scratch piece of paper, which is the traditional way to give a price, which is something we're also trying to change.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So lastly, just to wrap things up, what else should homeowners know about technology in the roofing industry and what to look for when they're hiring their next contractor?

Joe Mischler: Yeah, I would say the more a homeowner utilizes the technology they have at their fingertips, the better their overall experience is going to be. It's a purchase that not a lot of people understand or know about, but that's okay. I would just say, do your research. Use the great world of Google and the internet to do your research on not necessarily product, but how to pick a contractor properly.

Anybody can put on a roof and everybody that does roofing is pretty good at roofing, but at the end of the day, you got to pick the company that's going to be there for you long-term. And understanding that through your educational process as a homeowner should be their main focal point. Companies that are here for the right reasons, trying to serve the customer before they are serving their own needs, those are all things that you can find out now online through YouTube, Google, anything like that. So I would say technology is great for us and we're using it our ways, but the more the homeowner uses the technology for them and for their process side of things with picking a roofer, the better.

Eric Neill: I think educating yourself through online, like we're saying, it just allows you to really, you can't hide. There's no hiding anymore when it comes to contracting. You have to do great work all the time and be extremely consistent, and that shows through online presence. And if you have a contractor that's not having a great online presence, then that's telling you something and you should look elsewhere. You should look for somebody that's going to be there long-term. And you want someone that's going to be in business for a long time and has been in business for a long time, because if you do have a problem, you need to know that your phone call is going to be answered and that it's going to be responded to properly in order to have a great home and a great project and protect your investment. So it is an investment. A lot of people don't look at it that way. Over the lifespan of a job, the price isn't always the greatest factor.

I mean, it is a factor to most people, but when you work with a better contractor, they're going to have great options that make it more affordable. They make it a lot easier to access and make it easier to swallow that pill of having to make that big investment on your home, and a huge part of that is these contractors using technology. You have to be able to use technology. And like Joe's saying about the CRM, it really allows you that whenever you do have somebody call you back, "Hey, I added a gazebo onto my house. I want to use the shingle we used. What color was it? I can't remember." In two seconds, we can give that information. So it's more of a, we're trying to make lifelong customers, and you have to use technology in order to have a lifelong customer, otherwise you're not going to remember because it takes a lot of time and effort to gain more customers. And as time goes on, it's difficult. So alleviate yourself by allowing you to use the technologies into your favor.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Well said, gentlemen. Great job. Really great advice. I mean, as a future homeowner myself, this is such a daunting experience trying to get a new roof or if you have a leak, and so definitely everyone out there go check out Neill and Son Roofing if you're in their area because you want to hire a contractor like these guys. They will have your back lifelong. That's great. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. Any last thoughts or pieces of advice for homeowners out there?

Joe Mischler: Trust your gut and go with who you think is going to be best for you. I think one thing, there's a lot of really good companies up and coming now in this industry that are doing it for the right reasons, and at the end of the day, we just want the homeowner to be happy. So if you're happy, go with your gut and trust what you're hearing from the people and you'll be satisfied.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely.

Eric Neill: Really, the only thing I got to say is just appreciate young people getting into the industry. We get it all the time. It's like people don't want to get into trades, but we do. That's what makes us different is we've got a bunch of young people around us, but we're all really passionate about what we're doing. We really want to give the best quality experience to people and really give that from other industries, bring that type of mentality into this industry and it's just worked. We just have great feedback and we're really excited to work with people and protect their investment and make their home beautiful.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's really exciting. Well, again, thank you so much for chatting with me. For everyone out there listening, you can go find out more about the IKO Visualizer at their directory on askaroofer.com, as well as rooferscoffeeshop.com. And you can learn more about Neill and Son Roofing there as well. So, everyone out there listening, thank you again for listening and we'll see you next time on the next Ask a Roofer podcast.

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