I always love to run into real time Mr. Shmooze stories I can share with our readers. Here is one from over the weekend.
I was having a beer with a friend who had some roofing issues and had been told by two roofers he needed new roofs. But this is not just any house . . . it’s a moose, with multiple roofs angling up as many as four stories. So a full re-roofing could be easily in the $30,000 range . . . an important job for most residential roofers. I had recommended another roofer to him that had provided excellent service for me and who had branched off from a bigger company to form his own firm. I trusted him and knew his lower overhead operation would be very competitive. Here is what my buddy said about the meeting.
“So your guy shows up and I tell him I would like an estimate for replacing the main roofs, as well as one for the small canopy over the door which, incidentally, I had not cleaned off for a while so it looked pretty tacky with a lot of leaves etc. He said he would look around and grabbed his ladder and spent about 45 minutes on the various roofs . . . I actually forgot he was up there. Later, he rang the doorbell and we went into the kitchen and he showed me a bunch of pictures. Each roof had its own set of challenges but, in short, he recommended cleaning one of them and installing some new flashing along another one for an estimate of $750. He said the roofs still had quite a bit of life in them but that I needed to pay more attention to the gutters and perhaps work with a gutter guy (not him) to put some heat wire down to avoid ice damming in the winter. He said the occasional leaks we sometimes experienced were a damming problem and a flashing issue, not a roof issue, thus easily fixed by the new flashing. Needless to say I was astonished by his honesty and integrity but here is the kicker. After he left, I walked upstairs and glanced down at the front door canopy. He, the owner of the company, had taken a broom up there, swept up each and every leaf, picked up the leaves and took them with him in a bag in his SUV. What a guy . . . not only is he going to get my big roofing business when the time comes, but I am spreading the word to everyone I know.”
I love it. This is the same experience I had with this roofer earlier . . . honesty, integrity and that extra touch . . . that surprise and delight when someone goes above and beyond. This man is not going for the short score . . . he is building relationships, building a reputation and building a business! He IS the Mr. Shmooze of roofing in his market.
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