For our inaugural webinar, we rolled out the red carpet for Derik Kline of HailTrace. For an hour, we talked all things HailTrace, CompanyCam, and what you need to know to come out on top during storm season.
We put together some highlights from the episode below, but if you want to check out everything we covered you can watch the full webinar here!
What is HailTrace: Founded in 2010, HailTrace uses severe weather forecasting to give companies a head start on the competition. HailTrace is a weather consulting company that excels in weather forensics. They have a team of 4 meteorology experts that analyze every hail storm across the country to develop hail maps for each storm — showing the size of hail, duration of hail, number of homes impacted, and wind speed and direction.
What is CompanyCam: Founded in 2014, CompanyCam is a photo-based solution created for contractors, by contractors. Users can take unlimited photos — which are location and time stamped, sent to the cloud, and stored securely. Every photo is organized by project and instantly available to your team, allowing you to see what’s going on anytime, anywhere. With CompanyCam you can work smarter, avoid costly mistakes and get paid faster.
How to pick a target: During storm season, there’s no shortage of opportunity. But how do you know where to start?
- First, choose a market. Determine what size and type of roof you want to go after, learn about the customers you’ll be reaching, and figure out a way to market your business in the most effective way for your potential customers.
- Next, choose a location. Storms impact huge areas, so picking your radius and focusing in that area alone is huge. You don’t want to spread your crews too thin, so picking a smaller area within the storm’s path will help you find the right customers at the right time.
The first 24 hours: The first 24 hours after a storm are critical for your business. There will be no shortage of roofing companies hitting the ground running when the storm clears, so having a game plan is necessary.
- Identify homes and neighborhoods impacted by hail. Reach out to them and get an inspection scheduled as soon as possible.
- Do some research on past storms that have hit the area. Knowing the areas that have previous damage on top of the most recent storm allows you to help the areas with the most damage first.
- Canvas, canvas, canvas. Get your name out there, be ready to help when homeowners need it, and be respectful in the process.
Documentation: At CompanyCam, we preach about the importance of documentation all day long. It’s huge! And when you’re dealing with storms, insurance companies, and frazzled homeowners it’s even more important.
- Document any damage you find. Our rule of thumb — you can never have too many pictures.
- Document the types of materials that are damaged. Take photos, write notes, and keep everything in one place so you can act fast when you’re ready to get started.
- Document the things that aren’t damaged. Sounds silly, but you never know when something could happen and you or your crew could catch heat for not fully repairing the damage, or worse — damaging it yourselves.
- Keep everything organized. This is crucial. What good are photos and notes if they get jumbled and mixed in with another project? Using CompanyCam will ensure that all your photos, notes, and instructions for each roof stay neat and tidy and your crews know exactly what needs to get done.
We cover all this and more in the webinar with Derik, so be sure to check it out! We host webinars with our partners and other industry experts twice a month, so keep an eye out for announcements on how to register over on our Facebook page.
