In the conference room at Striker Roofing & Construction, there’s a sign that reads “100yrCo.” It’s a reminder to all who work at the McKinney, Texas-based company that they should make decisions that will ultimately make it a company that lasts 100 years.

To do that, Striker Roofing is looking to raise the bar of what a roofing contractor can be with virtual training and sales processes and a Managed Repair Program (MRP) that closes the gap between the contractor and insurance carriers.

This unique approach is the brainchild of Striker Roofing’s co-owners, Johnny Marvin and Reid Fisher. Prior to forming Striker Roofing in 2014, the duo started an insurance brokerage in 2009 that was called upon by roofing companies to refer their customers.

“Since we didn’t know how to properly vet a company, we had some really bad experiences,” Marvin said. “We had the idea that ‘Hey, I feel like we can do this better.’”

Looking at the company’s revenue, it’s clear that Striker Roofing is doing just that. In 2019, the company closed on $8 million in revenue and is estimating $15 million in 2020.

“We are a long way off from where we want to be, but have been trying to build out a direct to agent managed repair program that keeps clients’ needs first,” Marvin said. “That is what I believe the future of the industry is and where we can make the biggest impact.”

Lifting the Industry

Striker Roofing originated in 2013 when Marvin and Fisher started polling other agency owners to better understand the factors that help boost client retention.

“We posed the question, ‘If you’re going to start a roofing company and send business to it, what would that look like?’” Marvin said. “That became the framework for us to build a roofing company.”

Marvin and Fisher had no prior roofing experience, so they brought on a third member with construction and roofing knowledge to handle the technical details. In 2014, Marvin and Fisher switched from being silent partners to jumping into the business full time, but their technical expert decided to move on to other ventures.

Around that time, the duo brought on Marvin’s brother, Michael, who initially signed on as a sales rep but has since become the sales and operations manager.

“They have tremendous vision, a tremendous drive to take us to a new place to lift up our industry, but they consistently care for people, and I think that’s why we have the culture that we do,” Michael said.

Like other roofing contractors in Texas, the majority of Striker Roofing’s jobs are insurance work. With offices in McKinney and San Antonio, the contractor concentrates on residential roofing, though it does have a separate division for commercial work. The contractor is active in the industry as a member of the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association and Roofing Contractors Association of Texas.

“We have had so many different contractors that have been instrumental to our success. Beacon and Southern Shingles have been amazing partners,” Marvin said.

As the business grew, they came up with the notion of blending their insurance background with their newfound roofing knowledge to create the MRP.

“I think our goal is clarity,” Fisher said. “Roofing is traditionally a blue-collar industry, and we’re trying to blend a white-collar approach to it, and I think that clarity will benefit all three parties: Insurance, the consumer, the contractor.”

To form the MRP, Striker Roofing is holding focus groups twice a week with insurance agency owners to ask questions about claims processes and retention numbers. This will lead to the formation of a platform that creates standards for how to vet contractors based on specific qualifications.

The next step is speaking with clients and pulling statistical data, such as knowing the percentage of clients who want to leave a carrier after a bad claims experience. Once they determine that the data and services benefit the customer and insurance agencies alike, they will launch the MRP.

“If (insurance carriers) don’t have a good, working relationship with a contractor that they trust, it’s going to make that insurance carrier look bad,” Michael said. “That’s where we step in and provide a solution.”

Building a Reputation

Ambitious goals like the MRP don’t happen unless Striker Roofing can back it up with high-quality practices, which it aims to inspire with its mission statement: Build with Care, Build with Integrity, Build to Last.

Those practices include everything from hand-written thank you notes to a serious approach to safety. In addition to requiring workers to be tied in, Striker Roofing has a form that outlines its expectations for safety and workplace etiquette. One example is its approach to alcohol. If one person is found drinking while on the clock, then that worker and their entire crew is pulled from a job and they receive no pay for the completed work.

“This has only happened once and sent a great message,” Marvin said.

But this isn’t to say the contractors don’t know how to have fun. Workers can take advantage of the company’s game room, which is decked out with Golden Tee, ping pong, darts, TV and music. There’s even a keg available for use after hours or at company parties.

These aren’t the only ways Striker Roofing sets itself apart. From October to December of 2019, the company implemented virtual training and sales programs. This includes digital invoicing and payments, virtual canvassing using Hail Trace, and business-to-business programs to track existing and new referral partners.

“One of our big pushes is creating systems and standard operating procedures that can be replicable as we continue to build out other offices,” Marvin said.

The shift to digital meant Striker Roofing pivoted its business operations fairly seamlessly once the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place and social distancing took over.

Striker Roofing has taken extra precautions like workers wearing face masks and checking the temperatures of workers before and after a job. Aside from those changes, its processes are already conducive to social distancing, including holding Zoom meetings with homeowners to go over proposals.

“Instead of sitting down at the kitchen table, we sit down at their kitchen table and our kitchen table,” Michael said.

The same can be said for lead generation. Door knocking has been a successful method for them, but like the rest of the business, marketing is going digital. Striker Roofing has a full-time digital marketing staff member to help put its message in front of people, including fun and slick videos. In light of COVID-19, the company developed “Striker Builds with Kids,” where employees recommend easy, at-home projects and activities for parents to do with their children.

Going digital has also helped Striker Roofing deal with the ever-present labor shortage plaguing the industry. The contractor has its own training platform that is 90% digital, utilizing video training, tests, manuals and other materials. To assist with onboarding, each new representative is assigned a team lead to help with field issues.

“We have amazing team members that are crucial to our success, but finding them among the less effective employees has been a challenge,” Marvin said. “We’re trying to bring on as many people as we possibly can.”

Marvin and Fisher believe it’s these differentiators that will keep them going for years to come.

“We will continue to build with care, build with integrity, and build to last, and that ‘100yrCo’s’ roots are deeply in that mantra, and we genuinely stick by that and want to essentially rise up as what we want the industry to be and what it deserves to be,” Fisher said.