Many of us at the helm of our companies are often faced with implementing changes to remain competitive and relevant to our customers, and to create more customer and business value to achieve long-term sustainable growth. This was the case for Kelly Van Winkle, President and CEO of King of Texas Roofing Company, when she took the reins of the third-generation company. In this episode of “What’s Your Edge?“, Kelly tells us how small incremental changes helped strengthen customer retention, accelerated customer acquisition, and fostered a more customer-centric business.

For over 40 years, King of Texas Roofing has installed commercial roofs on multi-purpose structures, ranging from office complexes, sporting arenas, and retail centers, to large industrial warehouses, food storage, data centers, churches, and medical centers. The company is licensed in 16 states and averages 20-25 large-scale multi-million-dollar projects each year. In recent years, the growth in Texas and Oklahoma has kept Kelly and her team busy. In addition to managing the construction load, Kelly recognized that long-term success required some internal changes.

Some of the changes included shifting the company from a directive to a more collaborative culture, instilling a stronger focus on customer-centricity throughout the company, and recognizing that it needed to balance the “tried and true” techniques, skills, and protocols of the “King of Texas Way” with new technologies and techniques.

We’re so excited to hear Kelly tell us how she went about successfully making these changes. Welcome to “What’s Your Edge?” Kelly!

Those of you familiar with VisionEdge Marketing know we are avid fans of Peter Drucker and love his quote that the “purpose of business is to create a customer.” Kelly, I know from our previous conversations that a large portion of your revenue, as much as 90% in some years, comes from existing customers, many of whom have been with King of Texas Roofing for 15 or more years.

What are 2-3 of the practices you and your team employ to improve customer retention?

You are correct, at King of Texas Roofing, customer retention is paramount. Our customers include building owners, property managers, and general contractors. Roofs are one of the biggest investments for anyone constructing a building. It’s imperative to get a roof properly installed and regularly maintained because even the smallest roof leaks lead to catastrophic expensive losses. So, we work very hard to serve as trusted advisors to our customers.

That means staying engaged and maintaining a relationship even when there isn’t a project in progress or on the horizon. Educated customers are easier to deal with, and as a result, we create and deliver a lot of educational content to help our customers prolong the life of their roofs. This requires regular communication, from quarterly check-in phone calls to lunch and learns at customer offices.

I love your point about being a trusted advisor. Being a trusted advisor takes credibility. There can be no growth without trust. Credibility is invaluable in any industry. Kelly, what are some changes you’ve made to build on the company’s credibility?

In our industry, safety, accuracy, attentiveness, efficiency, and keeping a job on track are top priorities for our customers. We implemented a safety program that sets the standard in the industry. We have 2 full-time safety directors, and that has helped ensure we maintain an excellent safety record. In addition, we implemented processes and procedures to address accuracy and timeliness, job hazard analyze, and project production plans.

Our credibility and safety reputation also go a long way toward acquiring new customers.

I’m glad you brought up new customers. Kelly, what are some of the changes you’ve implemented to accelerate new customer acquisition?

One change we implemented is to survey our customers to identify opportunities to improve our processes, our communication, and the quality of our work and products.

I’m delighted to hear that you are conducting customer research. We are strong proponents of voice of customer research and customer advisory boards. Both can provide meaningful insights that will positively impact the customer experience.

Take Me to Advisory Services

Speaking of customer experience, what are some of the changes you’ve made to your team and your internal processes to improve the customer experience?

Two key changes come to mind. First, we focused on improving field and office communication. When these two parts of the team are misaligned, jobs are impacted. This is where creating a more collaborative culture and modeling the way became paramount to success. By being willing to be more transparent, share information, and explain WHY things are done in a particular way, communication and collaboration improved.

Second, we implemented a process and software to improve internal alignment and accountability. As a result, we are now better at goal setting, task ownership, tracking, and reporting.

These examples sound like they are helping you make better data-driven decisions.  Now you’re singing our song! We are staunch supporters of leveraging data to understand customer needs, aspirations, and market trends. By doing so, businesses can tailor their offerings to improve customer retention and customer acquisition to meet customer expectations better, stay ahead of the competition, and identify opportunities for growth.

Kelly, as the president and CEO, what are some decisions your data has helped you make?

Market data surrounding commercial construction trends helps us understand what our customers are looking to achieve and what they value.  Data that we have internally on things like average daily production and various safety measurements also has helped us decide how to differentiate ourselves with customers.

I can tell you that you value data. As a leader who values data, what measures inform you that the changes are effective?

We have many measures but these three customer measures are very important to use:

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• Customer Tenure, that is how long they are a customer. We have customers who have been with us 10 years and many longer than that.
  
• Negotiated vs. Bid Work: In our business, it’s common to have to bid on every project. We are fortunate that as a result of investing in relationships with our customers and serving as a trusted advisor, we primarily engage in repeat business that is negotiated rather than bidding. 
  
• Referrals: This is business we acquire because we were recommended by a general contractor, building owner, or someone in one of the other trades.
  

These are solid examples of useful measures. It’s clear you too believe that creating business value requires delivering customer value. Kelly, I’m sure these changes took time and had some challenges. Change is a fact of life but that doesn’t make it easy, especially when change involves making alterations to the organization’s purpose, culture, structure, and processes. In our work, we have seen how effective change management facilitates prosperity and growth, even in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. It helps to have a framework to support change management.  In the words of author Dallas Willard, implementing change takes intention, and getting your team on board is essential to success.

What were some of the challenges you and your team faced in making these changes, and how did you overcome them?

The older generation of leaders felt “put out to pasture” with our changes. We had to work hard to ensure that the previous leader of the organization felt appreciated for his 40 years of leadership and included in the new efforts.  The previous leader was offered an advisor role (VP of Risk Management), where he has been truly invaluable.  This has allowed us to successfully retain and utilize his 40 years of experience while still moving forward with our work on cultures, processes, and protocols.    

Kelly, thank you for sharing the journey of King of Texas Roofing and how you implemented small changes that fostered a more collaborative and customer-centric culture. It sounds like your approach to balancing traditional methods with innovative technologies has strengthened the company’s foundation for long-term growth, and the internal improvements you’ve made have enhanced the customer experience. The journey wasn’t without its challenges, but your commitment to effective change management and your leadership have clearly been instrumental in overcoming obstacles.

As you would imagine, a key takeaway for me from our conversation is the importance of serving as a trusted advisor for maintaining strong customer relationships. We believe that while it is an investment, this approach enhances customer loyalty and builds credibility, crucial factors in both customer retention and customer acquisition.

As we conclude, we invite you to reflect on your own organization. How can you leverage data and foster a customer-centric culture to drive growth and innovation? What changes might you need to make? For more insights on how to  Realize the Full Financial Benefits of Customer-Centricity check out our white paper “Bring Your A-Game to a Customer Empowered Market.”