Being an exterior home improvement contractor in 2021 isn’t easy!
The last two years have been an incredible journey for Pro-Home Services. While many of our competitors were forced to close their doors, we’re grateful to still be here. Ours is not an easy industry, but we were able to ride the waves of the pandemic and recovery period while still helping our customers with everything they needed.
How did we do it? Luckily, we have been doing what we do for almost two decades—long enough to establish a good reputation and referral network. And while most people call us for one of our services (roofing, siding, windows, and doors), we can provide many others for people too.
We survived by riding the waves that hit the exterior home improvement industry in the past two years.
First Wave: The Pandemic
When the world shut down and everybody was scrambling for hand sanitizer, we had to adjust everything about the way we worked. We are a very hands-on, customer service-focused company. We are accustomed to coming to people’s homes with roofing and siding samples and doing in-home estimates for doors and windows. Luckily, some of our exterior home improvement—roofing and siding— could be done without stepping inside anyone’s home. Still, there were some people, especially if they were immunocompromised, who still didn’t want contractors around, period.
So we sent the message we were still doing estimates within the comfort level off our customers. We started leaving shingle and siding samples on people’s doorstep and talking to them through their glass doors…anything we could do to make them comfortable with us.
We were so grateful for the customers who called. And for a while, things were lean.
And then everything changed.
Second Wave: The Boom
The vaccine was released. We began to take off our masks. And our customers, who had saved their money in 2020 by cancelling their vacations, were ready to tackle their exterior home improvement projects once again.
We heard from our colleagues in interior home improvement that their businesses were booming then too. We got more calls for estimates and business picked up for a while in late 2020.
We were so grateful to be able to serve our customers once again. We “made hay while the sun shone,” but honestly, the sun didn’t shine too long. Soon, the next challenge hit.
Third Wave: Supply Chain Woes
In mid-2021, just in time for people’s interest in home improvement to begin climbing again, our industry began to see delays in material deliveries, and higher prices too. We were (and still are!) experiencing the fallout from supply chain problems, caused by a worker shortage and a higher demand for products with shingle, siding, door and window products and materials.
Customers asked for estimates but were shocked by the prices we were forced to give them, thanks to the increased costs from our suppliers. We sent our customers the message to plan ahead for their upcoming exterior home improvement and warned them that materials may take a while to arrive, all while assuring them that we could still do their job as soon as was possible.
Which brings us to today. November 2021. The month of Thanksgiving when we are all thankful for all we have.
We are grateful to be here and helping everyone we can, as we can.
While we are still grappling with the challenges to our industry because of the supply chain, we continue to do our best to service our customers with excellence, as we always have. We can’t control the circumstances surrounding our industry, but we can promise you that we will continue to provide the best roofing, siding, windows and door installation in the business. And that’s our survival plan!
As we enter 2022, know that we are still here and waiting to help you with your exterior home improvement at 630-790-0800.
