I recently returned from a great trip sponsored by one of our major distributors. It was a fantastic time to get away and build better relationships with our suppliers. There were around a thousand people there, most of them being roofers. You can really learn a lot about people when you are relaxing around the pool, at dinner, on the beach or by the bar. 
My wife commented that she had never seen so many tattoos in all of her life.
There really was quite a display. Who would have ever thought to put so many roofers in one place and offer them all you can drink? I don’t drink myself and I was surprised at how smoothly everything went. It was a wide assortment of people. Some were very professional and some were rather rough around the edges. I have been in the roofing industry all of my life. Roofers don’t surprise me anymore.
I did notice occasionally however, some things that I think would offend many people. IMHO sometimes the drinking got out of hand. Also, when I am sitting in a restaurant with my wife, I would prefer not to hear someone swearing and using the “F” word very loudly and repeatedly.
We at J. V Heidler like to make sure that we are viewed as a “Professional” roofing company. We are members of the National Roofing Contractor’s Association. We have our names on our trucks and it is also my name. At our company we take pride in that and strive to treat all of our customers, vendors and associates with the utmost respect.
If any of our employees are ever unprofessional in any way, we would like to hear about it. Years ago I did get a complaint about someone driving too fast. We now have GPS units in our vehicles so that they can be monitored (this is also a big help if a driver gets lost).
All in all, we really had a great time on our trip. The majority of the people that we met were fantastic people, that we really felt fortunate to get to know. Especially nice were the people from the Roofing vendors and the distributor. We hope to be able to give them more business in 2012.
I would be interested to know….. what your thoughts are on contractors who may work on your business or at your home?
What do you think is acceptable or not acceptable?
