Roofing guides · 2026-10-31

Storm Season Checklist for Roofers: Phone, Site, Google

It is two days after the hailstorm. You are halfway up a steep roof when your phone buzzes for the third time in an hour. By the time you climb down there are six missed calls, one voicemail that is only wind and a street name, and a web form from someone who already wrote to two other roofers.

Storm season does not give you time to fix things once it starts. This checklist covers three places where homeowners find you: your phone, your website and your Google profile. Do it before the weather turns, in one afternoon.

What should my phone do when I can't pick up?

You will miss calls. The goal is that a missed call still ends with the homeowner knowing what happens next.

• Record a new greeting. Say your company name, that you are on a roof or a job site, and what to leave: name, address, and what they see (leak, missing shingles, tree damage). Add when they can expect a call back, and only promise what you will actually do.
• Send a text back. If your phone can auto-reply to missed calls, use it. Example: "Hi, this is Dan from Ridgeline Roofing. I'm on a roof right now. Reply with your address and what you're seeing, and I'll call you back this evening." Texting rules differ by state and situation, so check the current rules before you set up anything automatic.
• Decide who calls back. One person owns the callback list each day. Write it down. A list that belongs to everyone belongs to nobody.
• Block out callback times. Pick two fixed windows, such as lunch and end of day, and stick to them.

If you want more on voicemail setup, we cover it in our article on missed calls and voicemail during storm season.

What does my website need before storm season?

According to the 2024 Homeowner Roofing Survey from Roofing Contractor magazine (fielded by Clear Seas Research), 54% of homeowners use search engine results to find a roofing contractor, and 73% go by word of mouth or a recommendation. Often it is both: a neighbor mentions your name, then the homeowner searches for it. Your site has to hold up when they land on it.

Check these on your phone, not your office computer:

• Phone number at the top, tappable. One tap should start a call.
• A short estimate request form. Name, phone, address, and one line about the problem. Skip long questionnaires. Homeowners often fill these out at night when they can't call, so make it easy to finish on a small screen.
• Service area in plain words. List the towns you cover so people outside it don't waste your time.
• Storm damage page or section. A few honest lines on what you do after hail or wind: inspection, photos for the insurance company, tarping if you offer it. Don't promise claim outcomes.
• Reviews on the page. The same Roofing Contractor survey found that 68% of roofing contractors feature online reviews on their website, while 21% do not. Put a few real, recent ones where people will see them without scrolling far.

What should I check on my Google Business Profile?

Google is where many homeowners look first. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey (1,002 US adults) found Google is the most used review platform, named by 71% of consumers. Roofr's Homeowner Perspective Report (November 2025) found that 82% of homeowners read Google reviews before they call a roofer.

Before the season, spend twenty minutes on these:

• Phone number and hours. If you will answer calls later in the evening during storm weeks, update your hours. Wrong hours cost you calls.
• Service area. Make sure it matches where you will actually drive.
• Website link. It should go to a page where someone can request an estimate, not a page that is hard to read on a phone.
• Photos. Add recent job photos with your trucks and crew. Skip stock images.
• Unanswered reviews. Reply to the recent ones, good and bad, politely and briefly. Our article on responding to a negative Google review covers the tone.

We have a separate piece on the five Google profile fields most roofers get wrong, so use it if you want the longer version.

How do I get reviews when I'm too busy to ask?

This is where most roofers slip. The crew finishes a good job, the customer says "I'll definitely leave you a review," and then nobody follows up, because the next storm job starts tomorrow.

Recent reviews matter. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that 74% of consumers look for reviews written in the last three months, and 85% say positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. In the Roofing Contractor survey, 30% of homeowners called online reviews "extremely important," 34% "very important" and 31% "important" when hiring a roofer, which adds up to 95%.

So build the ask into your routine before you are swamped:

1. Ask every customer the same way. Google's policy is against picking only the happy ones, so don't select who gets asked.
2. Never pay for reviews, and never write them yourself. Both break Google's rules and can get reviews removed.
3. Send the request the same day the job is done. Keep it short: thank them by name, say one real thing about the job, and give one link.
4. Send one reminder a few days later, then stop. Don't chase people.
5. Put one person in charge. Whoever does the final walk-through sends the request, or the office does it from a list.

Example: "Hi Maria, thanks for trusting us with your roof. If you have a minute, a Google review helps neighbors find a roofer they can count on. Here's the link. Dan"

If you do this by hand, keep a simple list of finished jobs with names and emails and tick them off each evening.

If a spreadsheet and a lot of copying and pasting sounds like too much during storm weeks, LeadCatch can do the routine part. You get a private page where you add a customer's name and email, and it sends one friendly review request in your name plus one reminder. It also gives your website a 20-second estimate request form. The pilot is free for 14 days, with no card and no call: start the pilot, see the demo, or read the overview.

Written with AI assistance by Blixwerk Studio. No customer stories were used; the statistics are cited in the text.