Meet Les Watrous, Cert-A-Roof Founder & Leader
Today’s Inspection, Tomorrow’s Protection®: Cert-a-Roof, LLC
Les Watrous, founder and CEO of Cert-A-Roof, established his company in 1993. Cert-A-Roof is an oGoing small business member. Les wanted to combine his family’s long history of construction and roofing expertise with his own sense of genuine customer service, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for the industry. Those fundamentals have served him well. The business Les created has become the industry leader in roof inspection, repair and certification.
How We Got Started
The model for the Cert-A-Roof began taking shape over 25 years ago when Les was running his own independent contracting business. As an entrepreneur and third-generation builder, Les had extensive experience in all aspects of contracting, including sales, marketing, home inspections and insurance restoration work. He also had an entrepreneurial drive to innovate, combined with a deeply rooted moral imperative to do things right. He envisioned a niche that would set his business apart while improving the roofing experience for the customer.
Roofing Industry Challenges
Les didn’t have to look very far for the roofing industry at that time (1990’s) lacked uniform standards and policies. In fact, it was in disarray, with no unity, and no track record for following “best practices” on either the customer or operations side. His desire to raise the bar for the roofing industry, improve overall standards and to “do things right” gave rise to Cert-A-Roof business.
Roofing Customers
Les became well positioned to implement an exciting new service of roof certifications, the “key” for gaining entry into a rich referral base, to meet the needs of roofing professionals, property owners and everyone else involved in real estate transactions.
Recent Success
“My experience with Cert-A-Roof was exceptional. Every person I interacted with was most professional and friendly. They were responsive to my calls and emails. Their work is of high quality and their process is the smoothest I’ve experienced, even during COVID. Thank you Cert-A-Roof.” Luisa C., Quartz Hill
Cert-A-Roof has received over 200 five star reviews on Yelp, Google and Facebook from our happy customers.
Certifying Leak-free Roofs
“Cert-a-Roof provides detailed, quality roof inspections to customers in our primary target area of Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange County,” says Les. “Our proprietary LeakFREE® Inspection process guarantees the condition of your roof and lets you make informed decisions on how to protect your real estate investment.”
“Today’s Inspection, Tomorrow’s Protection®,” the Cert-A-Roof slogan, reflects the company’s objective: to provide exceptional value in meeting homeowner roofing needs with consistent, professional and uniformly high standards of service. “Our goal was to be considered the preferred and most trusted firm in the business,” Les recalls. “We’ve become a nationally recognized roofing organization, and we’ve inspected, repaired or certified tens of thousands of roofs in over a dozen states.”
Providing “Roof Assurance”
A Cert-A-Roof inspection exposes potential areas that might cause a roof to leak and qualifies the roof for a LeakFREE® Certification if no problems are discovered. Either way, customers gain peace of mind after the inspection, what Les calls “roof assurance” for homeowners.
“Our team at Cert-A-Roof is passionate about what we do,” Les explains. “We strive to fulfill our mission of protecting our customers by keeping their first line of defense strong: their roof.”
Expansion and beyond
Expanding and growing company services hasn’t changed the fact that Cert-A-Roof is still a family business, one that extends this appreciation of family to its technicians. Cert-A-Roof trains individuals and contractors to follow NRCIA’s protocols when performing inspections, issuing LeakFREE® roof certifications or making roof repairs.
“We all strive not only to improve and drive the current business, but to sustain the relationships we’ve made,” says Les. “We stay motivated because Cert-A-Roof’s success provides life’s necessities for our families and employees.”
Guiding Principles
Les built Cert-A-Roof on an impressive list of core values: professionalism, reliability, on-time performance, superior service, pride of workmanship, excellence, respectfulness, integrity and accountability, thankfulness, and, “your trust” (from customers.)
These words have special meaning for Les. “You’ll notice that the first letter in each of the core values spells ‘prosperity,’” he points out. “My philosophy is that unless you adhere to the core values, you’ll never obtain prosperity.”
Advice for Entrepreneurs
The bottom line issue for Les remains his customers. “Customer service is the most important element,” he says. “We’re in business to help out our customers and go the extra mile to ensure quality service.”
Check out Cert-A-Roof, the leader in professional Roof Inspection here.
Given the time requirements of daily operations and the challenge of personally keeping up with constant changes in social media marketing, Les appreciates the online platform and presence oGoing provided. “oGoing has helped manage all of our marketing, social media and even software needs at an affordable price,” he notes.