Picture this. It’s the start of the year. Somewhere in America, in a back office. An excited owner stacks boxes into a closet — 1,000 branded tumblers, shiny and wrapped, ready to hand out.
The plan was simple: every job gets a thank-you gift.
But fast-forward to the end of the season… 990 tumblers were still in that closet. Untouched. Forgotten.
It’s not that he didn’t care. He meant to follow through. But when production delays hit and crews needed backup, the tumblers stayed on the shelf.
This isn’t just a story. It’s a warning.
Because meaning to follow up isn’t the same as actually doing it.
If you’ve been thinking about starting relationship marketing for the first time — or re-starting it for the tenth — the problem is rarely intention. It’s execution.
The owner in our story cared. He bought the gifts. He had the vision. But life in this industry moves fast. When you’re juggling schedules, production delays, material runs, and crews, grabbing a tumbler for each customer becomes just another item on an overflowing list.
That’s how good ideas die. Not because they don’t work — but because they don’t get done.
So what does it really take to follow through? And how do you decide between running it in-house or outsourcing?
First, know this: both paths can work. There are contractors who pull this off internally. Usually it’s one of two broad scenarios:
Because while consistency is the name of the game, a truly elite relationship marketing program requires three things:
It can’t be a side project handed to someone who already has a full plate. Because the moment priorities shift (and they always do), it’s the first thing dropped. And when that happens, the signal to your team is clear: “This is optional. We’ll do it when we have time.”
Remember: for every month your past customers don’t hear from you, 10% of them forget your name — or worse, give your competitor theirs.
Just like that, the $1,000 you spent to win a job buys you nothing more.
Use this checklist to evaluate whether your team is truly set up to run a consistent, ROI-generating relationship marketing program — or whether it’s time to call in backup.
✅ If you can confidently say yes to 4 or 5 of these — great! You might be ready to run this internally.
⚠️ If you’re under 4 — it’s worth asking: is this going to be consistent? Or is it better to hand it off to a team that’s built for it?
Quick note on turnover risk: Even if you have someone owning this now — what’s your plan if they leave? We’ve seen too many programs collapse when the “person who owned it” moved on. If your system can’t survive turnover, it’s not a system — it’s a person-dependent side project.
If that checklist felt like a lot — that’s because it is.
Elite customer experiences take time, coordination, and follow-through across teams. If you’re starting from scratch — or duct-taping something together while juggling everything else — it’s no wonder the system gets dropped.
That’s why many owners explore outsourcing as they grow.
Not because they can’t — but because they’d rather spend their time closing the next job than remembering if the last one got a thank-you.
“We used to run to CVS for gift cards, handwrite notes, and physically mail them. But as we grew, we had to scale that. With gFour, it’s all digital, trackable, and fast to adapt — especially when we had to shut off referral incentives overnight during storms. We kept thanking customers, asking for reviews, and didn’t miss a beat.”
— Anissa Westfall, Director of Marketing, Westfall Roofing
“When we started, we didn’t have the resources to do this ourselves… We pay per customer, and gFour takes care of it. There’s a cadence of emails, cookies, handwritten touches — all automated. We get replies like, ‘So glad you reached out, my neighbor needs you,’ months after the job’s done.”
— Patrick Readyhough, Owner, Pond Roofing
“We didn’t have anyone here who could put it all together like gFour can. And once we figured out what it would cost to hire a person and fulfill the production/mailing, we realized that gFour could do it better for about 1/3 the cost. It’s really bringing down our overall lead costs.”
— Steve Thompson, Castle Windows
You don’t have to hire, train, and manage new people to get a system in place.
Outsourcing gives you the full engine — people, tools, and process already running. At a fraction of what it would cost to hire.
It’s not about ceding control. It’s about gaining momentum faster.
Here’s the breakdown:
You know your business best.
If you’ve got the time, people, and systems to do this in-house — go for it. But if you’re stretched thin, starting from scratch, or tired of gluing the pieces together, partnering with a done-for-you team might be the move that keeps it running (and growing) without needing you to remember every little detail.
The point isn’t how you do it.
It’s whether you do it consistently.
Because that’s what turns one job into five.
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