ForConstructionPros.com

Looking to diversify your services? Trying to find a way to set your business apart from the competition? Ever considered adding infrared services to your business?

Infrared is a fairly new process that most customers, and many contractors, do not know about. Whether you've thought about it before or this is the first time the idea has crossed your mind, infrared services can offer many benefits to contractors in the pavement maintenance industry. "If you're tied to the asphalt industry at all, you can add the infrared unit to your arsenal and definitely benefit," says Joel Marshall, marketing and sales manager for Asphalt Reheat Systems. "You can sell the process because you are connected in some way."

Business benefits
It may be obvious, but a major benefit of adding infrared is the fact that you are adding another service to your business. With an extra service comes an extra revenue source. "They are tools that you add to your business that offer you the opportunity to make money; to provide a service and provide profitability to your business," says KM International Vice President of production Bryan Burke. But money isn't the only benefit of adding infrared services to your business.

Industry manufacturers agree that incorporating infrared into a current business gives a contractor an edge. "It's adding a niche that may set them apart from their competition," Marshall says. "Or, if the competition has them, then it's bringing them up to speed. It's going to show their customers that they are in touch with the latest technology and they care about their products and their services enough to research and give their customers the best product they can."

When it comes to repair, infrared allows contractors to provide an alternative to standard methods, such as repairing potholes with a shovel and cold mix. And learning to use infrared equipment can be relatively easy, says Ray-Tech Infrared Corp. President Wesley Van Velsor. "By watching someone who is accomplished in the art, and practicing, practicing, practicing, they will eventually become fairly proficient," Van Velsor says.