What is Restoration 2.0
I’m a little fired up on this one. Perhaps you can tell. This is touching on my passion, and it makes me, well, passionate. A restoration guy contacted me through LinkedIn. He wanted to know what I was about. He wanted to know my “angle.” Guess what? There is no...
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How hard can this be?
I’ve seen it so many times that now it’s just silly. A plumber is complaining that all of those other water companies are opening their own “water damage” departments. They are, according to complaints, taking business away from the “good folks.” We are supposed to...
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Love, Hate and the Way Thing Are
I got a lesson in my perspective today. We all need those now and again, right? I received an email from a friend of mine in the restoration industry. Last year his company wrote over TEN BILLION worth of estimates last year. So, yeah. He’s kind of a big deal. When he...
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Take the Moral High Ground
In today's videos, we are going to talk about taking the Moral high Ground in a discussion with an insurance adjuster. This is my preferred way to talk to an adjuster, and I would argue that this is the only way to talk to an adjuster. But I'm getting ahead of myself....
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Why Pay For Insurance Claim Advice?
I went on a little rant tonight. After re-reading what I wrote in an email to a prospective client, I decided this might have some value to ya'll. So here goes. We've had a major ice storm roll through and there are tens of thousands of homes with water damage. I've...
read moreRestoration Capacity and CAT Events
Insurance Repairs (Restoration) is a capacity business. What I mean is that, in order to thrive one must be able to increase capacity quickly when demand increases dramatically. Major weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes and SEVEN FEET OF SNOW tend to quickly...
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Uninvited
Uninvited I was recently asked to speak at a regional claims conference. Two days later, I was uninvited. The reason? I’m have an adjuster’s license. At first I wasn’t really bothered by it. I’m a busy guy. I wasn’t overly excited about paying for a plane ticket,...
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Ultimate Xactimate Opening Statement
The Xactimate Opening Statement is one of the most overlooked and under-utilized tools in the Restoration estimator's tool box. The opening statement is your first best opportunity to introduce your client to the claims process. Properly written, an opening statement...
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8 Basic Insurance Policy and Claims Guidelines For Happy Customers
The insurance claims world is a dangerous place for amateurs. “Beginning in the 1990s…insurance companies reconsidered [their] understanding of the claims process. The insight was simple. An insurance company’s greatest expense is what it pays out in claims. If it...
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Adjusters Are NOT Responsible
Adjusters are not responsible for the final work product.They never have been.Here is an excerpt from a recent Clarity.fm call I had with a client. The adjuster with Mercury insurance underbid his repairs by at least $10,000. Mercury insurance also made him move...
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Organizational Culture Determines Organizational Success
“We are creating an industry which is creating jobs that are less and less appealing to the potential employees in the job market.” ~Thomas Underbrink Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Oregon Casualty Adjusters Association annual symposium. It had...
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Why You Should ALWAYS Bill Your Client FIRST
Bill Your Client It sounds simple, elementary even. What business expects to get paid without billing their client?Restoration guys, that’s who.I had a conversation with a client of mine yesterday regarding a couple outstanding mitigation invoices. He asked if I...
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NEVER Ask Your Adjuster For Permission on Your Claim
Adjusters aren't in a position to determine scope.Too many times, I've seen insureds give away their negotiating leverage by asking their insurance adjuster for permission.Adjusters aren't in a position to determine scope. They aren't in a position to determine...
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How To Get Xactimate Estimates Written by Claims Delegates
"How does it work?"I recently received an email from a new client asking how Claims Delegates "worked". She asked several really great questions, and I thought I'd answer them for ya'll.In reality I'm being lazy, because these are actually very common questions that...
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What is Depreciation and Why Should I Care?
I thought I'd record a short video to share my take on depreciation.I had several hours of driving to do and decided to at least get some thoughts out there.Depreciation, in short, is the difference between ACV and RCV of your property - whether that be your house,...
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The Claim Clinic gets some Social Media Advice
Get started TODAY! Receive your Xactimate estimate TOMORROW! You can see this whole post over at http://www.theclaim.clinic/ Or listen to the episode on...
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State Farm Rejected Mold Claim
Claim Doctor Q&A: State Far Denies Mold ClaimOften I get questions about denied claims. Too often it is too late for me to provide any meaningful assistance. The moral of this Q&A is: Don't delay in getting professional help. The longer you wait, the worse...
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Scoping for Xactimate
Every loss scope has three main components: plenty of photos, a legible sketch and a detailed room-by-room scope. Today we’re going to talk about room scoping.First, some history.I’ve been “writing” insurance scopes for nearly 20 years. For the first few years,...
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Ten Thousand Percent Return
When was the last time you received a 10,000% return on an investment? Sounds unreal doesn’t it? Did you know that is exactly what you get when you let Claims Delegates write your Xactimate estimates? Go ahead and do the math: a ONE PERCENT fee means that for every...
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Who Controls Your Xactimate Estimates?
Does the IRS do your taxes?No? Of course not.Then why do we feel compelled to let the insurance company settle our claims?I've talked about this a lot before, so I'll try not to repeat myself here. I just wanted to put something out that was on my mind.Xactimate is a...
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