Is It Wiser to Hire A Single, Full-Service Restoration Company Or Assign Work to Individual Select Companies?
A trend is becoming more common among insurance carriers managing disaster mitigation and restoration: breaking a job into pieces and assigning specific parts of the process to multiple providers. On a large commercial job, for instance, mitigation might be assigned to Company “A,” flooring to Company “B,” roofing to Company “C,” contents to Company “D,” and the remaining structural repairs to Company “E.” Divide and conquer is a great idea for many processes but one that can create significant challenges for mitigation and restoration projects.
Carriers elect this type of claim-handling practice for several reasons. Saving money is often a major driver. In some states this approach eliminates the overhead and profit paid to any provider handling less than three trades. This approach also may avert potential conflicts of interest when the same contractor performs both mitigation and reconstruction.
On the other side of the coin, many carriers continue to value the “full service” restoration contractor for good reasons. This contractor sees the big picture from disaster scene to finished project and handles all aspects of the job accordingly: immediate response and mitigation post-disaster 24/7/365, choosing skilled tradespeople, scheduling and overseeing their work, resolving issues, managing budgets and billing, communicating with owners and stakeholders, meeting completion targets and much more.
Combining extensive experience and disaster-specific expertise, the full-service contractor returns businesses to function and profitability faster and more completely than individual contractors can. This full-service provider returns shocked homeowners to their residences after controlled and reassuring processes that heal trauma instead of adding to it. Equally important: the overwhelming majority of businesses and homeowners prefer to deal with one company for the duration of the project. For insurance companies, happy clients are crucially important in this era of intense focus on customer service and easy availability of online ratings.
How will your insurance carrier handle the aftermath of a flood or fire? Ask targeted questions now about their approach before disaster strikes:
- How will you manage immediate mitigation – preserving and protecting property from further damage?
- How will immediate and ongoing remediation occur?
- How will contractors triage contents, protect against freezing, corrosion, theft, etc.?
- How will you manage documentation?
- How will you handle communication with us, employees, lien holders and regulators?
- How will you manage reconstruction, materials selection, work orders and scheduling?
Need to know more? Paul Davis is your source for information, as well as for expert response, mitigation and restoration of a wide range of disaster types.
