How to earn more as an insurance adjuster on a hurricane
Think of this as an Essential Adjuster Orientation from your Virtual Field Support Manager.
An hour and 22 minutes of totally free training....
In this video you'll learn:
what to expect at a hurricane orientation & and how to act
how to set up Xm8 before you accept claims
how to route claims using Xactanalysis
xm8 shortcuts
what to say when you call insureds
how to scope property losses (quick and dirty)
how to settle with insureds
how to handle contractors and PA's
More of a reader? Catch the video transcript below.
How to make more money on a hurricane
Handling Catastrophe Property Claims
So I promised you guys a full webinar that shows everything start to finish. Think of this as an Essential Adjuster Orientation from your Virtual Field Support Manager.
An hour and 22 minutes of totally free training....
This one is honestly worth watching the video for as I use a lot of whiteboard doodling and computer screensharing in what I cover.
You can watch the whole video here!
Let’s start with what to expect when you show up to orientation. And this goes not for just hurricanes but any major events you might get deployed on as an independent catastrophe property adjuster.
Showing up on a CAT site
What to expect at hurricane orientation
So when you show up on a CAT site, you're gonna go to be sent to some sort of induction site where the IA firm who has deployed you will host their orientation.
Here’s what usually happens:
They will give you your ID badge and a lanyard with their logo on it to wear on site while representing the firm. I always hook a pen right on my lanyard.
They may supply you with customer handouts. They come in bricks so you only need to grab one, not nine. You won’t be getting THAT many claims.
They may supply you with door magnets for your vehicle. Grab two—one for the passenger side and one for the driver side, unless instructed otherwise and make sure they are on your car STRAIGHT.
You’ll pick up 3-4 storm shirts with their logo—they may have you pay for these out of your paycheck. If they have a jacket, grab it…you might still be there in December if the claim volume is high and you’ll want to something with the company logo on it.
With both door magnets and storm shirts, do not leave them on when you’re off duty. If you’re just grabbing lunch between claims that’s fine, but if you go out for dinner or for cocktails, or whatever, remember to take these off first.
They may take you through an Xactimate refresher.
They may get the run down on any carrier specific software or apps
Do not leave orientation. No matter what.
If you're sitting in the middle of orientation suddenly your phone starts to ping with emails saying that you're getting assigned new claims, do not under any circumstance get up and walk out of that orientation.
If you’re a seasoned veteran, you might grab a few shirts and door hangers and head out the door. But if you’re new, you have to take these classes. Otherwise you will miss important information specific to that carrier and be shooting yourself in the foot later.
Have the expectation they will move you around
They may have sent you to Atlanta, telling you they were probably going to get claims in, Savannah. But then halfway there you might get a call saying “Sorry, we actually need you to go to Richmond, Virginia.”
Just say yes. It's the nature of the business with these hurricanes and if you want to get asked back, you just have to grin and bear it.
Hotels, FUEL & SuPPLIES
Many areas won’t be very accessible after a big hurricane event, so expect that your hotel may be farther away. My hotel was 2 hours away on way on Katrina.
So you will have to make sure your tank is full BEFORE you leave for your claims each day as there may not be many places to get gas near your claims. Same goes for clean drinking water. Bring some along.
I wouldn’t bother bringing a long a lot of extra jerry cans, etc.—that’s just inviting someone to steal it.
You won’t have to drive THAT far our of the damage zone in order to find fuel, food, and water. You might have trees down and shingles blown off for 300 miles inland but the area where everything will usually won’t be much more than 20-30 miles inland.
Getting assigned Claims
SETTING UP XACTIMATE TO SAVE YOU TIME
I’m going to share a few things you need to be doing in Xactimate BEFORE you accept a single claim so that you aren’t having to manually do them for every single claim down the road, saving yourself major headache.
I share my screen for this part of the webinar so you’ll definitely want to watch the Xactimate Tutorial part starting at the 9:50 minute mark or so.
But a quick overview of those steps I share:
Update the company header to the correct company or you’ll have to do it manually for every claim
Remember to hit save right away anytime you open up a claim
Set your auto save interval to one minute so you never risk losing your wok
Hit connect to download new claims, corrections, or reinspections
Use shortcut Control + A if you want to select everything
Map & Route your claims using XactAnalysis (not Google, not a spreadsheet, etc.)
Watch the video starting at 9:50 for more on those steps!
Scheduling claims inspections
How many inspections should you schedule a day on a Catastrophe deployment?
If you’re brand new, DO NOT SCHEDULE MORE THAN ONE CLAIM A DAY FOR THE FIRST THREE DAYS.
Then make your 4th day on that storm an office day where you do all your phone work and return all those messages, and do any corrections.
Here’s why:
You may be feeling the pressure from your managers and from the insured to rush out and scope of bunch of claims in a row thinking you can just come back to your hotel room later to try to right them all up.
But guaranteed, no new adjuster is writing up and closing 6-7 claims a night after spending all day in the field inspecting. They might stay up all night and close two. That leaves 4 unwritten claims they have to try to finish tomorrow on top of the other 6-7 new inspections they have scheduled.
This is a recipe for quickly getting behind, making costly mistakes, getting overwhelmed, and quitting. (It happens every storm).
But not you. You are going to schedule just one claim a day for the first three days. You’re going to schedule it for 9AM and then take as long as you need to properly inspect that claim, scope, take photos, etc and then IMMEDIATELY take that claim to the help room and stay there until you have it closed.
By doing it this way you’ll be doing a few things:
Right out of the gate you’ll be consistently closing more claims than those who are out there trying to scope them all at once and write them up later.
You’ll have learned how to close those first few claims the right way, avoiding 90% of the mistakes new adjusters make on their files. Even seasoned adjusters get their files kicked back the first few days of a new storm if the carrier or IA firm has changed the way they want something done on a file (which happens all the time).
So now you’ve got just 2-3 files to correct unlike the guy out there making that same mistake on all 30 of his claims.
If a file reviewer has to kick back 30 files in a row for the same mistake—maybe you used the wrong price list, forgot the company header, were doing depreciation wrong on contents—they are going to call up your manager, and then your manager is going to be calling you.
After those first 3 field days and 1 office day, you can start to schedule 2 inspections a day, making sure to keep that office day open every 4th day. Then 3 inspections a day and so on.
Doing it this way, you will have already closed 18 claims in two weeks. The hot rods who went out scoping like mad men/women may have something close to that, but most are going back in the queue for corrections, and that claim isn’t technically closed until those are made meaning they could be going into their 3rd week of the storm without actually having closed any claims and managers are likely going to start taking claims away.
At the end of the day, managers want to see that you are closing claims within 24 hours of them being inspected. And when it comes to sticking around on a storm, managers are going to assign new claims to the ones who are quickly and consistently closing high quality claims.
So you need to not only be able to survive your first storm, but you need to do it in a way that gets you noticed.
This is how you stay on a hurricane for a while and where the money really starts to add up. You may even be asked to stay and do cleanup, taking the claims and reinspections of other adjusters who washed out.
So start slow and steady and you will ramp up so much faster. Soon, you’ll be closing 5-6 claims a day. That’s 36 claims a week (because you’re taking one office day).
If your average fee bill on a hurricane deployment is $400, that’s $14,400 a week.
Bottom line, you don’t get paid for a claim until that claim is closed. And whether you’re making money yet or not, you still need to be able to pay for that hotel, fuel, and food and other supplies while you’re on the road.
So by closing just 6 claims that first week while everyone else is out there trying to scope them all then write then up later, you’re already covering those expenses and can get to the money making part.
And if you’re smart, then you could be handling 100 claims on a hurricane deployement. That’s $40,000 if your average fee bill is just $400. On Hurricane Irma, there were a lot of people billing more like $950 per claim. That’s almost $100,000 from one storm.
And these claims aren’t any harder than regular property claims.
How to get faster at handling claims
A lot of companies on these big events are going to have a certain threshold under which you can be closing claims over the phone, cutting down on your field work. This is usually called something like express claims handling.
So if you are assigned a claim and you look at the notes and it says a small tree has landed on the fence, and it’s going to be less than $2,500 to repair, the carrier may prefer you to be just asking the insured questions and settling with the insured right then and there over the phone, without having to go out and inspect.
You are still given the full inspection fee. That’s cash money!
So if possible, you want to handle these first and get them knocked out quickly.
How and when to contact the insureds
I’ll be sharing a few scripts I use when calling or leaving a message with the insured to keep my phone work simple and efficient. But I also have a super specific filing/contact system I share in the video starting at around the 32:00 minute mark.
But the critical thing to remember here is that when you set up your schedule and are routing your appointments, always write down their appointment time in the upper right hand corner. And this time is there time, no matter what.
Even if you weren’t able to contact them, you are not calling the next person to offer them that time. You are still showing up at their house at that time and introduce yourself and make contact that way—inspecting if they let me—or leaving a door hanger asking them to contact me to set up an appointment if they aren’t home.
When I am able to make contact I put a quick check mark beside that time so that I know to try again with anyone who I wasn’t able to reach.
After I’ve got everything routed, written down and laid out on my desk in front of me, I’ll start working my way through the stack, making my calls.
Script for contacting the insured:
“Hi, this is (your first and last name) with Acme insurance company. Is this Mr. Johnston?
Hi Mr. Johnston. I just wanted to call and touch base with you to let you know I’m the field adjuster assigned to your storm damage claim at your house at (insured’s address).
Looks like you have some damage to your fence from the hurricane. Can you describe the damage to me a little more?
Okay, and was there other damage around the house you noticed? To the roof? Any shingles in the yard?
Okay, and was there any damage to the inside of your home? Water spots, broken windows, anything like that?
Okay, and was there any personal property that was damaged?
Alright, thank you. The next time I’m going to be in your neck of the woods is going to be (date and time). Does that work for you?
Perfect, I’ll put you down for (repeat date and time). Do you have any questions at this time?
Okay, if anything comes up or you need to change that appt time, give me a call. My number is (number). Otherwise I will see you (repeat date and time).”
That’s all you have to say on that first call. You can go as deep as you want to asking them questions and getting information but your prime objective is to make sure there are not surprises with the claim when you show up. Maybe all the notes said a tree was down on some fence but you get there and their garage is also flattened.
If you are leaving a voicemail, you can say:
“Hi, this is (your name) with Acme Insurance Company. This message is for Mr. and or Mrs. Smith.
Just calling to let you know I’m the adjuster who has been assigned to your storm damage claim to your house at (insert address here) and that I'm going to be in your neighborhood to take a look at the damage on (date and time).
Please call or text me back to let me know that (date and time) works for you and we will go from there. My phone number is (number). I look forward to speaking to you, thanks, bye.”
If a person doesn't answer their phone, if they don't have a voicemail, if you can't get ahold of them, call the agent and see if you can get another number for them. Try every single day to make contact until that appointment time.
Do not give that file back because you can’t get a hold of somebody.
I can't tell you the number of times I will be reviewing files and I'll see notes in there saying “Third attempt to contact customer: couldn't get ahold of them. Please send letter. File closed.”
And I'm like, ‘What are you doing? Go to that person's house!’
If you make three calls, AND show up at their house, AND leave a door hanger asking them to call you, AND call the agent to make sure there is no alternative number, then then take a few more days to try back again…then you might reach out to your manager and let them know that you’re not able to get a hold of this person and ask if they think a letter should be sent.
But this is once in a blue moon that this happens. Maybe 5 times in my 20 year career.
xactimate grouping trees, macros, and photo uploads
How to speed up the written estimate portion of a claim
When I’m in Xactimate, one thing I’ll do is set up a new project and call it ‘Grouping Tree Template.’
This is something I can later bring into my actual claims when I set them up, saving me a bunch of time and work.
I’ll also go over how to upload and label photos quickly in Xactimate, and how to be creating and using your own macros.
I share my computer screen again here so you’ll really want to watch the Xactimate tutorial section of the webinar starting from the 40:35 minute mark.
Settling up with the insured
Okay, so now that we’ve scoped the house and written up the estimate, we need to settle up with the customer.
At this point, your number one objective is to make sure that the customer understands:
What you’re paying for
Why you’re paying for it
how much money they’ll get
when they’ll get their money
There should be no doubt in the insured’s mind what is going to happen next.
When I talk to a customer about their estimate, I will go over the numbers with them. I’ll go through each room, or section and explain to them what we are doing in each.
Once I’ve worked my way down the estimate, I will ask “is that everything we talked about?” in case there is anything they forgot to tell me about or anything I missed writing up. I’m writing this up on site and settling with the insured in person so that if something does come up, it’s not after I’ve already driven away or even filed that claim and have to go back open a supplemental claim.
I’ll say:
“The grand total of your claim is $10,000. You have a $1,000 deductible which we subtract from that total. The deductible is essentially your part of the claim you agreed to pay as per your policy.
Whenever Acme Insurance Company pays for any kind of a settlement where we're paying for all of something—ror example, your roof—we always pay in two payments.
The first payment is something we call the actual cash value payment. It’s basically the appraised value of what you have based on its age and condition.
So if you’re roof has a 25 year shingle and it’s 12 years old, that’s about half it’s life expectency. So in this case, we hold back about half on the roof until you have the work completed.
Then we just need to see something from your contractor saying the work has been completed and showing the balance due, then we will send you the remaining amount.
Your deductible should be the only thing out of your pocket. Some contractors are going to ask for a deposit or down payment of some kind, though a lot of contractors won’t ask for anything up front.
Either way, no contractor should ask you for the total amount upfront, nor should you pay the total amount until they’ve completed the work.
You should be getting a check in the mail in about a week to 10 business days.
If you start to receive quotes from contractors and they all come back higher or they find more damage, please call me back. It’s entirely possible there are things we couldn’t see or some pricing discrepancies, so I’ll work with your contractor going forward to make sure we get the right amount for you so you can get the work done.
Do you have any questions?
Sometimes you’ll get people that stand there with their arms crossed, scowling at the paper. You want to make sure they understand everything you’ve just said, because you do not want them calling your agent the minute you drive away to say “this adjuster only wants to give me half of the money for my roof. How am I supposed to get half a roof done?”
This is why I close on site. I’m able to make the connection with the person, watch their body language and see whether it makes sense to them, giving you a much greater chance at reaching an understanding with them.
One of the biggest customer service problems insureds have with their adjusters is not knowing what to expect next, causing them to be anxious. Calm those fears by being extremely clear about what happens at every stage and when to expect it.
How to deny a claim
This falls under what I just shared about settling up with the insured on site. The fact of the matter is that the policy doesn’t always cover everything.
You may already have some idea that it might not be covered before you show up at the house but do not let that change the way you handle the inspection. It’s not your job to find ways not to pay for stuff. That’s a myth.
So you will still want to be building that rapport right away, being friendly, acting like you’re there to help.
Spend extra time investigating that loss. If you don’t normally get in crawspaces or attic, now would be a good time because is always a chance there’s something there.
Water claims are most often the ones that get denied as a lot of water stuff just isn’t covered but if you put in extra time to explore and investigate that claim, you may actually find the loss is covered and you won’t have to deny it.
Either way, you need to give that customer a fair shake.
Only after doing that will you say:
I’ve looked high and low and I’m truly sorry, but unfortunately there isn’t coverage for this particular loss under your policy.
When you say that they're going to believe you, instead of feeling like you just breezed through the house, and took a few photos because you had had clearly already made up your mind before you arriving for the inspection.
Good or bad, it WILL show up in your customer service reports.
I’ve even had letters written to the carrier saying things like “even though we are disappointed our claim wasn’t covered, we feel really grateful that Matt came out and did what he could to give us a fair chance.”
So don’t worry. Most people are going to be reasonable if you treat them fairly and simply spend time developing rapport with them the same as you would any other customer.
You can even follow up with: “I’m really sorry that your claim wasn’t covered, but if you get a contractor out and they find a cause of loss they think is covered, absolutely call me back and we will review what he’s saying and come back out to take another look if need be.”
Dealing with contractors
When it comes to dealing with contractors or Public adjusters (an adjuster hired to represent the insured) I handle them the same way I do the customer.
I treat them with respect, kindness, even a little (clean) humor. I have some empathy for their situation because I know how difficult it is to be on the side where they have to earn a commission or make the sale in order to be paid. Whereas I get paid just for closing the claim, whether there was coverage or not.
I don’t automatically assume their all crooks, or that their only objective is to argue with me about everything. You might run into a bit of that, but you can still have fun with those guys/gals. Show them you’ve got a sense of humor and you aren’t going to fight with them and they will usually be pretty cool with you in return making for a much more productive use of both our time.
You don’t even have to tell the contractor you’re brand new, and you don’t have to say a lot to them beyond being friendly. Just take note, ask for a copy of their estimate so that you can look it over while you put yours together. You can always sit down with your manager or the help room later to go through the estimate.
Call that contractor back and say “Hey, your estimate total was $25,400. We are coming back at about $21,000. Here are a few of the things we can’t pay for. How does that sound to you?”
And a lot of times contractors will say “Okay, that sounds good. I can do it for $21,000.”
They might ask you to meet them in the middle somewhere—you can try to figure out how to work that out. Once you get that number, you’re done. They may come back later on with change orders or stuff they couldn’t see, but if you’ve agreed on a price with them, you’ve saved yourself a lot of work and the customer a lot of headache having to go back and forth.
You’ve also saved work for the inside staff desk adjuster who’s going to handle the details of the claim once you’re long gone from that storm.
Scoping a loss
You’ll want to watch the complete scoping and photo explainer section of the free webinar video here starting around the 01:13:17 mark.
But if you've never scoped a loss before here’s a quick overview:
Exterior scoping
Park your car on the street, not the driveway
Grab your ladder
Take your risk photo or front of house overview photo
Move counterclockwise around the house - front, right, back, left.
From the ground, work from top down - gutters, fascia, windows, siding.
Inspect the roof starting with the front slope
Identify damage, and mark, and tally damage using your roof chalk
Take a photo of your chalk marks and any damage
Take a photo of any roof accessories - vents etc.
Move on to right, back and left slopes
Before leaving a slope or elevation, take all the photos you need and write out the scope of what you will do on that slope or elevation. This way, you aren’t backtracking. You have everything you need to write up that slope or elevation before you leave it.
For photos: you don’t need a million photos.
If there’s no damage to the windows, you might take two pictures. You don’t need a picture of every single window on that side of the house.
If you DO find damage, and it’s the same type of damage has occurred all around the house take just one or two photos to illustrate it. (ie. one example of a hail damaged downspout, one example of a hail damaged gutter, etc.)
Interior scoping
Take an overview of the whole room.
Scope each room top to bottom - ceiling, walls, windows, baseboards, floor
Take a photo of any specific damage and note the type of materials damaged (smooth drywall or textured? popcorn ceiling or smooth?)
Do not leave a room without writing down something about what you’ll be doing in that room on the estimate - shampoo carpet or replace?
Photograph and note any contents - writing something in for contents manipulation (ie. having to move heavy furniture to a different room in order to replace a carpet)
Don’t forget to include debris removal if applicable!
Optional: set your laptop on a table or counter or laptop stand and enter it all into sketch right there before you leave the room so that you are still in the room if you find you’ve missed anything (ie. chair rail or wainscoting)
So that is just a quick overview so that when you first show up to a storm, if you don’t have access to a field support person, you have some sort of foundation to be building off of as you work. Rather than randomly running back and form from room to room because you forgot to take photos over here or you forgot to note damage over there. And hopefully save you multiple trips up and down your ladder because you got everything you needed the first time.
Really everything you are doing on a storm wants to be done in a very systematic, repeatable way. This is how you get faster as an adjuster and be able to close more claims a day without sacrificing file quality, which as we learned above is how you make more money on any storm.
