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1 Sending Supplements

2 Sending Supplements Where, How, & Why You ve built your revised Xactimate and are ready to send it over to the insurance company. Now we ll Where to send your supplement saved and documented automatically. dress such as a direct address such as 1

3 ideal address to send supplements to. Allow up to 24 hours after you send the supplement for it to be opened and reviewed, then you can follow up. Preparing the supplement The main idea. The overall goal of preparing the ideal supplement is to make it as easy for the desk adjuster to approve as humanly possible. Remember, the desk adjuster s job is to receive, process, and close paperwork, so sending them a supplement that they have to basically decode themselves because it isn t broken down into key points and explained or supported is just another pile of work for them to do. You want the supplement to be direct, clear, simple, and easy to stamp approved on as possible. Imagine you re a parent, and your child comes home one day and says, Mom/Dad, is it okay if I go on a have to organize the whole trip, plan the agenda, pack the lunches, pick up all the other kids in his class, in the world to object to that request now and say no, because you simply don t want to have to deal with to do is sign this permission slip; everything is already coordinated, Tommy s mom is taking us to the zoo, then it makes it really simple for you to say yes. Supplements are the same thing. Do the work for the adjuster so all they have to do is say yes. You want to give the adjuster as many reasons to say yes as possible, and eliminate the possibility of nos on any given item. This is achieved through solid, logical reasoning and clear validation to back up each line item you request, supporting photographs or documentation, a complete claim package (including the Xactimate, measurements via Eagleview/diagram, photographs, and a copy of the agreement between you and the policyholder or authorization for the insurance company to speak with you regarding their policyholder s claim). Essentially, you want to have everything an adjuster would have put together for the original claim. Revising the Xactimate. estimate so that it looks as similar as possible to make it easy for the desk adjuster to review. Pay special attention to measurements. If the adjuster calculated some items with a greater value than what you originally had (he had 20SQ and you had 19SQ), use the higher measurements! Keep the higher values. Add in the line items that you are supplementing. Introduce the supplement. Attach your revised Xactimate/supplement to an , and put the claim number followed by the insured s last name in the subject line. Include a copy of the agreement between you and your homeowner, any necessary photographs, your diagram/eagleview with measurements for authorization signed by both your homeowner and you, so that the insurance company has written permission from their policyholder to discuss the claim with you. Notice how I introduce supplements as if the insurance company asked for it this is using an assumptive approach. There s a lot of psychology going into this technique. When you use language that makes it sound like someone from the insurance company asked you to send that new revised estimate, it makes it a lot easier to get it approved. It s the desk adjuster s job to process paperwork, so when something hits their desk, they want to just get it resolved and get it off their desk. So think about it: they open it, it 2

4 sounds like they asked for it, and they go, Okay, well, everything looks good and 9 times out of 10, they say, Okay, and send the check. Write a paragraph introducing your request. The key is to be friendly, professional, succinct, clear, and direct. If your requests are reasonable, supported, and valid, desk adjusters are more than willing to approve what they can. Your goal is to give them as many reasons as you can for why they can approve it, not excuses why they shouldn t. Line out the differences. Follow the introduction by a clean, bulleted list of the main items in question the estimate you have sent. Close. To wrap up the , thank them for taking the time to review your supplement and express your gratitude in advance for their assistance in the claim. Acknowledge that you know they are probably up to their eyeballs in claims, and that you appreciate their time and their help. Hello! Attached is the revised Xactimate and diagram requested for (insured s name) property claim # There were just a few missing items on the adjuster s original estimate and a few mismeasurements that needed to be corrected in order to restore the homeowner s property appropriately. They include the following: was calculated (see diagram) of these items measures to safely construct the gutters Other that those few items, everything else looks good. Thank you very much for taking the time to review this claim with me; I know you are probably swamped! If you have any questions regarding any of these items, please feel free to give me a call at (123) Let me know if there is anything else I am able to do in order to assist you with this claim. (name) On larger supplements, such as supplements that exceed a few thousand dollars, I am sure to acknowledge it by saying, I realize this is a pretty substantial supplement, but these items are necessary to restore the homeowner s property correctly. I appreciate you taking the time to review them, and please feel free to call me to discuss any of these items at

5 Be polite, use manners, say please & thank you, and use your spell check if you are not great grammatically. The more professional, reasonable, and valid your requests are, the more likely you are to get what you are asking for. Follow up: Hi, this is (name) with (company) calling about claim number for (insured s name). I m their contractor. I m calling to follow up on the supplement I faxed over on (date). Has it been reviewed? Are there any questions regarding any of the items? Further negotiations Sometimes you ll be able to get all of the items on your supplement approved. Other times the adjuster may have a quibble with a couple of items that will require either a little give and take, some better reasoning and validation, or an alternative solution to the problem. Here are some keys to further negotiating the supplement so that you and the adjuster can meet in the middle and compromise to both achieve a fair settlement. Use a teamwork approach. Work WITH the adjuster instead of AGAINST the adjuster. Present requests for supplements and O&P in a way that is like, How can you and I solve this problem on this claim what can I do to help you approve this? instead of, Here is a list of demands; I want x, y, and z approved on this claim or I ll be very angry! They key to getting supplements approved is saying the right things and asking the right questions to show the adjuster that you re not there to beat on your chest like King Kong and demand a bunch of stuff from him because it s the law! or We re entitled to it! By showing them that you understand their position and approaching the necessary changes in the claim in a way that doesn t cause any heel-digging, arguing, or threats, you re much more likely to get what you need. Compromises: Sometimes you need to compromise and let the adjuster call it futbol while you re calling it soccer, meaning let them provide you with additional funds without adding something to the claim that they aren t allowed to pay for. For example, some insurance companies may give you a really hard time about O&P, but they are willing to add on base service charges to your trades to add several hundred or a thousand dollars to help you out. In other instances, they may not feel they can justify paying for a certain line item that you re requesting (like ridge and starter for example), but in an effort to compromise, they ll load you up with soft metals or additional waste to help boost the claim size for you. These examples are coming from personal experience. When you learn to work with the adjusters instead of against them, they really can become your biggest asset and teammate. You just have to give them a chance. Repeat supplements or negligble missed items: Sometimes after already sending and securing a big supplement on a claim, we come across new items or - adjuster intially. Here s an approach that works to acknowledge an inconvenience or a nit-picky request when you feel like you re almost better off just not asking for something (like a small $300 addition), keeping in mind that a small $300 addition to a claim has a major impact when your company is turning in 700 jobs a year (that adds up to $210,000! - that replaces 1 mediocre salesman! Haha) Here s the approach I use for the nit picky or afterthought requests: 4

6 Hey (adjuster), Hope all is well, I m sure you re still up to your eyeballs over there from the storm activity we re having. I hate to send this over to you after already having one revision made to the claim, but my manager is bugging me about one last minor adjustment on the claim. It s pretty small, but the 9/12 steep charge was applied to only 15 square of the roof, when there are actually 29 square of 9/12. If it isn t too much of a hassle, would it be possible to correct this and just add this into the depreciation payment? If it s too much trouble on your end for a small $300 tweak, I understand. Next time I ll make sure to do a better job not to miss little items like that. Let me know if there s anything else I can help you with. I appreciate your help on this one! -Name This approach works well because not only are you acknowledging the circumstance of your request (basically saying, Ehh, I know this is kind of an annoying request ), but you are actually taking responsibility for not having it included in the original supplement ( Next time I ll make sure to do a better job ). You re also giving the adjuster an out, saying, Listen, I know this is kind of small and probably more of an annoyance than anything, and if it s too much trouble for you to add it in, then don t even worry about it. An adjuster is going to be grateful and appreciative that you approached it that way, and is more likely to say, No worries, it s not a problem I ll add it to the depreciation check. Those are the basic guidelines for putting together a supplement, but we feel that the best way of educat- this topic, we will share numerous real life examples of getting supplements locked down on claims of all sizes. 5