Legitimate Supplements

Legitimate Supplements

Legitimate Supplements - Examples: - - - 1

Most adjusters do a pretty good job putting together their estimates. Some are terrible. We ve all had a claim come in that was missing some pretty key items ( like felt paper, or an entire side of siding which you ll see in one of my examples in another lesson). Just like sales managers at your contracting company run sales meetings and teach you to say this when an adjuster says this, don t you think adjusters are also sitting in meetings with their superiors saying, Oh, well when a contractor asks for starter and ridge, just tell them it s included in the waste! all the time, but if they can justify leaving certain items off of their estimates here and there, the fact of the matter is that it is in their best interest to do so. For the most part, homeowners are not knowledgeable enough about construction to be able to identify when their insurance assessment for damages to their home are missing something or are inaccurate. It disadvantage, because they basically just have to hope that their insurance company covered them properly so they get a quality job for the right price. insurance paperwork for your customer and identify any areas of inaccuracy or opportunity to ensure als and labor will be necessary to restore their home to pre-storm condition is written up fully and properly so that you as the contractor are able to do a quality job without cutting corners or eating costs, and that your homeowner pays nothing above and beyond their deductible (voluntarily) per their insurance policy s contract. While we would all like to believe that adjusters are all great at their job, are all completely fair and honest, and are fully capable of putting together a spot-on estimate that restores the house properly and pays the contractor fairly, unfortunately that is just not the case. Cue supplementing. Supplementing is simply revising an estimate to include all the necessary and proper line items so that the work that they do. Just because the insurance company pays a dollar amount that covers the cost of construction, it does not mean that they paid correctly for the job. - box of cereal doesn t actually cost $4 to make. In fact it s probably only to sell it for 50 cents. Not even for $2! Sure, they could sell it for $2 and is $4, and it s not ludicrous to ask for or charge that amount. Plus, they re magically delicious. 2

It s not a matter of greed. It s a matter of fairness. This is where negotiating supplements comes into effect. As a storm restoration contractor, you can look at the paperwork and say, Okay. We re using the same software to estimate these claims, so assuming the measurements are correct, we have to identify what line items/materials are missing from the scope. WHY is the estimate only $7,000 when yours is $9,000? What s missing? Is it a code requirement? Is it a steep charge? Did they estimate the incorrect type of shingle? The point of drawing up supplements is to get the most accurate estimate you can so that all line items, materials, and labor is accounted for. Preparing your homeowner for possible (see: probable) supplements It is important to prepare your customer ahead of time for the likelihood of pursuing a supplement to their claim. If you set the expectation, it will eliminate confusion. The sales presentation script we teach already does this, but it is important to touch on the topic immediately after the adjuster meeting. After the adjuster leaves, you ll usually catch up with the homeowner for a few minutes to chat about how it went. This is when you can bring up what will happen next. Say, Well, in about a week or so you should get the paperwork back from your insurance company. It ll probably look like a bunch of gibberish, but don t worry I ll walk you through it. Give me a call and I ll sit down with you and go over the scope so we can make sure everything is there. I ll bring over my original estimate as well which is in the same pricing software so we can compare apples to apples, and if there are any missing items or incorrect measurements, we ll put together a supplement to send over to the insurance company to make sure they can correct any errors if they re there. Sound good? If you d like to further explain or they want to know more about that, use third party stories about supplements you ve had to send. Here are a few of my own personal experiences: I had a homeowner recently who had aluminum siding, and the adjuster on site said they would pay to replace all 4 sides, however when the insurance paperwork came back, I noticed that the measurements were way off. I emailed him about it and sure enough, he realized he had not included the rear elevation of siding. After I brought it to his attention, he corrected the error and sent out a supplemental check to cover it. or the correct amount of ice and water shield to make sure that it follows code and runs 24 inches inside the warm wall, things like that here and there. Sometimes we have to send in huge supplements because they totally botch it, but most of the time it s less than a couple thousand or hundred dollars. This lets them know ahead of time that supplements are normal and common, and it squashes any weird suspicious feeling they might get if suddenly you try to tell them the estimate is $4,000 off when they were under the impression the insurance company should have paid correctly. You can also point out the verbiage their insurance company uses on the front page of their paperwork that we examined on page 1 that clearly states that supplementing may be necessary to help them grasp the fact that supplementing is normal and expected. 3

In reality, you should be supplementing close to 100% of your claims. Understanding this ahead of time and communicating it to your customers will help make supplementing just another obligatory step in the job cycle process. When you supplement well, not only will your wallet be happy, but so will your customers! Not only are you assisting your customers to ensure that they are covered properly, but in doing so you are protecting them either incurring additional out of pocket costs, or having to accept subpar work or materials via cutting corners to make up for the decreased margins. We re going to show you several case studies of supplements, share our ever-increasing master list of supplemental items, teach you how to identify these opportunities, and how to negotiate them with desk adjusters all the way down to what to say and who to talk to. 4