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Before you do anything listen to the insured and let him tell you the story ofwhat happened to his home.
Communication, Always be available to the insured during a disaster.

Under promise and over deliver for your customers regarding when you will have your information submitted. As you do so, don't box the carrier in a time frame that they can not operate with.

He who pays your fee account tells you how to handle the claim. Not the last company you worked for.

5. Be humble. You are not the greatest thing that ever happened to catadjusting. Be confident. You are not the worst thing that ever happened to catadjusting.

Of course as adjusters we must remain detached , however we must remember that adjusting skills mean little without kindness and compassion for the insured.

Good stuff; welcome back Steve.

I'd like to add a part 'a.' to 5. Just as soon as you think you know something, you will quickly discover that you have much to learn.

Posted By olderthendirt on 13 Jun 2012 01:18 AM

Can we set a group of ten simple rules (the ten commandments if you will) based on common sense (if it was common why is it so rare). So you people who like me are too lazy or too brain damaged to escape this business lets here some ideas. I will kick it off with what I believe is the only valid number one rule of adjusting

 

1 DON'T  PANIC

 

 do you agree? and lets hear some ideas for the rest of the rules.

....................................................................

OTD,

I applaud your efforts. It's amazing that something so important as your concept has NOT been addressed prior to now in any real or organized format.

This is a wonderful idea of having a universal set of bylaws for ALL adjusters. I sure hope that our experienced brethren will share your enthusiasm and offer up more thoughts and insights.

Awesome post OTD!!

Robby 

 

Follow the contract. The policy is a contract, subject to interpretation but most of it has already been in court. Just folllow the contract.

Happy Trails

To date summarized

1. thou shall not panic
2. thou shall listen
3. thou shall follow the direction of the examiner, the vendor and the company
4. promise little deliver much
5. be humble, respectful and empathetic
6. thou shall never say "at my last assignment
7.Thou art the bottom of the food chain, never forget it
8. Learn something new every day

Need more ideas and comments

Yesterday while looking at a roof with a younger adjuster I dropped a piece of chalk, and to my horror he took off after it. Happy ending he stopped before the edge.

If you drop something on a roof let it go!

Another suggestion:

Don't bet your house or your family on a disaster

A corollary to OlderthenDirt's post:

Always, Always respect the roof. A corollary to the corollary: Don't walk backwards on a roof. The edge isn't always where you think it is.

There's two (2) kinds of adjusters; Those that have fallen off of a roof and those that will fall off a roof.

If a property owner has ran inside because she just couldn't take it while watching you on her roof, that's a good sign that you are getting ready to become one of the latter.

Phonequette.......make the phone ring on the customer's end, don't make it ring on your end.  Be proactive and make the call with a set plan/timeline/expectations in place, and then keep that plan in place.  If circumstances change that plan whether by 15 minutes, an hour, or a day......CALL the insured and/or agent.  You will no longer have messages piling up, calls escalating to your supervisor, and wasting valuable time.  Be proactive and not reactive.  The only time you should allow your phone to ring is when you leave a message, and are expecting the call.   

Don't pray for a big storm; pray that you will be one of those called to serve when the big storm comes.

"Do today's work today. If you don't, tomorrow you will have twice as much to do with half the time." Words of wisdom from a seasoned cat manager when I hit the ground on my first deployment in CT ( ice daming and collapse) as a staff adjuster with 40 claims and 14 days to contact, inspect, estimate and settle the claims. I managed to survive and live by those words as a happy working IA today!

Why procrastinate today when there's always tomorrow

Happy Trails