I share a story in my latest book about being hired to elevate training for an established office and then being berated for doing what I thought I was hired for; training. The experience of working in an environment with a supervisor that didn’t do much to help their team members with career development was a challenge but I want everyone reading to understand that it can be done. Career development in property restoration, as in most of the skilled trades, will require you to develop the right mindset and habits in customer service. We will address two key components of customer service in this article, communication and cleanliness. 
 

• If you want to develop your career, you have to be intentional in your personal development. 
• If you want to attract, develop, and retain good talent for your organization, you have to be intentional in your team’s professional development. 
• If you want to be an intentional restorer, you must make a constant commitment to develop your mindset and your habits. 

Property restoration career development: Create your own opportunities

It may surprise some of those reading to learn that prior to 2008 we had specialists for almost everything. When I started in the industry in 2002, with the team in bright yellow, we had separate divisions. There was some crossover assisting teams when they needed help, but our primary functions and teams were distinct from each other. We had managers for each of our divisions, mold, water, fire/contents, repairs, and carpets. 

When I arrived with the company listed in the opening paragraph, my role as production manager was expected to oversee all of the “divisions” similar to those listed above. As a side note, we offered trauma/crime scene cleanup but it was not a service we did a lot of. I saw bio-services as an opportunity to learn more about the process and market those services so that I could create a growth void that I could then fill. You may be starting over, like I was, or feel like you are stuck in career limbo, look for something that no one else wants to do and create your own opening. Whatever level you are at in your career, life is about opportunity, not convenience. 


Property restoration career development: Training for customer service

While I was not aware of the title at the time, I had to develop a process for teaching my team soft skills in addition to the technical (hard) skills of property restoration. If you are a manager and/or owner, when you train your team members to develop their mindset and habits, you communicate opportunities for growth which will also push you to continue to grow. This quote attributed to Richard Branson, is a strong encouragement to any organization that wants to thrive with their people, "Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to." 

The chart below is the result of years of grinding out a process for addressing what I felt was important when training a diverse group of team members who had to master multiple service offerings. If you are committed to training, you have to budget time to focus on core principles and supplement scheduled training with on the job follow up by yourself and your team members. You don’t have accountability until you create clarity, develop consistency, and your team is committed to holding each other to the shared standards (culture). Accountability starts with the people in positions of leadership leading by example, without which it won’t exist.  

Customer service, or better said, the customer experience, is essential to long term success in a service based industry like property restoration. You cannot expect that customer service is common sense or that your existing team will pass down everything that you hold dear. 

Two key aspects of customer service that you have a direct impact on are:

1. Cleanliness, and
2. Communication 

Property restoration career development: Cleanliness is godliness 

Cleanliness is godliness in property restoration. What is the first thing you should do when you meet a client, regardless of the time of day? If you are entering a home, you should be asking, “Would you like me to take my shoes off,” or slipping on protective booties that your company supplies you boxes and boxes of. Why is this important? Because it demonstrates to the homeowner that you respect their home, you respect them, and your number one priority is their experience during this process. 

What is the alternative? You may walk in and the customer may be fine, but making this consideration known is key to setting yourself apart - even if no one else in your company does it. Obviously, if the whole house is flooded, you aren’t taking your shoes off and booties are useless. You can say, “Normally we would take our shoes off but it does not appear to be safe at this time.” One component of sales is ensuring you communicate how you and your company are different, not by putting your competitors down but by showing your client your unique values and habits.  

Additional habits that demonstrate a standard of cleanliness:

• Flooring protection and sticky matts - be aware of the impact to certain finishes
• Containment and dust barriers 
• Air scrubbers and environmental controls
• Sweep and/or vacuum as you go about your work as at the end of each day 

I can remember early on, I was on a project where I had forgotten my vacuum cleaner (or someone had borrowed it and not returned it), and the day was wrapping up. Somehow the only tool I had was a hand broom and dust pan. My boss had made it clear that sweeping at the end of every day was important to him and would pay off with the customer. So, I swept my way out on my hands and knees. This wasn’t a detailed sweep as we were coming back to complete more demolition the next day, but that action won a lot of favor with the customer. Unfortunately, not every customer will vocalize their satisfaction, but your habits are critical as they establish your way of doing things. 

Property restoration career development: Communication 

Communication is more than just talking. If you are the one presenting the information, your integrity is essential. Unfortunately, there are too many examples of people who will speak when without thinking about what they are saying or about things that they don’t fully understand. You are not doing yourself or your client a good service if you tell them something just to ease the tension or sound important. 

Whenever we would onboard new technicians, or in peak season when we would bring in temporary labor, I would give some variation of a speech about two great communication anathemas that weren’t to be practiced in our team culture: 

• The first rule of earnest communication for intentional restorers is, don’t speak about things you have no knowledge of. If a customer asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, tell them, “That is a great question, let me get my supervisor to ensure we get you the right information as this is a bit above my paygrade.” You can use a little humor to maintain the confidence of the customer and be a broker in the transmission of truth rather than slipping into slimy sales mode and saying something useless just to fill the void. A thoughtful pause will serve better than a quick tongue as you develop your career. 

 

• The second rule of earnest communication for intentional restorers is, NEVER utter the words, “I don’t know.” If one extreme is to say something just to say something, the other extreme is deepening the chasm of stupidity by saying those three confidence killing words. Not knowing an answer does not mean you are stupid or unqualified. The same line from above helps in this scenario as the goal is to maintain the confidence of the customer in the abilities of your team. If you want to grow your career, the first time a customer asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to ought to be the last time that you are unprepared to address that issue. 

Property restoration career development: Be intentional

What is a business? In order to have a sustainable property restoration business you will need two things: happy customers and profitable jobs. Too many organizations, and people in a position of leadership, focus on profits as though they are the cause and not the effect. This is not to diminish how important profits are, but to understand that it is much more effective to direct your team members to focus on what they can control. All team members play a role in achieving happy customers and this is where we should focus our training. If you teach your team how to produce happy customers, you will find ways as a team to achieve profitability. On the other hand, if you always preach profits first, you will struggle to achieve happy customers. One is a cause, the other is an effect. Al Erisman, author of The ServiceMaster Story, discussed how early leaders in this flagship restoration organization had the mindset that profits were the subject but not the object of their efforts. 

As you develop your career in property restoration, use these three guides: 

• Do it Right.
• Do it Efficiently.
• Do it excellently. 

Being an intentional restorer starts with doing it right. Whatever your roles and responsibilities are, learn how to do them right. Once you have this foundation you can learn to perform these functions more efficiently. This does not mean faster. Yet, efficiency increases overall team speed without cutting corners or sacrificing quality (doing it right). In everything we do, we want to add that sizzle which stamps your work with your way (reflects your culture). When you arrive with booties, lay down flooring protection, set dust control barriers, and close every day with sweeping the worksite, you are showing your customer that you have a way; that you have pride in what you do (excellence).

• If you want to develop your career in property restoration, customer service is key.
• If you want to develop your team into intentional restorers, consistently teach them the skills of communication and cleanliness as keys to the customer experience.   

Companies that invest in their employees (inputs) will find that they can increase their profits (outputs) by producing team members that are more engaged and less likely to leave (retention). The common adage goes something like this, 

Manager 1 asks, “What happens if we invest in training and developing our employees and they leave?” 

Manager 2 responds, “What happens if we don’t and they stay?” 

Rather than look at the negative examples in your experiences as a person in a position of leadership, as those of your peers, focus on the success stories and build your vision around those common denominators. Alex Blagojevic joins The DYOJO Podcast (Episode 43) to share her perspectives as a young insurance professional on how she was inspired by the organizations that invested in her. 

We also discuss the book Insuring Tommorrow: Engaging Millennials in the Insurance Industry by Tony Canas and Carly Burnham of the Insurance Nerds which was written to help organizations better understand the largest current and incoming generational workforce. If you refuse to learn to interact with millennials, you will soon find that your company has no future. 

Alex also speaks to growth minded professionals about having a 5 year plan and sharing that with your manager so that everyone can be on the same page with regards to vision and goals. She shares how organizations that invest in soft skills training, such as customer service, empower their teams to take ownership for their personal growth as well as better contribute to the growth of the company. Watch the whole interview in The DYOJO YouTube page or listen via The DYOJO Podcast on Apple and Spotify. 

The DYOJO Podcast, helping you shorten your DANG learning curve for professional development, releases every Monday at 6am PST, in 2021 we will be recording many of our episodes LIVE on Thursdays at 9am PST. ​

In property restoration, we train our team members for many technical skills but we are woefully behind in soft skills. This is a reality throughout construction and most skilled trades. While I believe the primary reasons for this gap are not nefarious, as no one is actively trying to prevent professional development, if you and I don’t face the facts, we will continue to struggle in areas that can be overcome with a dose of intentionality.

Often we allow ourselves to be caught in the hamster wheel of busyness, telling ourselves that we are working “harder” and therefore never stopping to develop a process for working “smarter”. It’s difficult to do, but you and I have to take a step back if we are going to improve the process. One area that I would like to direct our attention towards, that assists our team members to perform their functions much more efficiently and leads to much better project outcomes, is business relationships.
 
If we rate our relationships on a scale of niceness, perhaps we can compare this feature to the familiar story of Goldilocks the Adjuster and the Three Estimator Bears:

• Pushover Bear 
• Pragmatist Bear 
• Pertinacious Bear 

Pushover Dynamics

When Goldilocks the friendly neighborhood Adjuster, or any other business role player (this could be subcontractors, vendors, suppliers, third party administrators, consultants, etc), comes along to discuss a claim, she finds it easy to compel Pushover Bear into compliance. It’s almost too easy. Pushover Bears believes that if they are nice and the adjuster is nice, that must mean we have a positive relationship. In Pushover Bear’s defense, what would lead someone to fold in situations of adversity? 

• Personality - Is Pushover Bear wired to be a “people pleaser”? 
• Training - Does Pushover Bear have the ammunition they need to tactfully push back against objections? 
• Support - Has Pushover Bear pushed back in the past but been ran over by the bus of blame when things didn’t pan out? 

On the Blue Collar Nation Podcast, hosts Eric “The Tech Whisperer” Sprague and Larry “Pineapple Man” Wilberton discuss their experiences with an estimator who was a people-pleasing-pushover that cost them millions (by their estimates). As individuals in positions of leadership, they had to learn to better identify their team members' personalities and skill sets so they could train them to achieve better outcomes. 

Pertinacious Dynamics

Some estimators are built for confrontation and any sleight is taken to the maximum offense so that they can exhaust their grievances with Goldilocks, the Adjuster, and the entire system of insurance (if not beyond). Pertinacious Bear often views a rejection of their estimate as a personal attack and/or they believe any concession is giving away too much. If Pushover Bear is good at playing the quantity over quality game, Pertinacious Bear will fight for every penny claiming they are only about quality. 

• Personality - Can Pertinacious Bear go too far? 
• Training - Does the organization train on the differences between shearing a sheep and skinning it? 
• Support - Is the team discussing the long term consequences of their approaches and tracking their progress on achieving long term goals? 

If Pushover Bear is at risk of being played, Pertinacious Bear tries too hard to be the player. It is important even when making a valid case to remain polite and professional, above reproach. Pragmatism isn’t the only way to approach a situation, but as an organization it is important to define what your process is and how your responses will be in alignment with your values. 

• If you are leaving too much on the table in the way of legitimate scope, you are going to struggle to be profitable. 
• If your defense of your scope is not rooted in what is fair and customary, you are going to struggle to be competitive. 

Pragmatic Dynamics

It may seem that Pragmatist Bear is the best kind of bear because their estimates would be ‘just right’ and their ability to negotiate must lead to profitable outcomes, right? The author is clearly steering the reader towards this conclusion, right? This is not my point. 

The greater issue is whether your organization has discussed, defined and developed a process to optimize your approach to claims dynamics. If there is no clarity or consistency in the organization, there will be recurring issues as Goldilocks the Adjuster is ALWAYS visiting your estimating cottage. Those in a position of leadership need to be mindful to create a culture that attracts, develops, retains and enhances the traits which align with their process. 

Writing a good estimate is the foundation of telling the story of the loss but the process does not end there. As former owners, Eric and Larry understand the importance of developing your team. They created Morning Tech Meeting to help business owners simplify soft skills training for field employees. The duo discuss how Jon Isaacson’s book Be Intentional: Estimating would have been required reading in their organization as it discusses how organizations can develop a robust approach to being professional and polite without getting played. 

The First Step is Defining the Game

Something I like to point out in all of my creative outlets, whether it’s The Intentional Restorer, The DYOJO Podcast or Be Intentional: Estimating, is that the first step is to define for your organization the game you want to play. Is your approach to claims going to be: 

• Quick and Easy
• Estimating Pragmatists 
• Fight for Every Penny 

Quick and Easy Claims

While I am not a fan of quantity over quality, there are plenty of businesses who have done very well for themselves operating this way. The program heavy organization that writes estimates to get approved must understand what they are doing and set their systems up to optimize this approach. We can write estimates that will get approved on the first draft, but if you want to play the quick and easy claim game, you’d better have your team set up to get in and get out with no interruptions or exceptions. 

Fight for Every Penny

Depending on where you hang out in the property restoration ecosystem, there are plenty of contractors who are making it their mission to make their voice heard. They believe they are in the right, defending the honor of the process and fighting the good fight for their clients. Pertinacious Bears are in stark contrast to Pushover Bears and yet both extremes have their pros and cons. The right estimating bears need to be in the right restoration cottages in order to make the honey to flow. 

Estimating Pragmatism

This is not to say that pragmatism is the only answer as there is plenty of grey area in whatever approach you take. Pushover Bears and Goldilocks the Adjuster think that Pragmatist Bear is too severe while Pertinacious Bear thinks that Pragmatist Bear is as “soft” as Pushover Bear. This is not a matter of right or wrong but of defining the approach from the top down so that it can be executed from the bottom up in the organization. Be clear and be consistent.

Start by Defining Professional Relationships

In Be Intentional: Estimating I outline the MINDSET and HABITS that I believe will help owners, managers, estimators and growth minded employees to succeed with estimating property insurance claims. I think it is important to share a few ground rules for developing relationships in the insurance realm. 

Anyone who has been in the industry for a period of time will have some level of pessimism about the claims process (porridge frequently too cold). It is important as an incoming estimator to form your own opinions, but that doesn’t mean you should disregard some of the battle tested wisdom from bears of all shapes, sizes and temperaments. 

Four Simple Claims Relationship Optimizers: 

• For us to have a professional “relationship” it must be mutually beneficial. If negotiations are being made, they should be made in a manner that is fair to all parties. I see many new contractors caught in situations where they have given too much, thinking the future volume will offset the temporary losses, but find they have little left to give when additional concessions are requested. They think they are playing the game but they are being played. 
• Think of concessions in the mindset of a courtroom where precedence is being established. An adjuster or consultant may ask for a concession that seems reasonable, but by making this deal are you setting a precedent that you can maintain with future losses and/or in other areas of your estimate? As Lisa Lavender and I share in a recent article, you must be mindful of scope creep. Keep an eye out for those costly losses of time, resources and profits that pop up as “simple requests” from carriers, clients and our own production teams. 
• As humans we are loathe to blame our issues on all parties but ourselves, but if we are not making the effort to communicate early and often with the carrier and their representatives, we cannot cry bear at the end of the process when they sit in your chair, rip your invoice to shreds and eat all your porridge. Mutually beneficial relationships and precedence are both enhanced by clear, consistent and constant communication. 
• It is helpful to have an internal review prior to sending your estimate to an adjuster or third party administrator. By playing devil’s advocate for each other, you can discuss areas of an estimate that may need further explanation as well as prepare for the objections that may come once your estimate is reviewed by Goldilocks the Adjuster and her friends. A second set of eyes may help reduce questions, concerns and needless revisions which is good for all parties involved.

​For these and more tips on how to be professional, be polite but don’t get played, check out Jon Isaacson “The Intentional Restorer’s” new book Be Intentional: Estimating available in Kindle and paperback. Contact The DYOJO for discounts on bulk orders for your team. ​