Docusketch for property insurance claims

An operations manager, Canadian commercial adjuster, CEO and chief strategy officer walk into a podcast...Chris Phillipsen, Alex Blagojevic, Kevin Hussey and Jeff Turner join The DYOJO Podcast to discuss their experiences with Docusketch.
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Shout outs for Actionable Insights who sent me a killer branded hat and a Grip6 belt, something I had been considering purchasing for some time. While Seth and Whatley have developed some awesome resources for restorers, such as their monthly Xactimate updates newsletter, I am suspicious that their AI (pun intended) may also be listening in on members of our community. 

Before the hate mail starts rolling in, please understand that in my mind I thought of the multi-member podcast panel before I heard Gerrett Stier's GMS Podcast Episode 44 titled The New Guys. Gerrett did an awesome job of discussing the challenges of starting a restoration business with four owners with less than 3 years of experience. I highly recommend listening to this episode with:

• Mike McFadden at Hero Remediation
• Tim Kreczmer at Puro-Clean
• Cory Martin at C&C Restoration
• Trey Raines at Raines Restoration 

Please note, this episode of The DYOJO Podcast is not intended to be a sales pitch for Docusketch. Docusketch has not paid for advertising. When we looked at the available data, there appeared to be an abundance of information about Matterport, including an interview from our friends at the GMS Podcast as well as Blue Collar Nation, whereas there was much less available for Docusketch. This is our attempt at helping shorten your DANG learning curve by getting four unique perspectives from users of this product.

Topics for The DYOJO Podcast Ep. 40 include:

• Chris Phillipsen, Operations Manager with Quality Cleaning and Restoration in Northampton, Massachusetts

Chris describes himself as, "The kind of guy who buys his own tools." Which isn't a perspective that you find in many professionals, especially when it comes to spending thousands of dollars on a 360 degree camera system such as Matterport. Just before he was going to pull the trigger, a friend of his told him about a program that he was beta-testing called Docusketch. 

Mr. Phillipsen has been using Docusketch for a little over a year and a half and has just begun the process of training another employee in their company to utilize the resource. In Chris' opinion Docusketch is user friendly and the trainee seems to be picking things up rather quickly. Chris uses the Madventure 360 camera and has found it to be useful for project documentation as well as marketing. 

Chris mentioned several times that a user must remember, "The camera sees what you see." In his estimation a 1,500 square foot home can be captured in about 20 minutes and the 2D transfer to an ESX file takes about 24-48 hours. He says he likes Docusketch because it is lighter, less expensive, and the conversion package is much more affordable as well.

• Alex Blagojevic, Commercial Property Adjuster with Claims Pro in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Alex was introduced to Docusketch in October of 2019. To her knowledge their company, Claims Pro, was the first independent adjusting firm to adopt what they call the "smart inspect program". This program uses Docusketch and Encircle in collaboration with each other to create a full documentation package for each loss. 

Alex says that for their needs Docusketch is perfect with the 2D floor plan and the 3D tours. She uses the Madventure camera and sends her information to an internal team that creates estimates remotely for each claim. In Canada she has observed programs such as Matterport and Docusketch becoming the norm for contractors, especially preferred vendors. 

We had a little fun, asking whether it was true that the reason her company chose Docusketch over Matterport was because the later could not integrate with the metric system. 

• Kevin Hussey, CEO and President with United Fire and Water Damage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana 

As Mr. Hussey's company was considering which system to incorporate into their arsenal, they found the price of Docusketch to make the most sense being that they could but multiple cameras for the price of one from Matterport. Their team has trained technicians to run the program because, as Kevin says, "We like to see our estimator in his seat estimating." 

As has been said by all of our interviewees, Kevin hasn't had to utilize the Docusketch customer service much but whenever he has had to reach out they have been very responsive. He has been using Docusketch over 16 months within all aspects of their business including mitigation, reconstruction, and contents. 

• Jeff Turner, Chief Strategy Officer with Docusketch

While Jeff is not an objective source on his own product, he did not speak disparagingly about his competitor Matterport. He notes the reason that there is more information about Matterport is that they have much more money and resources than the Docusketch team. 

Bryan Close, the co-host of Pro vs. Joe Podcast (the podcast within the podcast) and co-owner of All American Restoration Services in Tacoma, Washington, joined me in the discussion with Jeff. Bryan has been looking into Docusketch and Matterport for some time for his company which focuses on reconstruction. 

Jeff was very personable and our conversation definitely delivers on the spirit of INFOtainment that we seek at The DYOJO Podcast. He shared many of the unique features of the Docusketch system as well as some of the backstory into developing the product to serve property restoration professionals. 

Guests & Features:

• No Equipment Repair Tip of the Week for this episode as Elan is preparing to launch an equipment repair seminar, be sure to follow him on Instagram so that you can keep up to date on that resource - Born To Repair (IG @borntorepair)
• South Sound Connection (SSC) LIVE will be broadcast every Tuesday at 9am PST on Jon Isaacson's Facebook, Jon Isaacson's LinkedIn and The DYOJO YouTube - we include a clip of SSC 003 with Kevin Bates of Helping Hand House discussing helping families in need during Christmas 
• Jon Isaacson - www.thedyojo.com (Tacoma, WA)
• The DYOJO Podcast on Youtube and Spotify - www.thedyojo.com/listen

The DYOJO Podcast - the INFOtainment podcast for the skilled trades. Helping you shorten your DANG learning curve. WATCH on The DYOJO Youtube or LISTEN on Apple and/or Spotify. Please subscribe, like and share with your network.