Following a massive storm, these tips will help you survive and thrive when handling challenging insurance restoration projects—whether it’s your first time or you’re a seasoned veteran.

1. Make a Good First Impression

The first order of business following a storm is to promptly get your company name out in the community to affected residents and businesses. Start by mailing personalized postcards that offer solutions to these potential customers. Postcards should appeal to the type of storm they experienced, what solutions your team can provide and how they can best contact you.

Additionally, your team should be professional and dressed in apparel with your company logo, prepared to answer questions about the quality of your company, the insurance restoration process and timing. It’s important they know when to refer questions they cannot answer to someone who can.

If you don’t already have postcards, hangers or company apparel, ABC Supply’s Freedom Programs are a convenient way to design and order promotional materials for your business.

2. Educate Homeowners

Following a storm, homeowners are often stressed. Few will be knowledgeable about the contracting business or the insurance industry, and the search to find a contractor to help with their repairs will likely feel daunting.

Your sales team can overcome these obstacles by emphasizing your business’s core values and ethical standards, reinforced by customer referrals. This is your company’s opportunity to educate homeowners on what to look for in a quality contractor. Make use of your value proposition to let them know what makes your business different than your competitor’s.

3. Navigate the Insurance Maze

The guidance your company provides in dealing with insurance companies can solidify your relationship with the homeowner, explains Jeremy Toubl of Toubl Contracting in Beloit, Wisconsin. Toubl points out that his sales team works with both the homeowner and insurance adjuster.

According to Larry Gebhart, owner of Ridge Top Exteriors in Madison, Wisconsin, being an advocate with insurance companies and making sure the adjuster didn’t miss anything creates a comfortable relationship with the homeowner.

4. Act Quickly and Carefully

Once a storm hits, contractors need to act fast to handle the scores of homeowners looking for repairs.

Right after the storm, send out crews to take care of immediate needs such as putting a tarp over holes or repairing roofs.

Throughout this hectic time, your job is to be a coach—coordinate your crew’s activity, act as a resource and make sure supplies are available.

5. Rely on the Right Suppliers

With so many contractors and crews needing supplies after a storm, long lines will often form in stores. It is ideal to work with a supplier who will keep things moving and enable you to spend more time on the job. You want a supplier that can keep up with your demand for product orders. Because of ABC Supply’s nationwide network, for example, we can get you what you want when you need it.

Finding a supplier with reliable delivery is essential. ABC Supply’s delivery promise means that you’ll receive your order complete, on time and without substituting other products.

“When I’m working a new market, the local ABC Supply location knows what kind of siding and shingles are on the homes in the area. I like that they are proactive,” Toubl notes. “Right after a storm hits, I will get a call from them asking what I need. You can’t beat that kind of relationship.”

When a storm hits, insurance restoration contractors need to act quickly and carefully to help homeowners get back into their houses. Check out the ABC Supply blog for reflecting and learning after your storm restoration work has ended.