John O’Brien – May 7th, 2013
In your first deployment as adjuster it will very quickly become apparent what things are essential to success and what things aren’t.
Gadgets are Fun, Not Necessary
Equipment in general and gadgets in particular, for instance, aren’t particularly vital to your success. You don’t need to have the latest and greatest laser tape measure, a 24-foot aluminum ladder, or a high-tech helicopter camera drone. A tape measure, folding ladder and a reliable vehicle are all that are required. (Gadgets are more fun, we admit!)
Some Info Will Be Learned as You Go
Profound, in-depth knowledge of construction isn’t really essential to the job, either. Will it help? Absolutely, and you will do a better job the more knowledge you have. But, truth be told, you will be able to learn a great deal about materials and building composition as you encounter them. You may make mistakes here and there in the beginning, but if you are on top of things you won’t the same mistake twice. The learning curve is pretty manageable.
Software Training is a Must-Have
What is absolutely indispensable, however, is mastering the estimating software prescribed for use by the carrier you are representing – in the majority of cases, it is Xactimate. This is the single greatest challenge to serious success for cat adjusters. If you don’t know Xactimate (or any other required software), and know it well, you simply won’t realize your full earnings potential as an adjuster. Thinking that you’ll just learn it as you go, during a real deployment, is a recipe for firing yourself.
Adjusters Need Xactimate Experience for Success
It’s essential that you take a course in and practice in Xactimate before you start working claims because:
Xactimate is not an immediately intuitive program and the learning curve is steep. Successfully using Xactimate requires very specialized knowledge and skill to deliver a quality estimate in an acceptable time frame. Pure and simple, you need training, and you need training prior to deployment.
Second, mastery of Xactimate does more towards increasing your efficiency in closing claims than any other single item (although a good GPS or navigation system is a close second).
Closing claims quickly means more satisfied customers, more money, more claims, better claims, longer deployment, and finally rock-star status with the folks at the home office. Closing claims quickly and efficiently with minimal hand-holding is the name of the game as a CAT adjuster!
License is a Requirement, Xactimate is a Necessity
In summary, everyone talks about getting a license and stresses over the licensing rules and reciprocity, but at the end of the day, it is your knowledge of Xactimate and estimate writing that is going to make the difference between getting by and achieving an outstanding level of success. This is not the place to skimp. Hold off on the $2500 laser level until you have closed a few claims. But get your estimating software training STAT.
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