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By: The Encircle Team
Every year millions of people make promises to themselves on the first day of the new year. For restoration contractors, now is the time to reflect on last year’s outcomes and create a plan for the future to grow your business. As in your personal life, you can do this through New Year's resolutions.
Adapt to new technology 🤖
Don’t get left behind — go with the flow
As the industry changes, so should your business! Be proactive and adapt to changes in technology. Always innovating and adapting to stay on top is exactly what we recommend for all companies. Within the restoration industry, the latest technology can simplify interactions, streamline workflows, reduce cycle times, and improve the customer experience.
For a prime example of utilizing modern technology to get ahead, look no further than Shamrock Restoration. By embedding video into their reports, they could bridge the communication gap that so often exists in the property claims ecosystem. The result? Shamrock Restoration’s score in the Contractor Connection network rose from average to being recognized as 8th in the entire network in the US, and 2nd in the Southeast region!
Energize and encourage your team
Even with the best technology and well thought out workflows, digital transformation takes a ton of commitment from the whole team. To energize the troops, you need to celebrate the small wins regularly. This will reinforce the value of everyone’s contribution to the successful outcome of the project. It will motivate the team to work through the challenging parts and find solutions to the roadblocks that pop up, and hopefully help your company combat the high employee turnover rates that exist.
Here are some examples of the small wins to celebrate while you roll out new tech:
- The first successful use of the new process in production.
- Weekly acknowledgement for the best example of the process working.
- Most improved user of the new system and process.
- Best idea to further improve the system or process.
- Kudos for being a team player.
Up your restoration game 🎓
Take your technical training to the next level
As your business evolves, so should you. There are a number of courses and certifications available to restoration contractors. Some of these courses are made available by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) and the Restoration Industry Association (RIA). The RIA provides some of the most advanced courses in the industry, including Certified Restorer® (CR), Water Loss Specialist (WLS), Contents Loss Specialist (CLS), and Certified Mold Professional (CMP).
Looking for good courses to start with? Kris Rzesnoski, Certified Restorer and VP at Encircle, created this list of top OSHA and IICRC courses to help you level up your restoration education. These courses provide ample opportunity for you to invest in your education without dropping mad cash.
Take advantage of free educational content
The restoration industry is tight-knit, and thankfully, there are tons of resources out there to help you on your journey. For example, check out C&R Magazine’s monthly columnists for real-world advice, or their podcast to stay in the know!
Looking for some educational webinars or eBooks? Check out these free Encircle resources that offer you the opportunity to earn IICRC credits!
Improve your Net Promoter Score 💯
Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) predicts the growth of your business and tracks customer experience. To calculate your Net Promoter Score, survey your customers and ask them how likely they are to recommend your business to friends and colleagues on a scale of 0-10. Respondents are grouped into categories based on their responses. These categories are called Promoters (score 9-10), Passives (score 7-8), and Detractors (score 0-6). Next, subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters to find your Net Promoter Score.
Tips for increasing your Net Promoter Score:
- Educate your employees and stress the importance of having a good score.
- Encourage Promoters to share their experience on social media.
- Ask Detractors what went wrong.
- Always respond to customers.
- Improve employee retention.
Finding the right people, training them, and integrating them into your company takes time and money. Contrary to what you may think, the best strategies for retention are not always financial. Employees also consider growth opportunities, company culture, and work-life balance to be very important to them. A few ideas to increase employee retention include helping employees to define their career roadmap, investing in their job training and certifications, and proper onboarding.
Be proactive — not reactive ♟️
This year, resolve to start planning your next moves in advance. One of our goals at Encircle is to help restoration contractors make proactive decisions that impact the efficiency of their operations. A lack of clear information provided within the job assignment or directly from the policyholder can lead to over investing or underinvesting in a job. Remote visibility into a claim can save you time, money, and can help make your team more proactive.
Understand your finances
Take the time to truly evaluate your processes and profitability. Understanding your finances will be crucial to scaling your business in 2024. Set aside time to analyze them on a monthly and quarterly basis. Most businesses have a hard time understanding their own data, but it’s never too late to start.
