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February 5, 2020

Encircle improves efficiency during costliest disaster in Canada

fort-mcmurray-encircle-customer-story-heroDocumenting a catastrophe can be intimidating. Restoration contractors decreased claim documentation time from 24 hours to 1 hour with Encircle

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FORT MCMURRAY: QUICK FACTS

An estimated 2,400 homes and buildings burned in the fire, at a cost of nearly 3.68B to insurance companies.

Thousands of people have filed claims, including:
  • 27,000 personal property claims, averaging $81,000
  • 5,000 commercial claims, averaging more than $250,000
  • 12,000 auto claims, averaging $15,000

INSURANCE BUREAU OF CANADA




"With the help of technology like Encircle, we were able to collaborate quickly with accuracy while providing the best possible customer experience. All of this allowed us to return people to their businesses faster."

GLEN MATHESON
PROGRAM MANAGER AT GORE MUTUAL

THE CHALLENGE

The massive Fort McMurray wildfire in May 2016 has been dubbed the costliest disaster in Canadian history. While 80,000 people were forced from their homes, restoration contractors and insurance adjusters were on the ground within a day, to document and file claims in an effort to get residents back home as quickly as possible.

Documenting a catastrophe of this scale can be extremely intimidating – even for the most seasoned insurance professional. Working through multiple claims at once is very time consuming and can lead to inaccuracies, returned reports, and extensive back and forth.

“Encircle eliminated a huge amount of back and forth calls and emails that take up so much time. Our files were updated automatically while most other teams of adjusters had to wait hours for photos, notes, documents to upload.”

KATE NELSON, ADJUSTER AT GORE MUTUAL

THE SOLUTION

Amidst the chaos, many restoration contractors found that using Encircle vastly improved their efficiency. With the ability to document claims and issue reports in a single site visit, a claim that would routinely take up to 24 hours to complete was turned around within an hour.

Encircle provided teams on the ground with the ability to create incredibly high quality reports in half the time of their old legacy systems. With an average of 26 pages of photos, photo notes, and videos in each report, Encircle reports were comprehensive, and easy for insurance adjusters and reviewers to follow.

“Our closing cycle time shortened from 2 1/2 hours to just over 25 minutes with the help of Encircle.”

ROB HRYSZKO, PAUL DAVIS RESTORATION OF CALGARY

THE RESULT

The exterior and all interior rooms of each home were carefully documented and reviewed. Homeowners and adjusters could easily review, verify, and sign off in real time. Encircle made things quick and easy, allowing Paul Davis Calgary to complete 41 claims in just over four days: a testament to the ease of use and the efficiencies gained with the ability to capture and complete everything on site.

“We weren’t using Encircle before the fire but we quickly decided that there was a lot of benefit to it. I was amazed at how quickly the team got up to speed using the app and the impact it made on our productivity. We were able to double the number of claims we processed within 48 hours of using Encircle.”

TAMARA ROY, DKI PROSERVE

The work to rebuild and restore Fort McMurray will continue for some time to come. But, thanks to Encircle, those on the front lines have gone from working in complete isolation with zero visibility, to having everyone in sync and on the same page – reducing timelines by more than half, and getting people back home faster.



Sources
: Rob Hrysko (Paul Davis Calgary), Tamara Roy (DKI Proserve), Kate Nelson (Gore Mutual), Glen Matheson (Gore Mutual), Christian Davis (Sparklean DKI), Matt Molson (Leda Restoration), Ed Dwyck (Servicemaster Fraser Valley)
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