In August 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Debby brought the highest single-day rainfall in over 100 years, causing catastrophic flooding and an estimated $2.5 billion in insured damage to Montreal and surrounding areas. Flooding in 55 communities quickly surpassed the capacity for local restoration contractors to manage, requiring companies like Patrice Desjardins First General business to deploy from out of province to assist with the cleanup and repair.

Responding to these emergencies required quick, efficient methods to inspect, document, and estimate damages. Thanks to Encircle and its Floor Plan tool, Patrice and his team were able to streamline scoping and sketching, making a challenging situation more manageable while delivering timely support to flood-impacted clients and easily meeting the timelines from insurance carrier partners.

The Challenge

Deploying his crew over 600km (370 miles) for nearly 2 months to support local First General shops, Patrice and his crew were faced with an influx of over 100 assignments for flood claims — an amount that under normal circumstances represents their workload for nearly an entire year. Traditional inspection methods involving hand sketching, manual measurements, and redundant data entry, would have required hours per property. Given the urgency of restoring homes and commercial spaces, every minute counted, and the team needed a solution that would allow them to meet the volume without compromising service quality or accuracy.

The Solution

The Encircle Floor Plan feature provided the answer. By completing a simple walkthrough video on site in the Encircle app, Patrice’s team received a professional sketch of each property, including room dimensions, door placements, and other key structural elements in a fraction of the time. And with an integration into Xactimate, they eliminated the need for re-sketching – significantly reducing errors and speeding up the estimate writing process. With Encircle, Patrice’s team could now complete detailed inspections directly on-site using mobile devices, allowing them to move quickly from one property to the next, covering more ground in a day than would have been possible before.

Using Encircle allowed project managers to efficiently manage their workload, and for Patrice, this meant reducing the need to double up on project management staff.

The Results

Encircle’s Floor Plan feature empowered First General to respond effectively to a large-scale disaster. Patrice’s team saw the following key benefits:

• More than Doubled Capacity: With streamlined workflows and reduced on-site inspection time, the team handled more than twice the number of claims compared to traditional methods, completing over 100 property inspections in just six weeks.
• Significant Time Savings: Inspection times dropped to 15-20 minutes per property, enabling the team to handle multiple properties per day without delays, which Patrice estimates cut their overall workload by nearly half.
• Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency: The elimination of redundant data entry reduced errors, contributing to faster, more accurate estimates and quicker job closures.

Conclusion

By integrating Encircle’s Floor Plan feature into their response process, First General not only boosted their efficiency, they provided much-needed relief to Montreal residents facing devastating losses and far exceeded their KPIs with their insurance carrier partners, virtually ensuring future business. For restoration contractors looking to streamline their workflow and respond effectively in high-volume situations, Encircle Floor Plan is an essential tool for maximizing efficiency, accuracy, and client satisfaction.