by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
In Florida and all along the Gulf Coast, homeowners are wary of hurricanes and the destruction they can bring via strong winds, flooding and torrential rains. Fortunately, with modern weather forecasting technology, the warning can go out days in advance of a potentially catastrophic landfall, giving people the chance to “batten down the hatches.”
In the Midwest, it’s a different story.
Wind storms, hail storms and tornadoes can pop up with little or no warning any time of the day or night. They can be just as — if not more — destructive, cutting a wide path across several states before conditions calm. It’s also not uncommon for the Midwest to experience destructive weather spawned by hurricanes in the days after a storm makes landfall.
As soon as the coast is clear, hundreds of utility crews from areas not affected by the weather mobilize and head straight for the devastated areas to begin the critical process of restoring electric service.
When those first responders have done their job, there’s an even bigger task at hand — repairing property damage. That can mean insurance claims by the thousands to replace roofs, gutters and siding.
That’s when Jacksonville-based Triage Management goes into action and mobilizes its network of contractors to head for the areas where homeowners have suffered non-catastrophic losses.
The company operates under the brand “First Choice” in 14 states from Texas to the Canadian border. It liaisons with the Farmers Insurance Group to provide licensed, pre-qualified building contractors who serve insurance agents and their policyholders, said CEO Jay Southerland.
“There are more than 200,000 hail and wind claims in the Midwest each year,” said Southerland. “We wanted to offer a service to policyholders that would go beyond just writing them a check. It’s a threefold idea that combines customer service with quality work that’s done fast.”
In the past few years, First Choice’s business has increased exponentially as more insurance agents are discovering the advantages of the service.
“We did 400 repairs in 2007, then we did 4,400 last year. This year, we expect that to triple,” said Southerland.
The mobilization and qualification aspects of the program were designed by Triage President Steve Rausch, a mechanical engineer who specializes in computer science.
“Catastrophe is chaos. The only solution is to bring order to that chaos. Basically, we adapted a manufacturing model,” he said. “What we offer is not for day-to-day claims. First Choice is designed for times when 10,000 to 50,000 homeowners have claims at the same time. Wind and hail are less devastating (than a tornado) but they touch a lot of customers.”
Contractors apply to be part of the program and then undergo a comprehensive evaluation by Triage Management’s staff in Jacksonville.
“We look at three years of their financial statements, their liability insurance and their licenses. It’s a 28-step process, a Dunn & Bradstreet sort of formula,” said Southerland. “You could also think of it like a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). But instead of connecting people who need health care with a doctor, we connect homeowners who have had a casualty loss with a repair provider.”
By coordinating contact between the homeowner, insurance company and contractor, repairs that have traditionally taken as long as six months to resolve are often completed in as little as 30 days, said Southerland.
Rausch said the program also has advantages for contractors that go beyond providing new clients when the demand for their services is at its peak.
“Typically a contractor will spend 15 percent or more of his annual income on marketing, so we manage and promote the program for them,” said Rausch. “After a storm, our call center makes appointments for them and we prequalify the claimants. The contractors get more revenue, more profit and a more stable business.”
With a potential market of 200,000 claims per year, Southerland said he’s confident there is reason to expect the company will increase its share of the disaster recovery industry.
“A lot of it is growth within the insurance company,” he said. “The better they get to know us, the more their agents will use First Choice and the market segment will increase naturally.”
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