Competition
Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far. The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce-no improvement, no development-it is done.
~Henry Ford
We wanted to draft a blog post relating to competition. We believe that in business, healthy competition is the American way. Many captains of industry have come and gone, but the businesses and individuals with staying power are those at the forefront of innovation and those who are willing to adapt.
Sure, an idea can become stale and you can lose it all, but as long as you continue to strive for greatness, you can build it all again. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple and bought it back on the verge of bankruptcy before transforming it into a world leader. Warren Buffet has given away nearly all of his fortune time and again and continues to perpetually be one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet.
Why are we talking about this? This is a blog about insurance and insurance claims.
We’re drafting this blog post after receiving a call from a competitor that he was upset that we started this business and wants us to shut it down because he believes he’s entitled to a certain territory.
We started VIP Adjusting for two reasons. 1) after family members relocated to the Treasure Coast, we had an opportunity to work together and combine our talents and experiences, and 2) because we believed the the public adjusting industry had suffered a noticeable dip in quality of service since 2013 and wanted to provide a better service.
To elaborate on that second point, around 2013 a few important developments happened, where insurance companies were attempting to pass legislation where public adjusters couldn’t represent certain claims and many insurance companies did away with appraisal as a remedy to disputed claims, attorneys became kings of the industry. But public adjusters still had the marketing advantage.
What ensued was a deterioration in the work product of many adjusters where they realized that the claim might end up in the hands of an attorney anyway, so why not put in the least effort possible. In the last 5 years, adjusters on the whole have become less informed and put in less work than before. Adjusters became glorified “runners” for attorneys. Some adjusters don’t even estimate claims.
With a return of appraisal in many policies, (and with the relocation of family) we started VIP Adjusting with the intent that we would give every claim 100%. We would leave it all on the field. If a claim that we handles ends up in the hands of an attorney or in litigation, it’s not because of slack from us.
We want to give every claim the best chance to resolve in the first 90 days after it’s reported. If there’s a dispute, we’re willing to go back through our documentation and estimates to have an intelligent and open minded discussion about what can be done to resolve the claim fairly.
That’s the service we provide, and that’s the representation we have earned and will continue to keep.
We’re going to keep working to provide provide the best service we can provide, and if for some reason we do something wrong or make a mistake, we want to hear about it so we can try to make it right, or so we can learn from our mistakes so we can do better the next time.
Nothing is going to stop us from working our hardest for our clients.
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