When you have an insurance claim as a homeowner or commercial property owner and you discover that you need a public adjuster, how do you know that who you are dealing with is trustworthy? Noble Public Adjusting Group has created a list below of 7 ways that you can make sure:
7 Ways to Make Sure A Public Adjuster is Trustworthy
1. Reviews.
The fastest and easiest way to check out a public adjuster is to check online for reviews. Great places to start are Facebook, Google, and Yelp. By simply going to these websites and putting the public adjuster in question in the search bar, you can see what other people have said about them. The great thing about these sites is that the company cannot remove the bad reviews without just deleting the entire business profile. If the public adjuster you are researching isn’t coming up on any of these sites, then you can immediately throw up a red flag. A company with experience will have reviews. Check to make sure that the reviews contain some details, date back over time and are not all posted on the same day or month. This can be a sure sign that the public adjuster is posting false reviews or paying for reviews. If there’s no sign of the public adjuster anywhere, except for their website, you certainly need to do more research. This could mean that they are too new to have reviews or articles posted, which indicates inexperience as a public adjuster.
2.) Reputation.
Check out who you’re dealing with. Find out the public adjuster’s full name and the owner of the company’s full name. Do a little google search. Do they have a record? If you want to find out if you’re about to get scammed, it’s probably a good idea to find out if the person has a track record of criminal activity. There are lots of cool little sites that tell you if a person has a record, just by putting in their full name and maybe one other detail, like city or birthday. You have to pay to find out details, but you get to see if anything pops up to pay for. Another way to check reputation is to simply ask around. If you have Facebook, it’s so easy to make a post asking anyone knows anything about the company, or the person, to private message you. You can even make a phone call to some friends, the local Chamber of Commerce or the police department if you’re really concerned.
3.) Credentials.
When you make contact with a public adjuster, the first thing you need to do is verify their credentials. You need to ask for their state license number to make sure that they actually hold a license in the state that they claim. This will also clue you into if they are local or if they hold a non-resident’s license. If they refuse to give their license number for verification, red flag! Next, you can call the state that governs their license and asks if any investigations are currently open for that individual.
4.) Experience and References.
This one is a biggie. Always ask for references. As covered in #1, you need to find out what other people’s experiences have been. Ask for recent client’s contact information, so you can ask a few questions about their experience with the public adjuster. Have a set of questions handy when you call them. This will help you pick up on inconsistencies if they’re giving you the runaround, and of course, it will give you the answers you need if they’re legit. Every public adjusting company has to start somewhere, but do you really want to be the test dummy? If the public adjuster tells you that the company is new, you need to ask yourself if you want to hope for the best and risk it or go with a public adjuster that’s well experienced. After all, this is your home or business we’re talking about and the difference could mean thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
5.) Organizational Involvement.
Ask what organizations the public adjuster’s company is part of. There are Public Adjusting Associations for every state and there are national ones, such as NAPIA (National Association of Public Adjusting). Besides these obvious and important groups, there are local organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce in your area. Knowing that the public adjuster you’re considering is part of some organizations shows that they are there to stay, committed, lasting and involved. These organizations are also all great sources of information. Even if the public adjuster’s company is not a member, it’s a good idea to call the Public Adjusting Association for your state or your local Chamber of Commerce to find out what they know about the company or the people running it. Any Chamber of Commerce usually have a really good grasp on what is going on in their city and state and can give you some insight.
6.) Professionalism.
A public adjuster should always dress, speak and act as a professional. This includes answering your questions, answering phone calls, returning messages and showing up to meetings on time, as scheduled. Another part of professionalism is offering the service in a way that doesn’t feel forceful or high pressured. While every kind of professional wants to “sell” their services, hostility and frustration is an unacceptable attribute during a sales pitch and can indicate that something fishy is going on.
7.) Information.
A public adjusting firm that has any experience at all should have written information available for you to read. In this digital age, it’s usually going to be in the form of a website, but most good public adjusting companies also have printed brochures and literature with information that you can go over. The information usually includes a company header that matches the business card and the logo on the website. The website should contain not only information about the company but information about insurance, the profession of public adjusting and perhaps educational tools and articles that date back further than a few months. Great public adjusters are proud of their accomplishments, which you can usually find on their website in the form of blogs, photos, headlines or testimonials. If you are given very scant information about the company, they have no web presence or very little information on their website, this is a major red flag.
Hopefully, these 7 ways to make sure a public adjuster is trustworthy will help you as a homeowner or commercial property owner feel confident in the adjuster you hire. A truly trustworthy, professional public adjuster is your best advocate when you have an insurance claim.
Noble Public Adjusting Group is the largest public adjusting firm in North Florida and one of the most well known and reputable companies in the country. Our main office is located in Panama City Beach, but Noble handles insurance claims all across the US. Call us today and let’s discuss your claim. It doesn’t matter whether you are getting ready to file it, have already filed it, or even been denied. Noble will handle your insurance claim at any stage of the process.
HOME OFFICE
Noble Public Adjusting Group
107 Amar Place Suite 103
Panama City Beach (West End), FL 32413
(850) 249-MY-PA