5 Key Benefits of Using Restoration Management Software for Your Business

The building restoration industry aims to return damaged structures to their original states. This damage may be due to any number of reasons, from natural disasters to manufactured accidents and from insidious mold growth to simple weathering from the passage of time. Restoration contractors remove materials like rotten wood, cracked concrete or broken bricks and replace these with new materials to restore a building’s original appearance. This process often involves upgrading a building’s features to make them more robust or enhance its safety.

In 2022, the US restoration industry had an estimated market value of about $80 billion, with the disaster restoration segment alone estimated to be $41.2 billion in 2023. The US restoration industry is also a bastion for small business owners, with less than 12 percent of the market controlled by the top four service providers for building restoration. General managers of restoration companies can benefit significantly from using restoration management software, which can help them streamline operations, increase profitability, and grow their businesses.

The 5 Key Benefits of Restoration Management Software

When it comes to working on a project, a software platform needs to provide business owners with the right tools to manage any restoration properly. Management software helps project managers and other stakeholders with a wide range of basic yet essential tasks like customer interactions, dispatching teams, invoicing, payment tracking, project scheduling, and team communications.

Benefits of restoration management include: 

• Added efficiency and productivity to streamline daily tasks
• Allows project managers an effective means to control costs 
• Increases visibility at a project level 
• Enables field staff to have greater accountability for inventory 
• Improves relationships with customers, referrals and insurance adjusters
• Establishes a more holistic evaluation of data 

The digitization of the industry is enabling restoration businesses to scale their operations as needed. This scalability translates to a more agile business that can withstand or survive downturns in business. For example, a restoration business that concentrates on restoring storm damage can get up to speed more quickly after a tornado, hurricane, hailstorm, flood, or other catastrophic weather-related event. A more agile business means a bigger market share and greater profits.

Since most restoration companies are local and smaller independent contractors, these digital tools’ capabilities can make them more competitive against larger players in the industry. Before considering a restoration management software platform, however, it’s important to consider a range of specific features. These should gel with the restoration jobs typically taken on while catering to any other unique business needs.

Increased Efficiency & Productivity

It doesn’t make much sense to have project managers leave a site location and return to the office to complete administrative tasks that could be done in the field on a laptop or other mobile device. Modern restoration management software provides the means to do the vast majority of clerical work from just about anywhere with an internet connection. By leveraging mobile technology, restoration businesses can improve their productivity by making all the critical job information available in real time. As a bonus, this will help them answer customer questions quickly and make it easier for project managers to manage a job.

Seamless  Project Management

Managing a job’s workflow increases efficiency and productivity and helps project managers better manage a building’s restoration. Management software helps restoration businesses track their equipment, ongoing projects, and vehicles. Automating such processes allows project managers to use their time and resources more flexibly. Additionally, project managers often have to deal with a plethora of paperwork,

Restoration management software can help project managers with the following and more:

• Contact information for customers and other stakeholders
• Communications between stakeholders
• Contracts and agreements
• Customer insurance information
• Documents for insurance claims
• Equipment tracking
• Estimates for projects
• Project management plans
• Scheduling jobs
• Work orders

Enhanced Asset Tracking 

Equipment is even more critical for a restoration contractor when compared to other home service contractors. Not only is the equipment the actual production source, but the time and amount of each piece used is the main revenue driver. This creates an essential need for meticulous equipment tracking. If you run out of air movers and dehumidifiers, you need to know where every other piece is, if you want to continue to complete jobs. Restoration contractors, like any other business in the construction sector, use equipment and utilize materials necessary to operate. Tracking assets and consumables reliably enables a contractor to handle a restoration better. Management software also helps ensure the right tools and supplies are readily available while tracking their location. 

Much of this documentation is still done with paper, but restoration management software tools can help project managers organize all the information surrounding a project. This can often be done via smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices in the field, which not only boosts productivity and efficiency but also aids in managing a company’s inventory.

Restoration management software can help:

• Ensure materials are readily available for a project.
• Locate an asset, including who is currently using it.
• Provide detailed information on assets and materials, including serial numbers and purchase dates.
• Provide information on equipment, including its age and whether it’s currently in service.
• Keeping detailed equipment maintenance records, including the current state of equipment.
• Tracking assets in real-time allows contractors to see where all their assets are at any point during a project. This also helps restoration companies serve customers better. 

Strengthen Relationships with Stakeholders

Along with workflow management tools that support a restoration, management software platforms often include tools that directly support customer relationship management (CRM). These help manage marketing and sales, provide a system for managing projects, and keep track of progress. Additionally, it helps maintain customer communications, allowing companies to keep them updated on a job’s progress. Using technology for CRM enables contractors to communicate better with customers – whether via email, phone, or text – and provides a means to use customer data better. Keeping track of past and present clients allows restoration companies to utilize demographic and other customer data, providing a broader picture of whether marketing works.  

Holistic Visibility Into Your Business 

As leading restoration providers have moved to a more data-centric approach, other smaller contractors are adopting these platforms. Not only does restoration management software help with data collection, but it also helps with data analysis. Data analysis can help provide insights into performance while also contributing to marketing efforts by providing a detailed picture of a company’s customers. Understanding demographic customer information like age, employment, income, and location enables contractors to see what customers they serve. By understanding the customer, a restoration contractor can also recognize the areas where they profit most.

Albi’s restoration management software involves input from people who know the industry intimately. Unlike other existing restoration management platforms claiming to utilize artificial intelligence (AI), not just basic algorithms. Our platform is designed to think and learn, providing ever-increasing value to your restoration business by highlighting and advising on critical areas that require attention. To learn more about us and how our software can benefit your business, book a demo today.