The Power to Choose Restoration Vendors is Dwindling

Who do you call when pipe breaks and flooding events require immediate attention to prevent more extensive damage to your property? And how do you determine whether the prices you are quoted for restoration are accurate and fair? The best time to know who to call and how the company prices emergency responses isn’t after a crisis … it’s before one.

Many property owners prefer to hire local companies over national chains. They like knowing the owner has a stake in every job and that their business is important to the vendors they turn to most often. It often seems like you’re no more than a job number to the name brand companies, but you’re known and appreciated by smaller businesses. You feel like your concerns are heard and understood. Unfortunately, feeling good about a business isn’t the same as getting the best service at a reasonable price.

Here’s something else to consider: Your ability to choose the restoration company you want is rapidly diminishing. Just as neighborhood grocery stores gave way to national chains, restoration vendors are undergoing the same type of pressure from conglomerates. Couple that with the fact that many restoration experts are now at retirement age, and you’ve a perfect storm every property owner should monitor.

FIRM Warning About Restoration Company Takeovers

That’s why FIRM Incident Response Management is waving the warning flag. We’ve noticed a disturbing trend over the past decade or so: Capital investment firms are buying restoration companies one after the other. That means property owners may soon discover that restoration prices are skyrocketing and their access to a variety of restoration contractors is rapidly diminishing. Thankfully, there is a solution.

Will the Takeover of Restoration Companies Trend Continue?

The trend FIRM experts are warning their clients about is a factor in fundamental business organizational theory: Large companies are more difficult to manage than small companies. As companies grow, they begin to lose touch with the customer. Management layers stack one on the other, and the person you are dealing with may have little loyalty to the organization. You become a number instead of a name. You’re just one more job and one more paycheck.

Consider this remark from the Restoration Remediation website:

The biggest fish in our pond are merged and swimming with bigger fish in bigger ponds. Look at most industries in the United States; there are the big corporate outfits and there are the smaller mom-and-pops, the area most impacted is often the middle of the industry. This is no surprise and it isn’t something new.

Again, there’s nothing unusual about the takeovers. By purchasing restoration vendors already in business, the investment firm gains a turn-key entity. Depending on the terms of the transaction, the original owner may remain at the company.

More often than not, however, the owner leaves, and new management steps in. Here’s one more quote from the Restoration Remediation site:

A highly fragmented industry can undergo consolidation to create fewer, larger players, which is a factor in what we are seeing in the property restoration industry as equity players continue to make their moves. Already the largest organizations in the industry have been acquired, and the writing is on the wall for the squeeze on the middle class of the industry.

That article provides an overview of the restoration takeover situation, although it is aimed primarily at restoration contractors thinking of selling their business, not to property owners who want to keep restoration costs down and continue enjoying a rapid response from contractors when restoration work is needed.

The FIRM Solution to Restoration Company Takeovers

FIRM stays abreast of changes that affect your property management concerns. Our experts vet restoration vendors and negotiate predetermined rates for their services. Whether the vendor is corporate owned or operated as an independent business, we create a mutual agreement with them to nail down every part of the process. FIRM then follows up by auditing all invoices you receive to make sure the agreement is followed and the bill you receive is both fair and accurate.

What’s your part in the procedure once you’re a FIRM client? We provide a hotline phone number you can call 24/7. You call FIRM, and FIRM experts take action on your behalf. Once you make that call, you and your staff can continue focusing on the day-to-day operation of your property. We schedule the necessary vendors, check on progress daily, audit all billing statements, and make sure your property is restored to full operation.

If you’ve been on the fence about whether to work with FIRM or keep trying to handle restoration jobs in-house, there’s never been a better time to find out how FIRM membership can easily pay for itself again and again. You may find it difficult to find a skilled and reasonably priced restoration vendor when you need one. FIRM already knows who they are and has agreements in place to protect your property and business.

Your next step is to call FIRM today to find out more: (888) 910-0994.