To face insurance market volatility, control what you can control

RCS Influencer Will Lorenz says that for roofing contractors, safety is number one. 

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Will Lorenz of General Coatings Manufacturing Corp. You can read the interview below, Listen to the podcast or Watch the recording.

Dani Sheehan: Hi, my name is Dani Sheehan with RoofersCoffeeShop®. We are here with Will Lorenz from General Coatings this month to talk about our Influencer response. How are you, Will?

Will Lorenz: I'm fabulous. Happy Easter to everyone again.

Dani Sheehan: Yes, thank you so much for being here. So, for April, we are really looking at insurance market volatility. It's been a big topic in the industry. It's not a new topic, but can you provide a little bit of insight onto your strategies for how contractors can best mitigate risk and control costs in their company?

Will Lorenz: Sure. Thank you for the question. I think, first of all, we aren't contractors, so I can't address specifically how to get the premium down. What I can talk to you about is how can how you can help get the risk down. And I think that's important here because ultimately, insurance companies evaluate your company and its performance and whether or not it's doing quality work, whether it's doing safe work, whether it's doing it such that the roofs perform. Those are the criteria I think that they're considering.

If you've been with a carrier a long time and you strike a good, long-term relationship with them, I think they're going to view you as as a client that they want to keep. And so, if you need to every once in a while check to see if their their prices are competitive, I think they'll take it in the right light.

But, I think the first thing to focus on is, you're a roofer — safety is number one. So, making sure your people that get on the roof are doing it right, that you have the classes, that the people attend it are passing and utilizing those techniques on the roof. You've got the right equipment for them to be safe and you're emphasizing in the daily meetings that you want them to to go to the job and come home safely every night. Ultimately, premiums come down to insurance companies having to pay out, and if you can mitigate what they have to pay out because you're responsible on your end, then what happens is, your costs for doing business get lower every time.

And so, I think that's the first thing to do there: control what you can control, and you can certainly control making sure people are well-trained, that they have a focus for safety and that your roofs then when you install them have a focus on quality and consistency so that the clients get what they want so they're not coming after you for claims. They're knowing that you're a trusted brand with high performance. I think those are the two biggest things I would encourage people to do.

Dani Sheehan: Yeah, thank you for that. I think that's such a great perspective to offer that at the end of the day, insurance is not out to get anyone, right? Insurance is one of those things that we don't want to have to use. And so, investing in safety, investing in people is really going to be a win-win all around.

Will Lorenz:  Indeed. Always go forward with helping people and lifting them up.

Dani Sheehan: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing this month's influencer response with us. Make sure to check out all of the influencer responses for April on rooferscoffeeshop.com and we will catch  you next month. Thanks, Will.

Will Lorenz: Thank you, Dani.