Questions that Underwriters ask !

1. Who are SEER Insurance Inspections, Inc.? 

2. Where are you located? 

3. How long have you been in business? 

4. Why should I use you? 

5. What is your area? 

6. Who are your inspectors? 

7. How do you submit reports? 

8. Can you customize reporting for our needs?

9. What about RUSH reports?

10. Can I see some samples of your work?

11. Do you have references?

12. When do you bill?

13. How do you bill? 

14. What are your terms? 

15. Do you make appointments?

16. Do you provide diagrams?

1. Who are you? 

We’re a small but fast growing family business.  We have been in the insurance business for 3 direct generations, and have many extended family members across the industry, on both sides of the pond, from reinsurance to agency. We have a field staff of over 500 inspectors (always growing), office staff of 25.

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2. Where are you located?

 Our office is physically located in Aiken, SC, a beautiful and historic yet technologically advanced southern town midway between the beach and the mountains, (and about 15 miles from Augusta National Golf Course).  We are virtually located everywhere there is internet presence.  We have inspectors across the nation, and have several international connections as well.  Some of our highest volume is generated in Florida, California, and New York, to give you an example.

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3. How long have you been in business? 

We have been inspecting properties since 1989.  A lot of our clients have been with us many years, including our first, who has been a client since 1989.  Our principal, Jack Lynes, obtained his first state insurance license in 1975.

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4. Why should I use you?

Inspectors cover small areas, thus we can deliver a fast turn around; we also feature national coverage, flexible formats, and reasonable price (no company cars, no expense accounts, no national sales force entertaining on your nickel).

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5. What is your area?  

Nationwide.  We have grown with our companies: as they have added national programs or opened branch offices, we have added inspectors to handle their areas.  Word of mouth has been the greatest method.  One pleased underwriter tells another.

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6. Who are your inspectors?  

100% qualified independents.  Some work for other companies like ours, some are retired insurance professionals, some are first-responders or firemen working part time.  All have to adhere to our policies and procedures, and information gathered has to pass through an authentication process that assures consistency and accuracy.  By the way, If someone tells you all their staff is 100% in-house

• They just THINK so (some of their guys work for us too)

• They have too much business: let someone else have a chance, for Pete’s sakes.  

• They are not entirely truthful (who in the real world in this day and age would still have people on staff, when the smart thing to do is hire the best people and 1099 them?)  

Check your invoices: you may be paying for a full-time staff plus benefits. 

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7. How do you submit reports?

100% via email.  Each report is in tamper-proof Adobe .pdf format.  If you have a particular requirement let us know, we are very flexible.

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8. Can you customize reporting for our needs? 

Yes!  Simply provide a sample of what you want, and how you want it reported and we will make it so.  Don’t have a sample but know basically what you want?  Give us a call and we can work it out. 

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9. What about RUSH reports?  

We have the staff to handle it.  Sometimes in a matter of hours in the right situation.  And we won’t charge you through the nose for it either. 

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10. Can I see some samples of your work?  

Certainly!  Samples are on the website, but in a hidden area (we don’t want to show our cards to the world!) so call and once we know who you are we will give you the url. 

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11. Do you have references?  

Certainly.  Call us.  You’d be surprised who is keeping us their little secret.

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12. When do you bill? 

At the end of each month.

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13. How do you bill?  

A list of the items sent and the day they were sent is itemized in a batch sheet/statement, sent via email (exceptions are possible of course).

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14. What are your terms?  

We expect payment upon your receipt of our monthly statement, but realize some companies are large machines that take time to cog through the process.  At the latest, we expect payment within 30 days.  

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15. Do you make appointments?

We can.  But for the standard quick inspections with the base price, No.  The kind of inspections we do on the average are so quick, unobtrusive, and so non-invasive that appointments are absolutely not necessary and in fact only slow down the process.  In fact, we routinely only make appointments for battered women’s shelters and interior home inspections, not for every single location.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t get anything done.  After all, open access is a condition of commercial coverage and the exterior of a house is all we need for personal lines, so appointments only slow us down, slow you down, triple the cost of the inspection, and add at least another 30 days+ to an inspection.  Plus they still have the potential to upset insured.  If there is an urgent need on a particular risk, please let us know.  Otherwise we ask, no beg, you to ask your agents to tell their clients when they write the coverage that an inspector will be by to take photographs and fill out a brief form.

Furthermore, with our low price and the volume of work we do, appointments for all risks are extremely impractical.  If we had to make appointments for all risks, 1) our inspectors would be hard pressed to make them on time because of the unpredictability of lining up field work (think of the cable company, who gives you a “window” of time), 2) our inspectors would only be able to do 5 maybe 6 inspections a day, rather than 15 to 30 a day; 3) most people are not home in the middle of the day and 4) you don’t need the owner present anyway (unless it is an interior inspection.  Inspectors would quit in droves, and/or we would have to double or triple our price.  After all that, insured’s would still not be satisfied.  So please ask agents to inform them so they aren’t surprised. 

Look at it this way, our basic service is the “fast food drive through lane” of the inspection business. Quick, inexpensive, consistent quality.  Good bang for the buck.  If you need special accommodations outside the quick, low priced inspection, please get out of the line and come inside.  If you want a gourmet meal, prepare to wait more time and pay more money.  Have a seat and make yourself comfortable.

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16. Do you provide diagrams?

We only do those if specifically requested anymore because it is problematic to make one and get it through the email system.  When we were back in the paper days sending the original field sheets, the diagram was on the sheet.  But now all info is entered in to a process that checks for consistency errors and then produces a report, and photos are attached as .jpg files.  A diagram would have to be scanned and attached as a .jpg.  It is certainly possible, just labor intensive.  Most field guys have digital cameras but not scanners.  And since we found that by and large it was not necessary for most of our underwriters, we dispensed with that one item that usually slows down the process.  If a diagram is specifically needed, please let us know, and we will happily do it, but pass on the inspector's $5 fee to you.

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