If I could go back 45 years, I’d tell myself one thing: learn to be the best communicator in the room.
Communication is the age-old failure point in restoration. In my experience, about 80% of restorers are bad at it. And it costs them in ways they don’t always connect back to the real cause.
It plays out the same way every storm season. Every restoration company drops its schedule to be all hands on deck. But most don’t pick up the phone to tell the homeowners whose jobs just got pushed. They wait until someone calls upset asking why nobody showed up.
The homeowners who get that call remember and appreciate it.
But proactive communication isn’t just courtesy; it’s a form of documentation. Every update you sent, every call you made—that’s your paper trail. When a carrier asks why something was delayed, you want that trail in the file. Without it, you have no case. Most problems in this industry trace back to a call that wasn’t made or a note that didn’t get written down. If I could go back, I’d learn to communicate first.
Nelson is the Vice President, North America at DocuSketch. Prior to 
