ROLE PLAY: They will give you 30 minutes to read 6 pages of papers which you can highlight, bold, underline, and write notes on. The important stuff is about submitting certain forms, expectations of the adjuster, how to answer phone calls, and confirming information when talking to customers. After reading, they will instruct you to open a folder with assignments, and they will give you a list of tasks that must be done. You have 5 minutes to review this information. Then I get a phone call (as noted on the task list) instructing me to do an estimate on a medical hand cart (all parts damaged must be REPLACED). They tell me to open Form A and use it as a reference Keep form A open and available because it will be used in all 3 estimates. SPECIFICS: During the phone call, you will write an estimate for the hand cart while talking to the “customer”. They will not help much, but on the same form with the picture of the damaged cart, there is a section to write out your estimate of the cart. Make sure to fill out the form correctly in the correct columns and rows. There is a list of parts and prices at the bottom and all parts are to be replaced with new. The cart also must be painted (read the form because my cart specified that it’s a medical hand cart, it needed a special primer). It had a damaged handle, a damaged shelf, a damaged end rain AND two wheels were missing. It needed the special primer and needed to be painted (paint is for the whole car, not each part). After putting each part on the estimate section, FIND THE DEDUCTIBLE on form A. Then add up the total and minus the deductible for the final price. Communicate this with the customer, and then you have a short time to write out the check on Form F (I didn’t do this, but this is why they give you extra time here) SAVE ALL THE DOCUMENTS OR IT WILL NOT BE GRADED. Then another phone call will ask you to negotiate with a shop owner on their estimate. Try to negotiate them down on everything as much as possible. Your estimate will be provided for you, so don’t worry about writing more estimates. Your job is to handle the situation as best as possible and get their estimate as close to yours as possible. They won’t want to budge, but if you’re persistent and professional, they will. I think my estimate was around $500 and theirs was around $900. I got them down on labor substantially and convinced their shop to use a used part as stated in my estimate. I think the final estimate came out to about $650. Again, when the call is done, fill out another check to the customer. The third call was for an estimate that a coworker did not finish and went on vacation. You are expected to handle a very difficult and rude customer who is comparing his estimate to yours. In my estimate the original estimate done by the coworker was in the range of $9000 and the customers estimate was in the range of $14000. The Current Value of the product was around $11000 and I could not get the Estimate under the Current Value. There was a part on my estimate that costed $2400 new (NP) and on his estimate, it costed $5400 new (NP). He claimed that the part was not sold from the manufacturer anymore and there was no way around this price. Since I could not do anything about this, I negotiated on other part price differences and on the labor. The final estimate was over $12000 because of the one part and exceeded the current value. I had told them that because it exceeded the current value, we could not pay to repair it, and we would pay them the current value, minus the deductible. In the final phone call, I explained to the boss that we could not repair the item because the repairs exceeded the current value. The management then turned on their cameras and asked how I thought I did. They were nice, and I said that the technical difficulties were the most difficult part of the experience. I said it was fun, and I thanked them for considering me. Some Final Tips • You may have up to 10 windows open during this process and you shouldn’t close them because they will be difficult to reopen and find. • Organization of your desktop is CRITICAL • Resize windows smaller to make them use a smaller portion of the screen and only show the important parts of the window. Also, overlap them in a manner that can be easily accessed when using many windows. • (optional) Use notepad to keep track of FINAL estimate Values, Customer name, and what it was for to reference when writing checks • Keep the calculator and Note pad accessible. • STAY PROFESSIONAL (“customers” [aka recruiters] will try to be demanding and rude during conversations) • DRESS PROFESSIONAL (Suit and Tie with a blazer) • Negotiate them down as much as possible while being friendly. “I just can’t justify that much labor” or “Why is my new part (NP) $1000 and yours is $1500”, “It should only cost X amount by the industry standard”, or “I understand, but I can’t meet you at that price”.