The global pandemic coupled with the increasing rates of homes selling over the last couple of years has caused a strain on the inspection business. With more inspections required due to more sales, incidents and claims rose to historic highs. Our team needed to become more operationally efficient and have the necessary documentation so that we could service our clients at a high level and protect our business from any false claims. We introduced Axon body-worn cameras on our inspectors to heighten the client relationship, provide Axium with video documentation of each inspection and create a repository of footage for training and future claims.
Here are three ways that body-worn cameras are making our business more efficient and protecting us as we expand our operations.
1. Refuting or Substantiating Claims
The home inspection business is extremely unique and opens us up to many “he said, she said” arguments regarding what happened during the inspection. Before we utilized body-worn cameras, we had two choices when a claim was filed: simply take the complaintants’ words as truth or send other inspectors back to the house to research and verify the claim. Either option was costly for our business and, potentially, for our reputation, so we needed to find a solution to address these claims.
Introducing Axon’s body-worn cameras to our inspection team immediately decreased the amount of complaints simply because clients saw the body camera on our team. Further, when a claim did arise, we were able to watch the footage of the inspection to see the truth of the situation. Having this footage has already saved us in operating expenses as we can easily refute incorrect claims and prevent having to send additional inspectors to often remote sites. These cameras have more than paid for themselves already in the short time of implementation.
2. Relationship and Brand Management
Our industry has a lot of competition, so we are extremely mindful of our relationship with both real estate agents and clients as well as our brand in the community. We are obsessive with maintaining positive relationships with everyone we work with, and body-worn cameras have helped us elevate these relationships. We are able to provide liability protection for us and our real estate clients because we have footage of each time we enter and exit the properties. Our clients are able to have better conversations post-inspection when buying or selling houses as the body-worn camera footage can provide irrefutable evidence of pre-existing issues.
From a brand management perspective, we are the first inspection company in the nation to implement Axon body-worn cameras on our team and are able to prevent negative incidents with our footage. With these cameras, we are able to build our brand and protect our inspector at the same time. Also, our process with the these cameras have separated us from the competition and made us innovators in the market, attracting new clients at a rapid rate.
3. Operational Efficiences
It goes without saying that utilizing body-worn cameras has saved us operational expenses. We have been extremely surprised by some additional and unexpected operational benefits that body-worn cameras have provided. We are able to use footage for training current and new teammates, for reporting using the transcription feature, and for process standardization. Additionally, we can utilize the GPS capabilities of the cameras to know exactly where our team is and provide transparency for the home office.
Body-worn camera footage has helped us modernize our operations by allowing us to pull footage from older inspections. Recently, we have received multiple claims from inspections that happened up to three years ago claiming our team missed items during the inspection. Prior to the body-worn camera footage, we would have to dig through years of files and pictures to find this inspection, often sidelining teammates to answer the claim. We tag our body-worn camera footage based on the inspection and time/date, so we can easily search for that inspection through Evidence.com and substantiate or refute these historic claims within minutes instead of days. The body-worn cameras have already paid for themselves in operational cost savings.
How Body-worn Cameras Can Help Your Business
Body-worn cameras have helped our team take our business to the next level, and I believe that any industry that relies on positive customer interactions, limiting liability, and protecting the brand should incorporate body-worn cameras in their standardized process. The benefits of this footage is immeasurable both in expected and unexpected ways, from operational efficiencies to tracking and reporting. Partnering with Axon and utilizing the Axon body-worn camera has helped our business scale all while maintaining a strong brand and high-level of trust with our clientele.
