We all know how vital communication is, especially in the restoration industry where several different parties are often involved in a single job. Often times, said parties are not all together at once, which can lead to phone-tag, confusion, and ultimately, a poor end result. That’s why I was so intrigued when I stumbled across a story recently detailing the means by which a Sacramento-based restoration company communicates with the likes of homeowners, property managers and insurance adjusters. It uses Skype.

Explains Maria Neumann, the owner of Water Damage Recovery (Sacramento, CA): “Until now, a property management company, owner or insurance adjuster had to physically be onsite in order to understand the severity of a restoration project. By implementing Skype as a primary communication method, we can now provide an audio and video stream that allows key decision makers to understand exactly what is going on during a restoration project.”

It’s an interesting point and a fine example of how video-chatting can be used to better a job and ensure things run smoothly. And for all the talk we hear about iPads and iPhones helping documentation and operations on the worksite, it’s interesting that Skype has seemingly yet to take off in regards to this.

So how about it? Would you consider adding Skype to your business in order to better communicate with the other parties in a restoration job (downloading the program is free)? Or do you already have something similar in place?