How to train whoever answers a restoration company's phone: the nine-step intake order, a two-week onboarding plan, eight role-play cards with the trap in each, a 10-point call scorecard, a weekly call review and a glossary.
Train a restoration CSR in three layers: the intake order (safety, active or stopped, callback and address, source, what's wet, who authorizes, insurance, next step, close), the traps that sink calls (coverage, price, adjusters, tenants, Spanish callers, storm waits), then two weeks of role-play and scored calls. Botcadence's restoration answering service follows the same order.
Train a restoration CSR in three layers: first the order of an intake call (safety, whether water is still coming in, callback number and address, source, what is wet, who can authorize, insurance, next step, close), then the traps that sink calls (coverage questions, price questions, adjusters, tenants, Spanish callers, storm waits), then practice. Two weeks is enough to get a new person taking calls on their own if they spend most of it role-playing and listening to real calls, not reading a binder.
This guide is for whoever answers your line: a new office hire, a technician who takes the phone on call nights, or the answering service you hand your script to. It gives you a two-week plan, eight role-play cards, a 10-point scorecard and a glossary. We build Botcadence, an AI restoration answering service, and our agent follows the same order. Everything here works with people too.
A great restoration call is calm, short and in the same order every time. The caller is scared, often standing in water, and the CSR's job is to make them safer, get what the technician needs and end with one clear next step. Here is the order, with the reason for each step:
| Step | What the CSR does | Why it's in this position |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Safety | Asks if everyone is safe, and handles gas, electricity, fire or injury first | The right advice can prevent an injury; everything else can wait |
| 2. Active or stopped | Asks if water is still coming in, and helps find the shutoff if it's safe | Decides whether the on-call tech is woken now |
| 3. Callback and address | Gets the number and full address | A dropped call should still leave you a job |
| 4. Source | Records where the water, fire or smoke came from | Tells the technician what to expect and what to bring |
| 5. What's wet or damaged | Rooms, floors, size, sagging ceilings | Sets crew size and equipment |
| 6. Who can authorize | Owner, tenant, property manager, commercial contact | Avoids a crew waiting at a locked door |
| 7. Insurance | Carrier, claim number, adjuster | Saves the office a chase in the morning |
| 8. Next step | Wakes the on-call tech or books an inspection, with a time frame you can keep | The caller needs to know what happens and when |
| 9. Close | Photos if safe, stay out of wet rooms, call 911 first if things change | The caller knows what to do while they wait |
Each loss type changes a few questions. Print the script for each and keep them next to the phone:
Every script has a "Don't say" list. Those lists matter more than any other page in the training, because the calls that go wrong usually go wrong on a promise: coverage, a price, an arrival time.
The plan assumes the new CSR works your office hours and has a supervisor or senior CSR nearby. Adjust the days; keep the order.
Days 1 and 2: the business and the words.
Day 3: listen. Listen to 15 to 20 recorded calls, a mix of good and bad. For each, the trainee writes down which of the nine steps were done and which were missed.
Day 4: role-play the water script. Run role-play cards 1 to 4 (below) with a supervisor playing the caller. Score each with the scorecard. Repeat any card that scores under 8.
Day 5: the other loss types. Read the sewage, fire, mold and storm scripts. Role-play one call for each.
Days 6 and 7: shadow. The trainee listens live while a senior CSR takes calls, filling in the intake form alongside them. Compare the two forms after each call.
Days 8 and 9: reverse shadow. The trainee takes calls; the senior CSR listens and only steps in for safety issues. Debrief after every call, two minutes each.
Day 10: solo with review. The trainee takes calls alone. The supervisor scores five recorded calls at the end of the day using the scorecard, and signs off when three in a row score 8 or more.
Before the first on-call night: run role-play cards 5 to 8 again, and walk through exactly how to start the on-call escalation and who the backups are.
Print these, one per card. The supervisor plays the caller and stays in character. The trap is the moment the call usually goes wrong.
| Card | Scenario | Caller's mood | Trainee must capture | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supply line burst under a kitchen sink, water still running, 11 pm | Panicked | Active leak, shutoff attempted, callback, address, wet rooms, owner | Caller asks "Will my insurance cover this?" The right answer is that the insurer decides and you'll document everything |
| 2 | Toilet overflowed upstairs, ceiling below is dripping, tenant calling | Embarrassed, worried about the landlord | Source, sagging ceiling, landlord's name and number | Tenant asks you to start work now; a tenant usually can't authorize it |
| 3 | Adjuster calling about an existing job | Busy, impatient | Claim number, job address, the question, best callback time | Trainee tries to answer scope or pricing questions instead of routing to the project manager |
| 4 | Homeowner who wants a price before anyone comes out | Skeptical | Address, source, what's wet, whether insurance is involved | Trainee gives a number. See our price question script |
| 5 | Basement floor drain backing up, caller smells gas near the water heater | Confused | Gas smell first | Trainee keeps asking intake questions; the caller must leave the house and call from outside |
| 6 | Spanish-speaking caller with water coming through the ceiling | Frightened | The same nine steps in Spanish | Trainee rushes or switches to English; use the Spanish lines in the script, or your bilingual escalation |
| 7 | Day after a hailstorm, roof open, rain coming in, you have a two-day queue | Frustrated | Opening, water inside, road access, honest callback window | Trainee promises "someone this afternoon" to end the call |
| 8 | Third call today from a homeowner whose tech hasn't called back | Angry | What was promised, when, who; apologize once and give a time you can keep | Trainee argues or blames the tech; the fix is a callback commitment and an alert to the manager |
Score every training call and a sample of live calls each week. One point each:
| # | Point | Yes / No |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greeted with the company name and their own name | |
| 2 | Asked about safety before anything else, and gave the right instruction if needed | |
| 3 | Asked if water is still coming in (or the loss-type equivalent) | |
| 4 | Got a callback number and full address before the long questions | |
| 5 | Recorded the source without guessing the water category | |
| 6 | Recorded what is wet or damaged, including sagging ceilings or floors | |
| 7 | Found out who can authorize work | |
| 8 | Captured the insurance company and claim number, or noted there is none | |
| 9 | Gave one clear next step with a time frame the company can keep | |
| 10 | Avoided every "Don't say" phrase: no coverage promise, price, arrival time or drying advice |
How to read it: 9 or 10 is a call you'd want every caller to get. 7 or 8 means coaching on the missed points. Below 7, replay the call with the trainee and redo the matching role-play card. A missed point 2 or point 10 is worth a conversation the same day, whatever the total, because those are the ones that hurt people or create disputes.
Ten minutes a week per CSR is enough if you do it the same way every time:
To see whether training is working, track answer rate, callback time and booking rate weekly, as set out in our restoration phone KPIs guide, and hold the team to a callback window from the published restoration response times.
If an answering service or AI agent takes some of your calls, score a sample of those too. The scorecard doesn't care who answered.
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Mitigation | The emergency work to stop damage getting worse: extracting water, drying, tarping, boarding up. It comes before repairs |
| Reconstruction (rebuild) | The repair work after mitigation: drywall, flooring, cabinets, paint |
| Category 1, 2, 3 water | How contaminated the water is, from clean (1) to grossly contaminated, such as sewage or floodwater (3). The technician decides the category on site under the IICRC S500 standard; the CSR records the source |
| IICRC | The industry body that publishes the cleaning and restoration standards, including S500 for water damage |
| Adjuster | The person who handles the insurance claim. A staff adjuster works for the insurer; an independent adjuster is hired by the insurer; a public adjuster works for the homeowner |
| FNOL | First notice of loss: the homeowner's first report of the damage to their insurance company |
| Claim number | The number the insurer gives the claim. Every call about the job should have it |
| TPA | Third-party administrator: a company that manages claims or contractor programs for insurers. TPA jobs come with their own rules and response times |
| Program work | Jobs sent to you through an insurer's or TPA's preferred contractor program |
| Xactimate | Estimating software widely used in insurance restoration, which prices work line by line |
| Moisture map | The technician's record of where materials are wet and how wet, used to plan drying and prove it's done |
| Deductible | The part of a claim the homeowner pays before insurance pays. Contractors must not offer to waive it; in Texas, doing so without the insurer's consent is a crime |
Botcadence's restoration answering service is trained on the same nine-step order, so it can take the calls your team can't, after hours, on overflow or 24/7:
You can score its calls with the same scorecard. The AI receptionist for restoration page shows the fields it records, and the restoration industry hub covers chat and text coverage too.
Questions readers ask
About two weeks to take calls alone, if most of the time goes to listening to recorded calls and role-playing rather than reading. Week one covers the intake order and role-plays; week two is shadowing, reverse shadowing and solo calls with daily review.
In order: is everyone safe, is water still coming in, the callback number and full address, where the water came from, what is wet, who can authorize work, the insurance company and claim number, then the next step. The water category is decided on site by the technician.
Anything that promises coverage, a price, an arrival time or drying advice. Those promises turn into disputes. The CSR should say the insurer decides coverage, the technician prices the job after inspecting, and the on-call tech will call within a time frame the company can keep.
Use a 10-point scorecard: greeting, safety first, active or stopped, callback and address early, source recorded, damage recorded, authorization, insurance, a clear next step, and no forbidden promises. A miss on safety or promises deserves a same-day conversation whatever the total.
Yes, about ten minutes a week per CSR: score five random calls plus any complaint calls, coach one thing, and check after-hours calls separately because that's where the order slips. Score answering-service or AI calls with the same scorecard.
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