At Martindales, we pride ourselves on our ability to respond swiftly and effectively to any emergency or crisis experienced by our client’s customers. Our entire infrastructure is designed to deal with any unexpected situation, so that our clients can rest assured that their customers are in safe hands.
This year the UK weather has been surprisingly poor, owing largely to the altered position of the jetstream. Rainfall has been higher than average and the resulting damage from storms and poor weather has been much worse than usual. As a result, following the hailstorm within the Leicester and Coventry postcode areas claims instructions to Martindales rose by 85%.
As part of Martindales contingency planning process we train our staff to work in multiple departments so that they can be re-deployed to problem areas in the event of a surge. All surveyor trained staff can be used to solve problems quickly and effectively, whilst the entire workforce can work remotely using PDAs. We also provide a Desktop Validation Service so that we can offer an additional solution to resolve claims quickly. This synergy of technology, remote working, training and experience means that we have a highly flexible and skilled workforce that can respond to any emergency or crisis immediately. This was critical when we were called upon to deal with this surge in storm damage claims.
When disaster struck, our overarching goal was to ensure that we completed all claims and surveys within the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure minimum disruption to our client’s policy holders. So to deal with the flood of calls, additional call centre staff were deployed to ensure that SLAs were adhered to; whilst our out of hours securing partner, and Martindales fitting teams, were placed on standby to respond instantly to any calls for support or specialist securing work.
Our fitting teams have been working with Martindales for many years; so their experience allowed us to divide them into smaller groups that were bolstered by fitting trainees who were recruited specifically for the task. In doing so, we increased our fitting workforce by 150% in the worst affected areas.
At the same time, we knew that we would need additional roof panels and equipment to make the required repairs, so we contacted our suppliers immediately to arrange additional storage and dates for delivery.
With all the required equipment and fitting expertise in place, we then went on to book up all of the available surveyors within the affected regions, whilst deploying auxiliary surveying resources from other areas. All of our managers were then able to intervene remotely and co-ordinate resources effectively, alongside the rest of our staff, using their PDAs.
To ensure that all our managerial decisions could be executed, our installation department was on hand all weekend to respond to requests. They were able to book in work as efficiently as possible; thus reducing the build up of appointments from the extra cover we provided that weekend.
As the call volumes were filtered through the most appropriate departments we were able to assess the needs of each, and redeploy staff to prevent bottlenecks.
As a result of our swift response and co-ordination efforts, we were able to close 76% of all Insurer claims for storm damage in the LE and CV postcode areas within six weeks of the event, with only 10% of jobs still awaiting parts. The remaining claims are in progress and much of the work has already been scheduled.
We also found that our Desktop Validation Service saw greater use during this surge, which provided reassurance to Insurers, where they could see that they were settling at the correct limit of liability.
We are in constant contact with our Ultralite and Everlite roof panel suppliers so we can notify Insurers and policy holders alike of any significant changes to the supply position.
If you would like to know more about how we operate and how we can be of service in your next crisis, contact us today.
