Following the storms that hit the North of England and Scotland on the weekend of 8th/9th January, Martindales surge plan has yet again proven itself by coping with more than double the normal number of insurance company instructions and telephone calls.
During the weekend of the storms, Martindales call centre staff experienced an increase in instruction volumes of more than 300%. Senior management were immediately informed and mobilised to provide extra cover in the worst hit areas. Three senior managers, three branch managers and two of our most experienced fitters were relocated to provide additional surveying resource in Scotland, Carlisle and the North East.
At the same time call centre staff began operating emergency rota’s and fabrication departments worked extended hours. Martindales call centre also opened on Sunday 16th January to provide additional support to insurance company clients intending to clear backlogs over the weekend.
Throughout the week following the storms, Martindales are proud to announce that 99.6% of all instructions were managed within insurance company service standards. Greater than 80% of calls were answered within 20 seconds and the abandonment rate was less than 2%. Martindales were able to offer nearly all policyholders a survey within 2 working days of claim notification, with just a small handful of Scottish cases falling into the third day.
Fitting teams are now on standby to work evenings and weekends in order to complete jobs as quickly as possible.
Praising his staff, Phil Martindale commented ‘I am extremely pleased with how our staff reacted to this surge situation – some of them were asked to work away from home at very short notice. And many that were not scheduled to work have cancelled their plans and turned into work to make sure that our insurance customer clients continue to receive the same quality of service we provide day in, day out. But we will not rest on our laurels – all of the experiences of the last few weeks are being used to revise and improve the surge plan further.’
