Start Now to Get on Everyone’s Top Referral List
Catastrophes and other loss events can send people’s lives into turmoil. Many are unprepared for what happens after a hurricane or flood upends their lives. As they strive to put their lives back together, they are forced to rely on virtual strangers to pick up the mess and return homes and businesses to normalcy. Art Johnson, president of Johnson Training Inc., says that in his more than 30 years in the restoration industry, he has experienced nearly every kind of peril covered by insurance. When leading a fairly large company, he realized that he could not be present at every claim. “Because of this, it impressed upon me that we had to train and inspire our team members to be what we as owners and managers wanted them to be in creating and promoting the client experience,” Johnson says.
When putting back the lives of catastrophe victims, restoration professionals not only have to tear up property and repair the damage, but they also need to take care when touching the personal items of their customers and be prepared to answer tough questions in a calm and reasonable way. Johnson says, “One of our main objectives is to be able to do what we are trained and prepared to do for them but, at the same time, provide an experience that will build trust and cooperation along the way. To accomplish that, we must ensure that we provide the means to create a seamless process and maintain communication throughout the whole experience.”
Improve the Customer Experience
Speaking at the Restoration Industry Association’s (RIA) Australian Conference & Tradeshow, Johnson says he mainly wanted to help restoration firms achieve the coveted referral list of every client. When clients are asked, “Can you think of three companies that have provided you with the best customer experience?”, he says restoration firms want to be on that list without the client having to think twice about it. The tough part for restoration firms is that one job can have multiple players, from the disaster victim to the insurance company and adjuster. Johnson says restoration firms want each of these key players to feel the same way about their firm and recommend them when asked by others in need of restoration services.
Johnson explains, “The reason I presented this topic was based on a conversation with a high executive at an insurance company that was making an effort to refocus on this aspect of client retention. They were reinventing their customer survey to reflect more on the experience than the quality of each job.” The insurer wanted to track companies that were exceeding customer expectations. He adds that a quality job was “a given to even stay on their restoration contractor vendor list.”
Johnson asked RIA attendees to go back to their teams and analyze each step of their claims handling process to determine what areas may need improvement to enhance their client experience. “In the claims world, I have noticed the term ‘the client experience’ come up more often, and more insurance companies are weighting more of their customer surveys toward this,” he says. “By addressing this now, we will be in a better position to recognize when this mindset and objective really takes hold. If what I hear from most adjusters and clients is true, effective, timely and ease of communication is a key factor in improving this experience for the client.”
Analyzing the entire restoration process from first contact throughout the entire project can be time consuming, but a thorough analysis of all systems and processes can yield better results for the client, the insurer, and the restoration contractor. Johnson says, “We should ask ourselves: ‘How can we better communicate with all parties, even internally?’”
With this objective in mind, to illustrate the need to look closely at all aspects of improving the total customer experience, three areas should be considered:
- Appearance
- Demeanor
- Expertise
These may seem inconsequential compared to profit and loss statements, buying the latest equipment, and marketing and advertising, but for a company to remain in the game, a concentrated effort must be made to also include how the client feels about your company. Johnson says, “In the midst of a storm, we were able to bring calm, establish confidence, add comfort and make enough of an impact to be remembered when the client was asked to list three companies that provided the best customer experience.”