In what may be the closest I’ve ever come to an “Undercover Boss” moment in my life, I had a chance this week to experience Sedgwick’s property services on a personal level. The surge of hurricane activity in the state of Florida, most recently this week’s historic impact of Hurricane Michael, put me in need of our capabilities and allowed me to get a rare consumer-side view of what we do.
My family lives in Chicago, but we own a rental property in the panhandle of Florida. Sitting so far away and watching the news repeatedly share predictions about storm strength and potential destruction, my concerns about our condo naturally grew. I rely on others to check on my property, but in situations like these, feel far more in control if I have a way to be proactive and hands-on. After Hurricane Florence, and with Hurricane Michael on the approach, I called my colleagues on our repair solutions team. Their network of contractors is dedicated to making the process of facing property damage less daunting and they provide reassurance to both individual consumers like me and commercial clients.
The biggest takeaway I had from my experience was this – our repair solutions team is living out Sedgwick’s caring counts philosophy. The whole goal of the process was to make it easy and to take care of my concerns. With just one phone call, the team’s complimentary concierge service connected with a resource in our contractor network and placed me on the schedule for post-storm support for any water mitigation, emergency repairs or construction services that might be needed. They also offered to install a generator if the property lost power. Jay from our contractor network followed up with me, and Chelsea, the concierge who assisted me, asked for access to my Nest camera and watched along with me throughout the storm.
Fortunately, my property avoided the brunt of the storm, but I know our team is in the field, ready to fix the damages other residential and commercial clients in the area are now facing. Just as they did for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017, they will work around the clock to restore property back to its pre-loss condition. They will guide those individuals through uncertain situations and keep things as simple as possible so each consumer is able to focus on getting back to normal.
The experience made me think of Dave North’s “one button” blog from a couple of years ago. Our process, behind the scenes, may include a complex network of inner workings, with well-planned service arrangements, supporting technology and carefully staged colleagues and partners. But the consumer experience involves just one call. Everything behind the scenes is there for only one reason – to make it simple. To do the hard work for property owners like me and to show them how caring counts.
It isn’t often that we get to try out our own services, but I’m happy to say that my “undercover consumer” experience reassured me that Sedgwick is ready to be activated at just a call’s notice. Please, if you are in need of property services in the wake of Hurricane Michael, in advance of the next storm or at any other time, know that you can reach out to our repair solutions team, day or night, at 800.587.4243 and we’ll get to work for you.