During his presidency, Bill Clinton once said, “The White House:I don't know whether it's the finest public housing in America orthe crown jewel of the prison system.” No doubt at times it was aprison of his own making, but like many insureds who face theprospect of living in an unfamiliar place for an extended period oftime, Clinton was, in his own unique way, expressing a certainamount of uneasiness about surroundings that weren't his own.

The White House, after all, is the ultimate example of temporaryhousing. Hopefully, its new residents will find the place more totheir liking next January, a goal all temporary housing specialistsin the insurance world strive to achieve on a daily basis for theirclients and adjusting partners. But while there are many temporaryhousing professionals ready to take the reins after a pipe burst orfire, it is customer service that can really differentiate betweenthose who simply get the job done and those who excel at makingpeople feel consoled and at home even in residences that aren'ttheir own.

The Golden Rule

The first opportunity for temporary housing agencies todifferentiate themselves not only from their competition, but alsofrom their insurance adjusting partners begins at first notice ofloss. While it might sound obvious, temporary housing providersmust make sure their customer service representatives are trainedand ready to deal with all different types of situations. Thatmeans practicing the golden rule: Treat others the way you wouldlike to be treated.

“You're not ever going to call one of our employees and witnessthem having a bad day,” said Karen Schuster, a national salesmanager for temporary housing provider Klein & Company, whichis based in Golden, Colo. “We understand that some of thesefamilies have lost a loved one or cherished memories; they're goingthrough a traumatic experience and stressful time. These familiesneed patience, they need understanding, and they need time to makeup their minds.”

A similar approach to staffing takes place at Atlanta, Ga.-basedTemporary Accommodations, a company whose founder believes that younever get a second chance to make a first impression.

“If we don't give a client a good first impression, the claimdoesn't go as smoothly as it should,” said Aaron Wilson, who inaddition to founding the company also serves as its president. “Wehire our housing coordinators according to acaring-and-compassionate profile; many of our employees have gonethrough disasters, so they have an understanding of what theclients are going through.”

In order to ensure employees who are caring and compassionate,Wilson said he and his staff make it clear during the interviewprocess that the company's clients could be dealing with anythingfrom the loss of a home to the death of a loved one. “You have tobe a special sort of person to deal with that and understand,” hesaid. “If we don't see that characteristic during interviews, wedon't hire them.”

Schuster said her company's new employees go through anextensive training period when they are first hired to ensure theneeds of policyholders are met. Many of Klein & Company'semployees come from insurance backgrounds, but to shake off anyrust, each one goes through insurance policy brush-ups. After that,new employees enter into what could be described as a mentoringprogram.

“After new hires have gone through the initial training, theystart to listen to our seasoned employees while they are on thephone, focusing on how they speak,” said Schuster. “It's almostlike a sensitivity training. There's a certain way to speak to anadjuster and a certain way to speak to a policyholder, which couldbe someone who just lost their home.”

Klein & Company's employees — and all other temporaryhousing providers' employees — must be able to express sympathythrough their voices and listen carefully to policyholders.Sometimes that means just letting the policyholder talk for as longas they need to. But they must be careful about their tone, becauseif any edge is detected in the representative's voice, it coulddestroy what is often a fragile relationship. “You want to makesure you are in an understanding role,” said Schuster. “You want tolet them talk because a lot of times they need to talk, they needto get it out, and they need someone to hear them before they canbegin dealing with the loss.”

Once the initial call is completed, the fledgling temp-housingrepresentative reviews what occurred with the seasonedrepresentative to learn what the hot button issues were and howthey were addressed. The process is repeated with other experiencedtemp-housing representatives in order to demonstrate how differenttechniques and styles can be employed. After that, the traineebegins to take calls, but monitoring remains in place until allparties feel 100 percent comfortable with the process.

A Sense of Urgency

While it's important to focus on listening and understanding,the same strategy isn't necessarily appropriate when speaking andworking with an adjuster. Speed and accuracy are crucial in thisrelationship, so it's important that temporary housing providersestablish a rapport with the insurers so they can act quickly whencalled upon.

“We work very closely with insurance companies to learn theirinternal processes and get to know the adjusters in an effort toturn things around quickly,” said Bob Barnett, senior vicepresident of sales for BridgeStreet Worldwide, a temporary housingprovider headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. “That way, when wereceive a call from an adjuster, we can quickly understand thesituation, their timing schedule, and any special needs. We try tocommunicate quickly because we find that there is typically a veryshort window from the time a claim is made and when the adjusterwants to get someone into housing. Having an establishedrelationship helps speed that up.”

Schuster said Klein & Company employs a similar strategy.“We establish a lot of relationships with adjusters,” she said. “Wehave a very good rapport with them; they can tell us something andwe'll know what they are going to say before they even finish thethought. It helps speed up the process. Often, I can ask sixquestions, fill in the blanks, and keep the phone call down to twominutes. That makes the adjusters very happy.”

Temporary Accommodations takes it a step further with a programthey call Elite Adjuster. When an adjuster first calls the company,he is asked about his housing preferences, such as how he wouldlike to be contacted, his company's typical ceiling budget forhousing, and other information such as if he should be contactedbefore an insured goes out to see a property. “Once thisinformation is collected, it is saved in our system and theadjuster is assigned a housing coordinator so that they can build arapport as opposed to calling in and talking with five differentpeople in a month's time,” said Wilson.

Paving Over the Speed Bumps

But what happens when the train trips the tracks? It'simpossible to keep 100 percent of the people happy 100 percent ofthe time, so to monitor guest satisfaction, BridgeStreet and othertemporary housing providers employ different technologies thatenable them to respond swiftly to issues that crop up once apolicyholder is placed.

“One formal process we use is to call each guest a day or soafter they check in to see how things are going and to answer anyquestions. It helps make sure they're not running into any issues,”said Barnett. “We also send them an electronic survey to see whattheir experiences have been like, and we host a web-based portal,which helps us respond quickly to any problems.”

In the short term, Barnett said all completed surveys are routedimmediately to regional general managers and vice presidents,ensuring that everyone has a high sense of urgency when it comes totaking care of an emerging issue. To solve long-term issues thatcontinue to crop up, BridgeStreet categorizes all complaints andproblems in a database to pinpoint common issues, helping themproactively prevent the problems from occurring again in thefuture. The company also implemented a company-wide program called“BridgeCare” to differentiate itself from the competition.

“BridgeCare is the single thing that makes us stand out,” saidBarnett. “The program encourages all of our employees to go aboveand beyond to take care of guests. We have a formal system oftracking and sharing stories, and we have incentives and rewards torecognize those who participate. There's a whole culture in ourcompany to go above the norm and do something out of the ordinaryto make guests feel comfortable.”

Temporary Accommodations solves two problems at once with onesolution. It assigns policyholders one point of contact for all oftheir customer service needs, which gives its housing coordinatorsthe ability to handle incoming emergencies. For instance, if apolicyholder needs additional cookware, he would speak with hisdesignated customer service representative instead of a housingcoordinator, who could be dealing with a client whose roof justcollapsed.

“I think this makes it a lot easier for [policyholders] to knowwho to ask for when they call in as opposed to talking to anoperator, explaining their story over and over and not knowing whoto ask for,” said Wilson. “We give them a direct line along with atoll-free number and extension. There is one point of contact tohandle all landlord and furniture situations. Furthermore, thisapproach enables our housing coordinators on the front end tocontinue to work with their clients who have immediate needswithout interference.”

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton said that the goal of a company isto have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.While that's easier said than done, providers are proving that whenit comes to temporary housing, the bar can never be set toohigh.