For insurance claimants, "temporary housing" isn't a phrase that immediately calls forth visions of pampering. More often than not, it's an afterthought as they struggle to recover and make sense of a catastrophic loss.
That leaves the claim adjuster with a huge responsibility. They must provide empathy while at the same time seize the opportunity to follow through on promises made at policy inception. And since knowledge is power, Claims spoke with temporary-housing provider Oakwood to find out what challenges their industry is facing and how they work to make an adjuster's job just a little bit easier by keeping the policyholder comfortable and satisfied.
What kind of temporary housing challenges have you faced in 2007?
One of the biggest issues we continue to see is higher rents and higher occupancies in the rental market. Many factors are influencing this trend, including the slow down in the real-estate market, the rise in mortgage interest rates, and condominium conversions.
Rising energy and gas costs also are impacting the temporary-housing industry. One example of this is the increased cost to transport the furniture and housewares to each residence. These types of increases have affected the hospitality industry as a whole, including hotel and extended-stay sectors.
The challenges in our industry should not be ignored, but 2007 should also be a solid year for the temporary-housing industry. It is through strategic planning and growth — and managing our relationships with suppliers and partners — that we can lessen the impact of these challenges.
How does Oakwood ease the adjuster workload?
We have developed specific technology-based applications to help make it as easy as possible for the insurance adjuster community to work with us.
One tool that greatly aids insurers is eOakwood, a portal designed to help companies track their temporary-housing assignments anytime and anywhere, including researching past guest information and finding each policyholder's or employee's current temporary-housing record. It also provides account updates and the ability to send online extensions or intent-to-vacate notices. The adjuster also can gain access or pay invoices online anytime, day or night.
Another more personalized application is myOakwood. An industry first, it's a secure, web-based portal that provides guests with immediate and easy access to their reservation information and a host of useful online information and features, such as local maps and directions, detailed information about their temporary residence, local store and restaurant listings, and maintenance service requests.
How can insurers maintain a state of preparedness when temporary housing might not be in such high demand?
In this regard, we are fortunate. We have a diversified portfolio of clients across a number of industries that enables us to maintain more than 19,000 residences in our inventory year-round. Consequently, we have a large enough presence in the industry that we are not subject to the ebb and flow of disaster seasons.
If a natural disaster does strike in an otherwise "slow period," our 60 fully staffed local U.S. offices and our expansive relationships with property-management companies and realtors allow us to quickly and effectively respond to any type of temporary-housing need.
Lastly, we also work with our vendors and local teams year round independent of the natural disaster climate, so there is never a time where we are not prepared to come into a local area and provide our services to both the insurance catastrophe teams and claimants.
How important is customer service?
Providing each and every client and guest with superior customer service is paramount. We pride ourselves in creating a home-away-from-home environment in each of our temporary-housing residences, and it begins with understanding our client's needs and treating them with the level of courtesy, friendliness, and respect we would want ourselves.
With that in mind, we put our resources into developing technological applications previously mentioned and into amenities such as the Oakwood Dream Bed. We continually keep the needs of our guests in mind and are always working to enhance the temporary-housing experience for our guests. We also have an extensive quality-control process for our residences, including a 190-point property inspection that is conducted before a guest ever steps through the door.
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