Walsh Insurance Group
Sometimes even the events that you’re well planned for still take you by surprise. When they do, agencies with good plans and good partners can fare very well.
There’s a Lot to be Said for Being Prepared
For modern insurance agencies, pre-planning is one of the most demanding elements in activating a disaster plan that truly works. Well-prepared agencies undertake this process diligently, yet unfortunately many still don’t. Earlier in the summer, MaryEllen Downey of the Walsh Insurance Group, one of Buffalo’s leading insurance agencies, conferred with Artizan Internet Services professionals to review all details of a hypothetical disaster recovery plan as a standard part of Artizan’s Disaster Management services. Important agency requirements such as service activation, phone switching capabilities, insured and staff notification, employee login and workflow, carrier claim number certification, escalation procedures and emergency contact information were reviewed thoroughly. Early preparation and frequent review of an agency’s Business Continuity plan is something that many overlook, but is essential to insure minimal (if any) business interruption. The Challenge
A Freak Early Storm Hits Buffalo, New York
Fast forward a few months to October 2006. It is an indisputable fact that the good people of Buffalo, New York know how to handle snow storms. They operate normally in storms that routinely shut down any number of other cities. But the night of October 12, 2006 brought a totally unexpected early snowstorm that added a twist which normally never occurs in Buffalo’s winters. As MaryEllen Downey of the Walsh Group put it, “this storm hit everyone here like no other storm before has, because it was so early and so fierce.” Downey continued, “We didn’t know the city was in trouble until Friday morning when nothing was moving and a state of emergency was declared.”
Since most deciduous trees in Buffalo shed their leaves before the onset of serious snowstorms, the weight of Buffalo’s lake effect snow doesn’t typically have much of an impact on the city. This time due to the early timing of the storm, things were different.
The following is a description of a storm from an online information site, shortly after the snow began to slow down:
“The storm's effects were highly localized: it dumped up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow on some areas of the Buffalo metro region, while other areas saw very little snow, or no snow at all. The event was described by the National Weather Service Office in Buffalo, New York as "astounding" "unbelievable" and "incredible" and by the Toronto Star as "one of the most devastating snow storms in US history". It was also an example of the "particularly rare meteorological phenomenon" known as ‘thundersnow’.
“In affected areas, wet, heavy lake effect snow with a snow-water equivalent (SWE) ratio of between 6:1 and 12:1 (in comparison, the "powder" so prized by skiers is 25:1) and with a weight in excess of 9.8 pounds per square foot piled onto trees which were still in full leaf, leading to significant damage [to trees] on a scale usually associated with hurricanes. An estimated 400,000 people were without power on Friday the 13th, some 100,000 households remained without power for a week, and a few thousand remained without power for ten days.” (source: Wikipedia)
The Solution
Walsh Insurance Group Engages Their Disaster Plan
Among the first questions asked by the staff at the Walsh Insurance Group when the scope of the storm became evident was “which person on our list of emergency response personnel still has power?” Mary Ellen Downey was on that list, and she did have power at her home. So after conferring by cell phone with some of her colleagues and agency President Ted Walsh, who was stranded in Rochester, she called Artizan Internet Services, their disaster recovery partner and creators of CSR24 and Service911.
They placed the call at 8:15 Friday morning, and shortly thereafter the staff at Walsh changed their outgoing voicemail message to direct clients to Artizan’s Call Center. This step insured that all their clients could reach personnel real-time who could begin to process their needs. Over the weekend from Friday to Sunday, 83 calls came in to the agency. Artizan handled them all without agency interruption, giving out carrier claims information, taking messages for the agency staff, collecting initial claims information for agency personnel and generally reassuring Walsh customers that all was well and the Walsh Group was working hard on their issues.
Because the team at Artizan also manages the Walsh Website, they were able to post a message on the site with status updates, and also allowed clients to communicate via the Website and email if they so desired when their power came back up. This expanded the range of options for Walsh’s clients.
Despite the severe disruption to the city due to the storm, the Walsh Insurance Group never shut down. They were taking client calls 24/7 throughout the weekend and were in a great position on Monday when they re-opened their doors. Nearly all of their 58 key employees were able to return to the office to work, despite the fact that some of them were still without power at their own homes. Once the office was back open, the second phase of the disaster recovery began, processing the high number of claims that resulted from the storm.
The Result
The Agency Assesses Their Response and Plans for the Future
After the fateful (and ironic) morning of Friday the 13th, Walsh Insurance Group processed more than 1200 claims. Considering that the agency has approximately 10,000 personal lines clients, this storm put more than 10% of their personal lines clients into a claims status.
As they reviewed their disaster recovery plan and the actual results in an emergency situation, Mary Ellen Downey reports that the system worked better than the staff at Walsh Insurance Group had expected it to.
“We didn’t receive any negative feedback from our clients,” said Downey. “Aside from our normal use of CSR24, this was the first time we’ve had to use the built-in disaster Business Contingency component in an emergency situation, and the experience was tremendous. Our clients were well taken care of and our disaster recovery plan, when implemented, showed our clients the strength of our commitment to them in their greatest hour of need (claims),” Downey concluded.
The Walsh Insurance Group prides itself on the fact that they wrote their first insurance policy in 1860, one year before the first shot of the Civil War was fired. They will be celebrating their 150th year of continuous operation in 2010, and are preparing a significant series of events to commemorate that milestone. The agency is now working with its 4th generation member of the Walsh family.
One of the reasons for that kind of longevity is their continued willingness to adapt and change with the times to get the best insurance policies and provide the best service for their clients. The Walsh Insurance Group plans to still be around, to be independent, and to be leading the insurance industry of Western New York for another 150 years. In order to do that, they are going to continue to partner with key industry leaders like Artizan Internet Services to ensure their clients get the same great service they’ve been providing for nearly a century and a half.
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