Newsletter -August 2017
A letter from Anita:
Last week was historical, especially for me. This was my first hands-on experience with a weather event of this magnitude. Multiple waves of thunderstorms moved across southern Wisconsin and northeast Illinois, which caused copious rainfall rates. This brought flash flooding by daybreak on July 12 that continued throughout the entire day and into the next night. In addition, river flooding became a major problem, which still continues. We have never seen some of these major east west roads CLOSED!
United Services started to receive phone calls as early as 2:00 am Wednesday morning. Over 200 calls were received that day alone, and then an additional 150+ through Friday. Some commercial, many more residential, some large, some small, some enormous. As you can imagine, that kind of volume is overwhelming and, unfortunately, no single company can take care of them all. Being true to our company core value of "Make Every Customer Feel Like They Are The Most Important Customer", we serviced as many as we could, recommended other companies that we trust, and gave advice and direction wherever we could help. Like everyone else we created our wait list. Our customer service practice has always been to call every customer that we have "on our list" at least once daily with some update until they are serviced by us or someone else. I was one of the callers and, wow, I got an education in how challenging this can be. In the meantime, our crews were working on very little sleep, and we utilized as many other resources as we could mobilize to serve as many of your customers as possible. We are proud of our techs and all of the first responders who continue working in very difficult conditions during this historic weather event.
As the weather conditions improve, our crews remain focused on assessing flood damage and safely restoring hope. Yes, the initial surge is past, but there is so much more clean-up to do. Now is the time to move towards accessibility and increased communication.
In my 2 years with United Services, I have never witnessed such a crazy, sad, emotional disaster such as this. I have hope and my prayer is that we continue to bring that HOPE to more people each day.
Thank you for your partnership and onward we go...
Anita J DeBartolo | Client Development Specialist
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As summer slowly comes to an end here's a great back to school checklist: http://www.allyou.com/budget-home/money-shopping/back-to-school-checklist
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Are you looking for ways to get your kids excited for back to school and all the reading that goes along with that? Volunteering at Bernie's Book Bank will teach them to appreciate books and giving back.
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Ethics to Work by
Thursday, August 24, 2017 9:00am-12:00pm
The class will discuss how to identify ethical issues of the insurance business. It will also explain why ethical behavior matters for insurance professionals. It will give you a chance to practice making ethical decisions in sales and claims situations. Applicable to licenses from the State of Illinois only for 3 CE credits.
Water Loss Basics-
Thursday, September 28, 2017 9:00am-12:00pm
The class will provide an overview of water damage basics including the various classes and categories of water. There will be a live demonstration and hands-on training opportunities as well. Applicable to licenses from the State of Illinois only for 3 CE credits.
Ethics to Work by -
Thursday, October 19, 2017 9:00am-12:00pm
The class will discuss how to identify ethical issues of the insurance business. It will also explain why ethical behavior matters for insurance professionals. It will give you a chance to practice making ethical decisions in sales and claims situations. Applicable to licenses from the State of Illinois only for 3 CE credits .
Space is limited so register today!