How to Maintain Contact Center Quality During Disaster Response
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It’s the peak of hurricane season and it feels like your contact center is already underwater … again.
Your policyholders are scared. Your staff is overwhelmed. And overtime is building up.
For property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies, the conditions are just right for the next storm to wreak complete havoc on your contact center.
A Growing Crisis
Hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires — they all strike suddenly. And they’re getting worse. According to the 2020 Ecological Threat Register, there’s been a tenfold rise in the number of catastrophic natural events in the last half-century alone.
And the areas being hit by natural disasters are expanding. In September 2024, Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented damage to the western Carolinas, an area not typically impacted by storms.
When crises happen, your policyholders need more than just claims forms and updates. They need empathy. They need answers. And they need them now.
If you’re not ready, you could be one bad day away from losing half of your customer base.
So how can you be rapid-response ready and build trust during worst-case scenarios?
Challenges Facing Contact Centers During Crises
The Surge in Calls
In 2017, Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria caused unprecedented damage across the southeast. Irma alone cost insurance companies billions in damage across nearly 450,000 claims.
In an instant, P&C insurers were slammed. And customers weren’t just asking about policies or updates. They were scared. Their homes were gone. They needed reassurance.
In those critical moments, every second counts. Trust is earned — or lost.
Staff Struggles
It’s every contact center manager’s nightmare: a flood of calls you weren’t expecting — and you’re unprepared.
In the face of emergencies, P&C managers have historically had two choices:
- Overstaff every shift and pay agents to twiddle their thumbs waiting for something to happen.
- Scramble to find, onboard and train dozens if not hundreds of qualified agents — with the communication skills and cultural sensitivity to help your policyholders effectively — in the middle of an emergency.
If your agents are local, they might be dealing with the same disaster as your customers. Your staff can’t help others if they have no power or are evacuating their own home.
Frustrated Policyholders
Being put on hold is annoying on your best day. It’s agonizing when you’ve just lost everything. Long wait times push stressed customers over the edge. This in turn quickly leads to agent burnout.
After Hurricane Irma, insurers felt the pain. Slow responses led to customer outrage. People needed help and didn’t get it.
It took half a decade for the Florida property insurance market to recover in the wake of one hurricane season. Some insurers never did.
If you fumble your disaster response, the trust is gone.
The key is finding strategies that keep your contact center optimized even in worst-case scenarios.
How to Maintain Customer Trust During Disaster Response
The solution to avoiding chaos isn’t being permanently overstaffed — it’s being smart about your operations.
There are ways to prioritize customer trust and satisfaction, even when those emotional calls keep coming.
Be Proactive and Prepared
Reach out to your policyholders before disaster strikes. Walking them through the claims process and answering common questions can help everyone feel more prepared.
Text or email your customers as soon as a disaster is on the horizon. Share updates on how they can start the claims process. This can cut redundant calls and give customers peace of mind before they even pick up the phone to talk to one of your agents.
Make Empathy a Priority
When disaster strikes, empathy is too often an afterthought. It shouldn’t be. Your agents need training to actively listen and connect with policyholders.
A kind and patient human on the line helps customers feel calm. It also builds trust.
Leverage AI for Support
Not every call needs a live agent. Let AI handle routine inquiries like policy checks, payment information and status updates. This frees up human staff for complex, emotional conversations.
AI can also collect photos and documents from policyholders and provide an initial damage assessment in a matter of minutes.
And with AI speech analytics, you can flag frustrated customers before they get aggravated or hang up. It can be hard for agents to detect rising stress levels in real time — especially if they’re also overwhelmed. AI can offer backup support.
Be Rapid-Response Ready with ShyftOff
All it takes is one fumbled disaster response to lose policyholder trust.
Next time the unexpected happens, make sure your team is flexible, reliable and resilient enough to fully show up for your customers — while still reaching your KPIs.
ShyftOff offers everything you need to keep your contact center optimized through worst-case scenarios.
On-Demand Agents
When chaos strikes, our gig-powered model brings in the staff your contact center needs to handle the call surge. Forget costly, inflexible staffing agencies or the excruciating lead times of traditional BPOs. With ShyftOff, you ramp up quickly with remote, U.S.-based, high-performing talent.
Flexible Staffing
Our flexible model lets you schedule down to 30-minute shifts to ensure you’re staffed optimally, even in a disaster situation. No long-term commitment and overhead costs. Just extra hands — and hearts — when you need them the most.
Training Handled
No need to worry about bringing agents up to speed — ShyftOff takes care of all the training. We handle technical skills like policies and procedures as well as the emotional side of dealing with disaster claims.
In times of crisis, your policyholders are going through some of the toughest moments of their lives. How you respond makes all the difference. With ShyftOff’s flexible staffing solution, you can handle the pressures of high call volumes with empathy and efficiency to maintain your customer’s hard-earned trust.
ShyftOff in Action
Last hurricane season, ShyftOff successfully helped Florida’s top insurance company onboard 300 agents within days in response to the destruction of Hurricane Ian.
How did we do it?
By providing the top U.S.-based talent outside of the hurricane impact zone. And by carefully selecting agents with the soft skills necessary to fully support policyholders.
Here’s the tough part: things will go wrong for your customers.
But they shouldn’t for your contact center.
So don’t wait for the next disaster. Get started today to learn how ShyftOff can help you be Rapid Response Ready.
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