Were lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina that helped shape the current insurance contact center?
Ritchey, The Hartford: After a severe hurricane, contact centers may see an increase in call volume from homeowners and businesses reporting a loss, but generally those calls are no different from other first-notice-of-loss reporting. The Hartford has processes in place to handle hurricanes, and we continue to improve. For example, we can automatically shift inbound calls when volume grows too heavy at one contact center. A: Cleveland, ICMI: Many contact centers found themselves overwhelmed at the magnitude of the disaster. These problems must be addressed — things such as flexible and scalable staffing plans, reinforcements, escalation plans, disaster prevention and backup policies, for example. The Experts: Contact Centers Sharon Ritchey Senior Vice President, Property-Casualty Service Operations, The Hartford (Hartford) Brad Cleveland President, International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) (Annapolis, Md.) Joseph Heinen Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Genesys Labs (Dal
