I know it sounds cheesy, but no one likes to pay for insurance, myself included. A long time ago I was friends with a family that had 3 small children and was witness to their devastation when their house caught on fire due to a faulty outlet in the garage. My best friend was the sister of the gentleman that lost the majority of his important property. She also lived in the same neighborhood as him, so I passed by the house frequently. Human nature is to stop for a minute and think about what someone is going through when something terrible happens to them, but most of us go right back to our lives afterwards. In this situation, I was not able to block it and move on. You literally couldn’t ride through the neighborhood without smelling it, pull in to my friend’s driveway without seeing it, or think about them without remembering the kids’ toys melted together in the yard and driveway. On a positive note, he and his family, although they too loathed their monthly insurance cost, were relieved and secure knowing that this was only a short set back since their insurance would take care of their important property in a committed amount of time.
With Winter Storm Jonas coming out of nowhere, my first concern (after my personal family, of course) was to ensure that my customers were confident that, should they experience any type of outage that would impact their important property, we would be there to make sure that it was only a setback (if a problem at all) by honoring the delivery for their DR “insurance,” a feature that some wish they didn’t have to pay for.
Knowing on Thursday evening that the storm was brewing and headed our way, we made sure to let our customers know that they could count on us and remind them of the process since panic typically sets in during emergency situations. Those that have tested on an annual or even bi-annual schedule were able to respond back right away and thank us for being proactive and caring about their business; no worries on their part when it comes to their professional property. Not only have they paid for their “insurance,” they have tested it once or twice a year to be sure when they go to sleep at night that, if something should happen, they have taken the right steps to ensure that their family can remain their one and only concern.