Reliance™ to the Rescue: With Customers in Crisis, Reliance™ responds quickly and efficiently
July 2009
“To the many Reliance™ employees and partners who reached out to our customers during this time of special need, we offer a big thanks for your commitment to being exceptional Reliance™ ambassadors. You make us proud to be part of Reliance™. You make us proud to be part of the communities we serve.” Roger Rossi, President and CEO, Reliance Comfort Limited Partnership™.
On the evening of Sunday, July 26, Hamilton, Ontario was hit with a massive rain storm. In the words of Environment Canada senior climatologist David Philips, “the deluge in East Hamilton was “a gully-washer of major proportions.”
The 111 millimeters measured in 2 hours by the Hamilton Conservation Authority on Queenston Road near Lake Avenue was “more than you’d get in a hurricane,” he said. The impact of the storm was made worse because it fell on soil already super-saturated by storms Friday and Saturday.
Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation concluded that day’s rain was worse than a 100-year storm (one with a 1 per cent probability of occurring in any single year). Flooding closed the Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton that day. By end of day the following Wednesday, over 1,850 people were registered with the City of Hamilton’s damage claims hotline because of flooding and calls continued to come in the days that followed.
Many of the impacted homeowners are Reliance™ customers. Amanda McWha, Workforce Planning Manager who is based in the Cambridge office noted in briefing the Reliance™ Customer Retention Team mid-day Monday on the situation: “When I left the office on Sunday night – all was calm. When I returned on Monday morning, the picture had changed completely.”
By 3 p.m. on Monday, July 27, Reliance™ had in excess of 400 service calls due to the flooding. Reliance’s Call Centre was reporting that it was receiving calls from customers to cancel their orders for two reasons:
A competitor was sending door knockers to impacted streets, offering no inspection fee, non charge replacement of the water heater including piping and venting and the work to be done within 24 hours.
Other local contractors were charging only one inspection fee for two pieces of equipment.
On Monday afternoon, A.J. Kadirgamar, Director, Operations put a call out to other branch locations, requesting that Cambridge and London send in as many service technicians as possible, noting that there was an urgent situation and the company was in a position to lose customers if it did not respond immediately. Requests were made for Windsor and Sarnia technicians willing to stay overnight. As well, McWha reached out to partner market managers Paul Kennedy and Ryan Mote, calling for additional contractor support from both the Greater Toronto Area and Niagara Falls.
A flurry of emails was exchanged between Operations, Marketing and the Call Centre as the day progressed into evening. Reliance’s call centre agents were provided with updated messaging regarding Reliance’s response to this situation. Marketing offered to develop a counter offer that could be used to contact and win back customers who had already gone to the competitor based on their “flood impact” offer.
It was suggested by Reliance’s Customer Retention team that a voice cast message be sent to the flooded areas in Hamilton to reassure customers that Reliance™ was responding to their situation and to proactively provide customers with Reliance’s contact information should they require support.
By 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, Davina Chan, Director, Marketing Communications had worked with her team to produce a voice cast that was shared with 32,000 customers in total – 13,000 from 3 - 8 p.m. on Tuesday and 19,000 from 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Wednesday. The message was directed to impacted areas in 6 FSA identified by WFP and confirmed through matching up with information published in the Hamilton Spectator on those areas hardest hit by the flood. The message was as follows:
“This is Joe Parent from Reliance Home Comfort™, your rental water heater provider. Recent heavy rain falls in Hamilton area have caused floods in some of our customer’s homes. As a result, we are receiving an unusually high volume of calls from customers requesting service visits from their water heater. We are well equipped to handle this volume and have added additional resources to give flood related service requests top priority. We remain committed to the safety and satisfaction of all our customers. If you have already contacted us and booked a service call, rest assured that a Reliance™ technician will arrive as promised. If you have not called us, but require a service appointment for a flood related assessment, please call 1-866-735-4262 and press 1 to speak to a Customer Service Representative. Thank you for your business; we are committed to maintaining our traditionally high levels of service throughout this difficult time for our customers.”
By Wednesday, McWha had left her Cambridge office and was based in Hamilton. At the end of the day, she reported the following:
“We have crews (techs and installers) from all over SW and Central Ontario assisting – Windsor (2); Sarnia (1); London (7+2 contractors); Brantford (1); Cambridge (10 + 3 contractors); GTA (2 contractors); and the Hamilton team (regular staff level + 6 HVAC crews as well as over time). We added capacity for 337 additional service/install customers. We focused on completing two property management complexes and managed to complete the inspections Tuesday and Wednesday and complete all installs on Tuesday evening and Wednesday (approximately 350 units impacted). All single family home calls were completed as per normal.”
Overall, she reported, Reliance™ completed approximately 200 installs on Wednesday in Hamilton and approximately 650 service calls with 252 being flood investigations for a total of approximately 850 customers serviced. A “Ground Zero” command post was established in a parking lot of one of the Property Management Complexes. “It was a pretty slick operation with tanks being brought in, old ones taking out, and a tent to keep us and our water heaters out of the rain. We were distributing calls to techs/installers on site to keep all techs and installers moving. We had management there from installation, service and sales and we talked to our fair share of customers as well who stopped by,” McWha said.
From the established “base camp”, managers and supervisors lead from the front. Another set of supervisors and runners coordinated tank delivery and disposal of old tanks keeping the momentum in the field.
“We would especially like to recognize the hard work and over time put in by technicians, supervisors and contractors and the support given by all the other branches in lending techs and covering up their load with OT of the existing techs. The techs worked in difficult working conditions due to the impact of the floods without any hesitation to service our customers to the best of their ability,” says Kadirgamar.
“Supply chain and workforce planning did a fantastic job in supporting the field operations in finding tanks and scheduling work. The rest of the branches stretched themselves and kept all other regular work under control,” explains Kadirgamar, adding: “I want to thank the team lead by Mark Evanoff, Ray Mcleod, Shane Willis, Eric Tang, Paul Rea, Daryn Posma as well as Lynda, Pizzolitto, Wayne Lowry and Shane MacRae from Supply Chain and Amanda McWha from WFP and all our techs and contractors for a job well done with enthusiasm and urgency.”
Recognition is also extended to the Sudbury branch for also demonstrating heroic effort this week. Like Hamilton, Sudbury was also hit with heavy rainfall Sunday night. The branch addressed a high volume of service calls starting Monday morning. Richard Lebel, Operations Branch Manager for Sudbury, issued a call to action for all members of the Sudbury team. Supported by Howard Martin, Operations Supervisor, many technicians and installers started their day early and worked overtime this week to answer the call for help from Sudbury neighbourhoods accustomed to our traditionally high levels of service.
Special Mention: A number of service and installation records were established with this event and Reliance’s response. Special mention goes to the following individuals for their efforts that week:
Dave MacDonald and Ian Philipson (London Service) completed 30 site inspections each.
Jason Rowe (Hamilton Install) completed 9 installs per day.
Ron McRae (Sarnia Install) and Ian Philipson (London Service) completed 12 installs in less than 8 hours
A sea of Reliance™ water heaters ready for installation at “ground zero” in Hamilton.
(Left to right) Cambridge technicians Eric Cabral and John Rous
Ray McLeod, Service Manager based in Burlington talks to Amanda McWha, Workforce Planning Manager about the day’s work.
Service technician Owen Hunt loads up a water heater.
Mark Evanoff, Installation Manager at Burlington talks to Paul Rea, Installation Supervisor.