During extreme weather-related disasters such as wildfires and floods, a language barrier can make a perilous situation much worse.
To ease communication between restoration customers and insurance providers, First Onsite Property Restoration has hired a team of six restoration professionals to deliver specialized service in Mandarin and Cantonese languages in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The new hires join First Onsite as seasoned professionals with years of restoration experience serving the Chinese communities in the region.
As extreme weather events in the region continue to increase in frequency and severity, First Onsite says this new service will bridge a gap during the most vulnerable of times. The new team will be pivotal in helping the property restoration company to build out the service line and establish trusted relationships with adjusters and insurance partners servicing the target market.
The idea to create this special team sparked before the COVID-19 pandemic, when First Onsite was asked by an insurance partner if it could distribute educational material and documentation in Mandarin or Cantonese for the demographic in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where there is a Chinese community of almost 500,000 people (about 20.6% of the population).
“We’ve always been interested in how we can service our clients better in that particular area, where the Chinese community is significant,” said Bill Moorman, senior vice president, Western Canada Operations, First Onsite. “We came across this team of restoration professionals who were already delivering service in Mandarin and Cantonese in Greater Vancouver […] and it really made sense for us [to bring them on] because we were looking at innovations and ways to improve performance criteria for our insurance partners.
“Obviously, having language barriers has always been an issue in certain parts of Canada, whether it’s Vancouver or Toronto, so it makes sense for us to look at that. But creating a special team is not an easy thing to do right off the bat because there’s training and other things involved in that. But this group was already together, so it really made sense for us to bring them on board, and to give them the tools that First Onsite has available to them to expand their offerings.”
First Onsite officially onboarded this new team in January 2022. It is the first formalized team of its kind in the organization, and it has been set up as a standalone unit, so that First Onsite can monitor its performance in isolation and see how it compares to the rest of the business. If everything goes well, which Moorman suspects it will, then First Onsite plans to take its learnings and recreate specialized teams for different communities across Canada.
“Insurance claims can be very difficult for first-time homeowners or homeowners who have never experienced a property claim,” Moorman added. “It can be somewhat traumatic, and, depending on the size of the incident, many people really don’t know what to do. To have the ability to service people in their own languages really puts them at ease. When you develop that relationship with them, because you’re able to communicate with them in their own languages, it really makes the claim go smoother.
“Enabling claimants to articulate in their own language also helps us to learn and become familiar with cultural nuances. A claim might require different responses in different cultures. It may not be A to Z. There may be some other issues that we need to take care of, with regards to maybe the elderly, or just the way they live their lives – and we have to be cognizant of that. This team, because they’re able to communicate in Mandarin and Cantonese, will help us to develop, learn, and improve our processes based on cultural need.”
Moorman described First Onsite as an “innovative organization” that is “constantly looking at new opportunities to improve” its service capabilities and to expand its network. This new team in British Columbia – and the potential for replicates across Canada – is just one way the firm is being innovative.
“We’re in conversation with our insurance partners on a regular basis, and we have consistent dialogue with them on process improvements,” Moorman told Insurance Business. “We’re trying to be as mindful as we can with respect to timing, and customer service across the board, and we’re trying to implement new platforms or different applications that will help us support that and track the information and data that is required by our clients.
“Restoration is not sexy in any way, but when you have somebody who’s never been through it, [going through something] for the first time can be somewhat traumatic, whether it’s a flood or a fire. Taking them through those initial stages, being there for them, and trying to ease their pain to some degree is really what we’re trying to do. And we’re working with the insurance companies, the brokers, and the adjusters to support that overall experience. We constantly look at different, innovative ways to support that, and this new team is just one example of that.”
