This time around, I wanted to lighten things up a little with a brief story about an idiotic insurance company. I had a client who was a bed and breakfast hotel in Ipswich. A storm blew part of the roof off his property, so to stop the rainwater from pouring in and causing more damage, he immediately made arrangements for contractors to repair the roof and redecorate the affected room. If he hadn’t acted quickly, they might have lost rent.
Afterward, he sent a claim to the insurance company for about 2,000 pounds. And the insurance company said no, because there was no evidence of storm damage. Like I said, they were idiots. The company had inexperienced, low-level claims handlers who’ve probably never been sent out to see a claim before. They’re too by-the-book to use common sense.
Anyway, we argued back and forth for quite a few months before we eventually succeeded. The tough part is, an insurance policyholder has a duty to mitigate damage, but apparently not so much that they eliminate evidence of the damage in the first place — interesting dilemma!
The Children’s Burns Trust
As you might remember, I support a charity called the Children’s Burns Trust. This is a fantastic small charity in need of funds, with the prime aim of raising awareness for children suffering from burns or scalding. I coincidentally attended an event with the London Fire Brigade in Islington, North London, on September 11. Because it was 9/11, the firefighters had a minute’s silence. I thought it was a special moment.
So, 2016 is the Fire Brigade’s 150th anniversary, and they’ve been celebrating all year with family fun days. One of the charities they sponsor is the Children’s Burns Trust, which I support, so there was a lot of synergy among our three organisations.
As a volunteer, I gave away free flags and stickers to the kids, as well as useful information about how to avoid burning or scalding themselves in their homes. It was a pleasure giving back to the community and a fun day helping out and giving our time. The kids loved the ice cream, sweets and games — and hopefully, they learned something that will keep them safe someday.
On Holiday We took a trip to Spain in August, and it was great. I really needed the break.
But wouldn’t you know it, even on holiday, it wasn’t quite a break! While I was over there, I had clients calling to say, “Can you help us out? We’ve had a fire. We’ve had a flood. One of our neighbours has been burgled”.
In fact, my daughter took a photograph of one case and sent it to me on WhatsApp, saying, “Here’s a new referral for you, Dad. What should I do with it”?
All told, when I got back home, I actually had three or four new instructions waiting for me. In fact, we’re on a bit of a roll with new work at the moment — and that’s what I wanted to share with you today.
In a company like mine, we don’t tend to get a lot of repeat clients, obviously, and we’re very glad about that! But to stay busy, we depend on current and past clients referring us new business. We’ve been very fortunate with all of the referrals we get. I’m delighted to say that the vast majority of our work comes from word of mouth.
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve just launched a new referral rewards program that gives you an easy, no-pressure way of referring me to your friends, family and/or colleagues. I for one know how it can be sometimes tricky to ‘tap up your friends and family’ for business so I created this special program that not only rewards them (in a non-salesy way) but also rewards you for every referral that turns into a client. Full details of this new program can be found in the special insert included in this months newsletter, or you can get details by visitingwww.theclaimsdesk.co.uk/refer
Steve Lazarus
