The Art and Science of Customer Service During the Pandemic
Are you offering the best customer service to your clients?
The art and science of customer service became front and center in 2020. As we carry on through the pandemic into 2021, we’re seeing vaccination rates rise and a return to business as semi-usual. How to offer the best customer service in this disjointed reality is both a challenge and an opportunity.
As a company, Strategic Capital has always had to overcome the challenges of our industry: bidding wars, bad-mouthing from competitors, predatory marketing by competitors, incessant calling from companies trying to convince people to sell, and more. On top of all of that, we have to explain how we are not like every other structured settlement purchaser.
At Strategic Capital, we have worked hard to stand out from our competition. We’re grateful to be able to maintain our positive reputation in the industry with a loyal network of structured settlement brokers and personal injury attorneys who know and trust how we do business and how we treat their clients.
The pandemic’s pressure
We have seen the dark side of COVID show itself as prejudice coming from those responsible for protecting individuals looking to sell their future payments. After over a year of working with people suffering from financial hardship as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it shocks us when those protectors can’t relate to the reality that our customers face. In fact, some are actually starting to complain about the “COVID excuse.”
Many families are facing financial hardship due to loss of income. Whether it’s from the loss of a job, reduced hours, loss of childcare, loss of shelter, or loss of health, these losses are stacking up. Families are struggling more than ever before.
We, at Strategic Capital, are known for suggesting alternatives to customers looking to sell their structured settlement payments. And we are especially sensitive to taking on transactions involving payments belonging to minors. We take a very conservative approach to assess the true merits of the requests in front of us. This pandemic created so many challenges for families who have already experienced pain and suffering. With so many people losing jobs or businesses and dealing with the stress of school closures, lockdowns, and quarantines, the guilt and pain of not being able to provide for their child have been intensified by this pandemic.
We have seen a significant increase in the number of requests from parents looking to sell part of their children’s policies because they are no longer able to provide for their families, even to the point where the family is now homeless. We feel their fear, anxiety, and desperation while they try to articulate a plan to save their families.
This pandemic put so many behind the eight ball. So many times, we heard that parents had to quit jobs because they were no longer able to find child care due to the lockdowns. We truly understand that any changes to a minor’s settlement should receive the utmost scrutiny and careful review. Strategic Capital is honored that Structured Settlement Brokers and Personal Injury Attorneys across the country trust us with their most vulnerable clients.
Helping your clients make the right choices for their families
It is crucial that the customer service experience your organization provides is able to help your clients navigate during these incredibly overwhelming times. No one has all the answers in one place.
That said, groups searching for support can identify allies by looking for certain things. It never hurts to know an organization that has been vetted and endorsed by top Trial Lawyer Associations across the country. It’s also important to find a company that takes the time to truly understand the complete financial picture. Here at Strategic Capital, for example, we often make suggestions or recommendations of alternative solutions before discussing a factoring transaction.
Consider us an extension of your customer service when your clients contact you with questions about making changes to their structured settlement. You have the opportunity to guide them to a company that will help them, not take advantage of them.
With vaccinations being rolled out faster than ever, we hope that you, your families, and your clients find peace as we all try to settle into a new normal.
