1 min
"My main focus was staying calm and doing what I could to help.”— Frida Ángeles
A Story by Frida Ángeles, Contact Centre Agent, AXA Mexico
I was taking calls on car insurance the day after hurricane Otis had made landfall, when customers started ringing about the disaster. The stories of the people calling were very upsetting. They had no food, no electricity, no drinking water, no internet, and the roads were blocked. My main focus was staying calm and doing what I could to help.
“When you have heard the stories, it just reinforces your sense of responsibility and your desire to be there for the client.”
I was working on vehicle and property claims. People’s cars had been swept away, or were destroyed with all of the glass smashed, and it was the same with people’s houses, which had been devastated in the storm.
I remember speaking to one elderly woman who said that it had taken her a long time to get in contact with us. She told me that she had only survived because she had locked herself in her bathroom in the centre of her house, and that when she came out after the storm had passed, the house was severely damaged. She told me that if she had not shut herself away, she would not be here now.
I know that my team and I responded well because our main job is to talk with the customer, be empathetic and tell them, I am here to help you.
Every day we were given a memo updating us on the situation with details like which roads were open now or what telephone networks were back up and running, so we could give our customers recent information. AXA also set up online loss adjusters to evaluate damage remotely because some areas were not accessible. AXA agents also talked to customers on the phone to try and help their situation. It was a stressful period; we had a lot more calls than usual, but I would not let myself get overwhelmed by the awful stories we were hearing. I had to find a solution for our customers.