Crisis communications with Citizens Property Insurance

In this episode, Doug Filaroski joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how a property insurance company manages crisis communications. 

Tune in to learn more!

Our guest

Our episode guest is Doug Filaroski, senior communications representative at Citizens Property Insurance. He manages crisis communications projects, provides strategic consulting, and oversees the production of all types of content — from leadership messaging to digital communications and video.

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the episode here:

5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:

1. Citizens Property Insurance’s communications strategies 
2. How to respond to a crisis 
3. The role of crisis response centers during catastrophic events
4. The importance of fraud prevention campaigns
5. Why companies need a crisis communication plan

About Doug Filaroski

Doug is a former journalist who's covered presidential campaigns, government corruption, and growth. He now works as a corporate storyteller. After stints at a Fortune 500 company and the JAX Chamber, he moved on to internal, external, and crisis communications for Citizens Property Insurance in Florida. Doug is also the vice president of communications for the Florida Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Quotables

• “We feel a great responsibility — because we are the state or the people's insurance company — to provide them with good service.” — @Doug Filaroski
• “Florida was responsible for 79% of all the lawsuits in the United States against property insurance companies.” — @Doug Filaroski 
• “When I started with a company about 10 years ago, I don't think we had as good a plan as we have now. So one of the best tips is to have a plan. Frankly, a lot of people I talk to in crisis communications don't really have a formal plan.” — @Doug Filaroski
• “I'm personally a big fan of templates. If I have to send the same email twice, I'd sure like to have a template for it for the third time, and I always encourage my teammates to do the same thing.” — @JasonMudd9
• “A lot of the comments you're making speak to the culture of your organization and that you obviously care and you're there to serve, as opposed to just being the solution that's the least desirable for your customers. I think that really matters and goes a long way.” — @JasonMudd9

Resources

• International Association of Business Communicators
• International Association of Business Communicators - Florida Chapter
• Connect and learn more about Doug Filaroski on LinkedIn.
• Visit Citizens Property Insurance for more information.

Additional Episode Resources from Axia Public Relations:

• Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR podcast.
• Find out more about Axia Public Relations.
• 10-step process to prepare a company for a crisis
• 11 crisis management tactics to avoid or prepare for a PR disaster
• 6 PR strategies for managing wildfire crisis
• CrisisPoint PR, Axia's crisis communications strategy and services
• Crisis PR webinar
• Crisis blog posts

Disclosure: One or more of the links we shared here might be affiliate links that offer us a referral reward when you buy from them.

Episode highlights

• [02:25] About Citizens Property Insurance
• [23:39] Crisis response planning 
• [09:42] Fraud prevention campaigns
• [22:58] Crisis response centers and messaging
• [26:18] Having a crisis communications plan

Enjoy the Podcast?

Thank you for tuning in! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. You can also share this with your colleagues, friends, and family for professional insight into corporate communications.

Have any questions?

Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and our LinkedIn Group. For more updates, visit our On Top of PR website or join the community. You may also tune in on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:29

Announcer

Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd, presented by ReviewMaxer.

00:00:09:29 - 00:00:26:01

Jason

Hello and welcome to On top of PR, I’m your host, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. And today we're joined by Doug  Filaroski. Doug is the senior communications representative with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Doug is, a person I've known for a long time. When he was a past journalist.

00:00:26:04 - 00:00:47:15

Jason

He's covered presidential campaigns, government corruption, and the growth in Florida. He now works as a corporate storyteller. He's had stints at a fortune 500 company, a regional chamber of commerce. And then he moved on to internal external and crisis communication for citizens, property insurance in Florida. Doug, welcome to the show.

00:00:47:17 - 00:00:57:10

Doug

Welcome, Jason. You're right. We've known each other for a little while now. I don't want to age either one of us, but, yeah, we do. We go back, a few years. Nice to see you.

00:00:57:13 - 00:01:12:18

Jason

We've reached that age where somebody was asked me the day. Well, how do you know so-and-so? And I'm like, I can't remember a time that I didn't know this person, so I can't really pin it down on a particular year. And I. I feel the same, you know, about us. I'm pretty sure we met when you were writing for the American City Business Journals.

00:01:12:18 - 00:01:44:25

Jason

Yes. If not maybe even a little before that. But yeah. You know, when you've been doing this long enough, you just feel like you've got this organic group of people in your network or your circle that you're always seeing and doing things with. So, anyway, I'm we're glad to have you on the show. And, we'll put maybe a link to this in the episode notes, but, you know, we reconnected somewhat recently this year when I did a presentation with you guys, and your organization, the International Associations, Business Communicators, IBC about AI and how to use AI, which was was great and a lot of fun.

00:01:44:25 - 00:02:20:16

Jason

And you've got a great, membership there. But today we're talking about how an insurance company manages crisis communication. I think this is a timely topic. A lot of our audience are, people who work in the insurance industry and their fellow public relations communication, marketing, executives within those organizations. And, you know, always thinking about how to manage, crisis communications, how to manage crisis response to, natural disasters and other, situations that they might need to either be dealing with as a company or helping their customers deal with.

00:02:20:16 - 00:02:33:02

Jason

So I'm excited to talk about this more with you. But first, I think for the background of our audience, let's talk about, your organization that you work at, and kind of give us a little bit of the background about it to set the stage for our conversation today.

00:02:33:04 - 00:02:56:06

Doug

Yeah, we're a little bit different than your typical insurance company because we are state created. Florida back in 2002, decided to create Citizens Property Insurance because, you know, after decades of hurricanes and frankly, we have a lot of lawyers. I didn't know if you know that or not. In Florida, we have a lot of litigation that occurs here.

00:02:56:08 - 00:03:15:10

Doug

A lot of the private insurers were moving out of the state. So the legislature and its wisdom in 2002 created citizens. And if you can't, if you're a homeowner or property owner of any kind and you can't get insurance from somebody else, private insurer, citizens will take you on.

00:03:15:16 - 00:03:33:22

Jason

Well that's great. And I think the timing is very interesting because, as I recall, it was like, what, 2004 when Florida was just hit with hurricane after hurricane. So the timing of your organization forming was, probably, you know, providential and, well, welcome, given the, the storms that happened in oh four.

00:03:33:24 - 00:03:54:22

Doug

Yeah, yeah, they started back up. I yeah, you can see the 0405 sometime around then. And we had, actually a terrible couple of years. I lived in Florida at the time was before I started with citizens, but, yeah, there was, several there were many, hurricanes in 2005 and 2006. Then we took a little bit of a break.

00:03:54:22 - 00:04:07:27

Doug

I don't know if you remember that or not, but we went, through about an 8 or 10 year period. And then in 2016, I believe it was they started up again. And we've we've had a few years here now. We've had quite a few hurricanes.

00:04:07:29 - 00:04:23:25

Jason

And for those that don't live in Florida or where there's hurricanes, you know, the one thing they always seem to not realize is that, you know, we have so much notice when there's a hurricane, you know, unlike, you know, tornadoes or blizzards or things like that, that just kind of happen out of the middle of nowhere. So, you know, it's kind of interesting.

00:04:23:25 - 00:04:39:01

Jason

I don't know what storm it was, last couple of years, but I remember it took it's like it took like a week to get here, you know, and, you're just. Or even more than that. So you almost always have plenty of notice. It's just, you know, the unpredictability of the where it's going to actually go and the route it's going to take.

00:04:39:01 - 00:04:41:28

Jason

But at least you're not caught off guard. At least in the modern era, you're not.

00:04:41:28 - 00:04:45:05

Doug

So yeah, that's true. That's true.

00:04:45:07 - 00:04:54:06

Jason

So who would be, though? Do you have any competition or would you say, there's not really competition for what you offer?

00:04:54:13 - 00:05:24:16

Doug

No we don't. In fact, as I said, the goal is for the private insurers to step up and, you know, provide coverage here in Florida. But, that said, we're still the largest property insurer in Florida. And really, the way we view it is our competition is ourselves. We feel a great responsibility because we are the, the state or the people's insurance company to provide them with, with, good service.

00:05:24:16 - 00:05:46:12

Doug

And of course, it's good for the economy if if people weren't insuring property. The real estate market is one of the most important, industries in the state. And, so we just feel, our responsibility to provide good service and, and, and, make people, feel comfortable that we're going to be there, when, when they need us.

00:05:46:15 - 00:05:54:12

Jason

So if I'm a Florida homeowner, do I automatically qualify to get a quote from you, or do I have to prove that I was denied coverage? How does that work?

00:05:54:12 - 00:06:09:05

Doug

Yeah, you have to, be denied coverage. And, and you have to go to another insurer unless that insurer is 20% more than than citizens. So, yeah, that's the goal is for a private insurer

00:06:09:05 - 00:06:22:24

Doug

to, be able to provide coverage, for you. But unfortunately, all too often that's not the case. Right now, I think we have 1.25 million policies, which, my guess would be that's double as our nearest competitor.

00:06:22:27 - 00:06:33:28

Jason

So. Interesting. Yeah. So. So if I'm an insurance agent or an insurance carrier, I don't since that property, our citizens property insurance is a competitor of mine.

00:06:34:01 - 00:06:58:13

Doug

No, no. In fact, they will come to us and see if there are properties that, that they would be interested in taking. Obviously, the way the market works, we have most of the, the risky properties, for lack of a better term, properties along the coast or in South Florida, you know, as where the hurricanes tend to approach and that sort of thing.

00:06:58:15 - 00:07:02:29

Jason

So are you saying they come to you and they buy policies from you or they they.

00:07:03:01 - 00:07:11:15

Doug

They assume the policies, right, right. Yeah. So we just hand them on over. As I said, the goal is for the private market.

00:07:11:15 - 00:07:14:24

Doug

to provide property insurance in Florida.

00:07:14:26 - 00:07:18:06

Jason

Okay. So you might help a homeowner who is.

00:07:18:09 - 00:07:33:16

Doug

Sorry to drive, but, you know, between you and I, Jason, I don't know that we'll reach that that goal 100%, but that is the goal for for that to occur as a state. Right now, we're we're a little ways away from that.

00:07:33:18 - 00:07:53:13

Jason

So so then Doug, are you saying that the hope is to basically take someone who, who cannot get insurance today either because no one will pick up their policy or their policy is just too high. And then over time, ideally, a private, organization comes in and assumes that policy.

00:07:53:15 - 00:08:14:11

Doug

Yes. Yeah, that's that's what occurs when we've got people coming into the market all, all the time. Private insurers that maybe you haven't heard of and others, that you have heard of, farmers, I believe, is one that came into the market, recently. And, there are others. Yeah.

00:08:14:13 - 00:08:33:04

Jason

So, Doug, I'm guessing you have an interesting role. So you're in Florida, and what's in your organization is across the entire state. I know there's offices in South Florida. I know you're in northeast Florida, etc., so I assume you have offices all over the state as well. But let's say there is a hurricane or some other kind of catastrophic incident.

00:08:33:07 - 00:08:40:01

Jason

You're not only concerned about the organization, your colleagues, but also your customers. Is that correct?

00:08:40:04 - 00:09:04:27

Doug

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're right. You do get a fair amount of, of notice when, when a hurricane is approaching. But, you know, we do. We always tell our people to take care of themselves first. But, you know, that's let's, not to be overly dramatic, but that's our Super Bowl. You know, when a hurricane shows up, in fact, on, a couple of, few weeks ago, Hurricane Debbie.

00:09:04:29 - 00:09:26:03

Doug

And believe it or not, we've got one, today that's, that made an approach. It's not going to hit us. It's headed for the New Orleans area, Hurricane Francine. But, yeah, that's when we go into overdrive. We plan all year for it. And, as I said, we feel a great responsibility. We're a taxpayer backed organization.

00:09:26:03 - 00:09:32:22

Doug

And, that's why we were created to help people out. And when, when they're facing this tough situation.

00:09:32:24 - 00:09:42:03

Jason

And so other than hurricanes, what other things are kind of on your radar of, preparatory work or of of concern?

00:09:42:06 - 00:10:04:29

Doug

You know, just the, you know, the, the a lot of things that other insurers face, you know, from you talk about from a communication standpoint, a storm and, yeah, I mean, we do a lot of messaging about, fraud that that, it's a bigger, cost to insurance companies than most people probably would realize.

00:10:05:02 - 00:10:29:25

Doug

That is, so we do campaigns, surrounding fraud, educating people that, I don't know, probably other parts of the country don't face this, but, you know, when they come around your neighborhood, these, roofing companies and tell you they can give you a free roof, at your insurance company's expense, you know, more times than not, that's, that's, misuse of your insurance policy.

00:10:30:01 - 00:10:53:05

Doug

So, there's a lot of, things like that that occur in the insurance world, and we're educating people about it. We're educating people about the people that get caught doing this. And how they're doing it. Just so people know that we're out there, watching and people get arrested and go to go to jail for that. And again, that's just because it's a big cost.

00:10:53:05 - 00:10:59:13

Doug

And, you know, that cost gets passed on to the consumer. So we're trying to educate people about fraud.

00:10:59:15 - 00:11:03:05

Jason

Gotcha. I think that's called assignment of benefits. Is that right?

00:11:03:08 - 00:11:22:17

Doug

Yes. Excellent. Because yeah. That's that's something a lot of people don't know about. Fortunately, about two years ago, the legislature, right. Finally convinced that that's not a good thing. That's when, say, a roofer comes to your home and they knock on the door, they say, you know that roof up there? It's looking pretty, pretty ratty.

00:11:22:24 - 00:11:38:16

Doug

And you're like, I thought it looked great, but, sure enough, they climb up, they find something wrong with it, and they say, hey, just sign this piece of paper and I'll take care of the insurance, for you, because they're they're hard to deal with. And, what, that policy, what that piece of paper is you're signing all rights to them.

00:11:38:19 - 00:11:53:12

Doug

They'll inflate the claim. They'll they'll make up damage to your roof. The legislature caught on to that, and that actually got outlawed. But that's not to say that folks don't, you know, still go around until you can get, something for nothing. When when that it's not actually the case.

00:11:53:14 - 00:12:06:19

Jason

To your knowledge, did your organization play a role in that? Because I would imagine that, you know, being that your, you know, state funded, state led, that probably your someone in your organization was probably leaned on for advice and counsel on this topic.

00:12:06:26 - 00:12:24:29

Doug

Yeah, actually we did. We have a pretty big you know, we're created by the legislature and our board is appointed by the governor. So they do they listen to us a lot about the industry and what's going on in the industry. And we did we advise them that these things aren't, aren't the best idea in the world.

00:12:25:03 - 00:12:55:01

Doug

They can lead to, to fraud. And, actually, another thing that's a good news for, Florida, insurance consumers. Is that a follow up to that outlawing of the assignment of benefits? Is the legislature pass new rules about how attorneys get compensated in lawsuits against insurance company and really disincentivize those lawsuits that happened the year after assignment of benefits was passed.

00:12:55:01 - 00:13:16:29

Doug

That happened, I believe, in the 2023 legislative session. And what they did was, they just, it used to be a few sued an insurance company, and you got an extra dollar. Then you, were compensated for 100% of your attorney's fees up to that point. And now the they change the scale about how you get compensated.

00:13:16:29 - 00:13:47:28

Doug

You have to, you know, get a substantial win in order to get compensated. And it's based on how much you've increased your ask by. But anyway, that has really disincentivize lawsuits. And up until that point, Florida was responsible for 79% of all the lawsuits in the United States against, property insurance companies. And, of course, we're one of 50 states I think we're we're responsible for about 5% of the claims.

00:13:48:05 - 00:14:02:20

Doug

But that's 79% of the lawsuits. So that's, that's that's making a difference. And we're hoping it's going to affect, insurance premiums once we can get the level of litigation down.

00:14:02:22 - 00:14:23:06

Jason

Nice. Well, let's get into your role in your recommendations. So, you know, you just mentioned, you know, you're clearly watching a hurricane. Now and things like that. So you kind of walk me through your process, right? Are you? I mean, are you always have a finger on the pulse of weather events that are occurring that, might impact Florida?

00:14:23:06 - 00:14:26:25

Jason

And, you know, what's your routine for that and your internal process?

00:14:26:28 - 00:14:52:18

Doug

Sure. Yeah. That's, that's an interesting question. We are we're always we're always watching the weather, you know, companywide and then within our communication division because, we've got a, people that actually are scheduled around the clock. We've got sort of, shifts that we do to keep an eye on the weather because, as soon as, one makes landfall, there's a communication.

00:14:52:18 - 00:15:13:03

Doug

You know, we kind of. I don't know if you realize, but insurance is meant to be sort of peace of mind when you buy a piece of property, you know, the worst happens. You've got insurance and it can cover you, but it's not meant to be purchased. As a hurricane is making landfall. So actually, as a hurricane is making landfall if you don't have insurance, we kind of flip the switch on that.

00:15:13:03 - 00:15:37:05

Doug

So we, as soon as that happens, we we flip the switch. You can no longer buy, a policy, and we send out communications related to that. But, in a more broad way, we keep an eye on the weather. And, you know, we send out communications that let folks know, that, you know, we're going to be there if something bad happens to their property.

00:15:37:07 - 00:16:00:24

Doug

And, that happens before hurricane strikes and then, you know, after it's, you know, struck, we, again, remind folks that if you've got damage and whatnot, you know, we'll we'll be up there, we'll take a look at your property and we'll will compensate you as quickly as possible. So, that's basically what what we're doing in those times.

00:16:00:27 - 00:16:17:16

Jason

Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. And so talk to me about, first of all, I'm interested in the shifts. So how are the shifts? Delegated. Is there really somebody watching for weather reports at 130 or 4 a.m.? Yeah, because for legal.

00:16:17:16 - 00:16:33:09

Doug

Reasons, we want to be consistent. So when we have I, it's a, it's really it's all part of our communication. But yeah, we do want to let people but they can't buy insurance at a certain time. So, you know, we want to be consistent, with that. So yeah. So what is the first watch or warning goes up from Florida.

00:16:33:09 - 00:16:55:17

Doug

That can happen literally at any time. That can an unfortunate all too often it happens in the middle of a night. So that's when the, switch is flipped, and that's when we send out the communications to let people know that, can no longer find a policy. It's called with with the insurance company. But, that's why the I mentioned that shift work.

00:16:55:17 - 00:17:25:28

Doug

But, as I said, in a more broad sense, you know, we're just, we're working, as they approach, trying to figure out where it's going to go, you know, what our audience is going to be, you know, which counties, right. It's going to strike. And as you mentioned earlier in the podcast, for people that don't know, hurricanes are notorious for sort of changing, path, and, you know, our technology can only track Mother Nature so much if she does make up her mind, as she wants to.

00:17:25:28 - 00:17:34:18

Doug

So, yeah, we're kind of keeping a close eye on it, and, trying to target our audience. I guess it's what we're doing.

00:17:34:20 - 00:17:59:22

Jason

So, to clarify, these are people in your communication department, or is it somebody in operations who is then keeping, communication and and, informed? And then my second part of my question is if it's a random Thursday, is somebody working in shift when there's no tropical storm activity expected? Is that still happening? 365 days, or is it more of like a okay, looks like we need to be working around the clock to monitor this.

00:17:59:22 - 00:18:01:19

Jason

So help kind of help us understand that. Okay.

00:18:01:25 - 00:18:11:25

Doug

Yeah. In the off season, when it's not hurricane season, even though a hurricane can occur, I mean, it's not like a mother nature says, well, it's June 1st, it's hurricane.

00:18:11:28 - 00:18:12:09

Jason

Season.

00:18:12:09 - 00:18:35:18

Doug

That, it can occur, but that's when we start to shift work, in January. And we do. We have 12 people in our communications division that, they team up in teams of two people, and they will work a shift for a week. The National Hurricane Center issues these advisories every six hours when there's nothing really imminent to Florida.

00:18:35:21 - 00:18:47:17

Doug

And then the issue, every three hours, when there's one that's approaching. And this, these, these teams of two people check those advisories every every three hours.

00:18:47:20 - 00:18:48:07

Jason

Okay.

00:18:48:09 - 00:18:52:03

Doug

Yeah. And they're wrong. These are our communications employees.

00:18:52:06 - 00:19:12:03

Jason

So let's say I work in your department, and I've been assigned to, a shift. Does that mean that I'm during that shift? Am I, you know, am I sleeping and then waking up overnight it every three hours to check it? Or am I doing my normal day job overnight for that shift period of time?

00:19:12:05 - 00:19:34:24

Doug

There was a time when we did that, but we did relax our rules. So. Yeah, you're you're checking the National Hurricane Center website every three hours up until 8:00 and then picking up with the 5 a.m. advisory. So, yeah, we decided that we decided, you know, just based on what we were seeing. People aren't buying insurance at 2 a.m. in the morning.

00:19:34:24 - 00:19:41:22

Doug

So, so, yeah, we, we'll do it pretty much around the clock. Except for the overnight. Yeah.

00:19:41:24 - 00:19:58:28

Jason

And so if is the main reason you're doing that is to send out alerts to the, to a proactive word like, who are you alerting? Are you just are you just updating the website like our. Are you alerting somebody personally or you updating your content to.

00:19:59:01 - 00:20:26:02

Doug

Oh, that's a good question. Agents, primarily because agents buy insurance on behalf of property owners. Yeah. So I think we have about 22,000 agent partners. We call people that, sell citizens insurance. Okay. And, some other people in the industry, we, we, like, know now and we will post it on our website. So the general public is generally aware of it.

00:20:26:04 - 00:20:28:27

Doug

Sure, sure. Social media, that sort of thing.

00:20:28:29 - 00:20:43:13

Jason

I'm imagining, though, an insurance agent probably knows when those things are cut off. So are they dependent, on these notifications from you? Or is that just like a, you know, a good, best practice and a thorough reminder?

00:20:43:15 - 00:21:08:24

Doug

It's kind of both, right? They'll they'll know. Right. I'm not shopping for insurance as a hurricane is making landfall in my community. Right. But once again, you would be surprised. You would you would be surprised. People that own certain types of properties, that don't have insurance, that purchase it as, as a hurricane, it's approaching.

00:21:08:26 - 00:21:14:16

Jason

And remind me, you not only do, you know, homeowner's insurance, do you also do flood insurance.

00:21:14:19 - 00:21:23:28

Doug

Not flood insurance. No. That's a that's a, insurance that's provided by the federal government. Right. So at least it's subsidized by the federal government.

00:21:24:00 - 00:21:34:06

Jason

And, I know, especially for people who don't live in hurricane areas, there's a perception that you go and you purchase, hurricane insurance. Doug, can you explain that to our audience real quick?

00:21:34:08 - 00:22:03:29

Doug

Well, most of our you can buy a wind. I mean, how your home gets damaged is, by wind of course, and by, flooding. And as you just mentioned, all insurance companies, most if not all, do not provide flood insurance. That's a federal program. So, so you buy an insurance policy that includes wind damage, although you can buy a wind only policy if you want.

00:22:03:29 - 00:22:11:26

Doug

That covers just wind damage. So, that will cover hurricane damage as well. And in a lot of cases.

00:22:11:29 - 00:22:17:03

Jason

Okay. Excellent. Well, we're going to take a quick break and be back with more from Doug on the other side.

00:22:17:03 - 00:22:41:21

Announcer

You're listening to On Top of PR with your host, Jason Mudd. Jason is a trusted advisor to some of America's most admired and fastest growing brands. He is the managing partner at Axia Public Relations, a PR agency that guides news, social and web strategies for national companies. And now, back to the show.

00:22:41:21 - 00:22:58:27

Jason

Welcome back to on top of PR. We're continuing to talk about hurricanes and crisis communication and specifically how an insurance organization, prepares and communicates about those incidents, with their audience. And we're joined by Doug A Roski and Doug. So we're, we want to talk a little bit more.

00:22:58:27 - 00:23:12:03

Jason

We've we've we've we've we've hit on this a little bit, but what other kind of messages and channels do you use before and after storm to communicate with your agents? With your customers, with your partners, and your employees?

00:23:12:05 - 00:23:39:13

Doug

Yeah. So we've talked a lot about, you know, how we let people know that you can't, buy insurance as a as a hurricane? It's making landfall. But as I said, a lot of the messaging really is, to let people give people a little peace of mind that, you know, if, as I said, if the worst were to happen, you know, we'll be there, we'll go out, we'll look at their property and we'll, you know, process it quickly and, and, you know, make a payment to them quickly so they can get back on their feet.

00:23:39:13 - 00:24:05:07

Doug

So, you know, we talked to them a lot about that. We use text messaging. Before after storms emails. We do, automated phone pushes to them. A lot of those have to do with, you know, hey, you know, this has been a huge storm. You know, we're getting the adjusters out there maybe more than the 24 hour, normal, you know, non catastrophe standard that we have.

00:24:05:07 - 00:24:28:06

Doug

And we usually send people out within 24 hours, or maybe it's going to take another day or two or something like that. So yeah, we're we're talking with people, through push phone calls on our website. Social media of course, is, is, you know, really important. We're not only pushing out information to people, but we're getting information from them and we're able to respond to that.

00:24:28:08 - 00:24:49:03

Doug

And as I said, most of the messaging really is, you know, giving them a sense of confidence that we're going to kind of be there and be there quickly and kind of help them get back on their feet. A lot of it also is, we happened to set up something that we call catastrophe response centers in the field.

00:24:49:03 - 00:25:22:05

Doug

We'll go out into the field, we'll set up these big tented centers, for Hurricane Debbie, which really for float by Florida standards, wasn't that big a storm. Last month, I think we got 2500 claims, from that storm. And just by comparison, for Hurricane Irma 2017, we had 80,000, claims. But anyway, we we did go out for Debbie last months and and send up these hurricane, catastrophe response centers in four different counties where the storm struck from Tampa up to the panhandle.

00:25:22:11 - 00:25:42:18

Doug

And we'll do a lot of messaging about, just to let people know that they can go out in person and talk to somebody and get, their business done because, you know, hurricanes have serious business. And a lot of times people don't have I have hate to say it, but they don't have a home sometimes, they don't have a vehicle.

00:25:42:18 - 00:26:00:22

Doug

They don't have, communication at all. The cell phone power or anything. So, yeah, we we see a lot of people come into these centers and we're able to help them in person. So we need to communicate the availability of these centers out to people. And you know, what they're going to what we're going to be able to do for them out there.

00:26:00:24 - 00:26:18:29

Jason

Right? Yeah. And just hearing you say that, it's just a good reminder for everybody to, you know, have money saved up or a line of credit somehow they can access in case of an emergency. So you don't find yourself homeless or, you know, you know, without a car, whatever their situation might be for to plan for the unexpected, as they say.

00:26:18:29 - 00:26:38:11

Jason

So, yeah. So what tips and tips, what tips, tricks, advice or otherwise would you give to your colleagues, maybe, who work at other insurance companies? Or maybe, people in the profession who have to do crisis, communication, you know, management and preparation. What are some of the things you've learned in your stint, with this organization?

00:26:38:14 - 00:27:03:23

Doug

Well, I, you know, have to say that when we when I started with a company about ten years ago, I don't think we had as good a plan as we have now. So one of the best tips is to to have a plan. Frankly, a lot of people I talk to in crisis communications, you know, don't really have a real.

00:27:03:25 - 00:27:25:24

Doug

Formal plan. They don't have templates, you know, for communications because a lot of these communications I'm talking about have been templated out. So I would say start with developing a plan and, you know, move it, move the ball forward a little bit every year because I can't say we're exactly where we want to be at this time.

00:27:25:26 - 00:27:32:24

Doug

Either. But we are, moving the ball forward every year and working on our plan.

00:27:32:26 - 00:27:47:02

Jason

Yeah. Nice. So we call it, you know, we say get 1% better every day. You know, here at AXA, maybe you don't touch the crisis clients crisis plan every day, but when you do, even a little tweak to make it 1% better is, highly encouraged.

00:27:47:05 - 00:28:07:19

Doug

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's you know, that's as I said that and we feel the same way. I mean text messaging is not that old for us. I think we've only been doing that for 2 or 3 years. We'll add a new template every year for a new scenario. So you know, we'll tweak sort of how we target our audiences and get the data for that.

00:28:07:19 - 00:28:14:08

Doug

So yeah, every year we're getting just a little bit better at it. And I agree with that approach. 100%.

00:28:14:11 - 00:28:26:24

Jason

Are using any particular type of, you know, app or SAS platform for crisis communication or you just storing these templates in, SharePoint, like what's your what's your tech stack for that?

00:28:26:26 - 00:28:51:10

Doug

Well, that's that may be where we can go 1% more. No, I don't have a whole lot of tips in that area. We're using, a platform that I think we can improve upon, but, it really is, mostly just the scenarios that we're working through and the messaging and, and developing different templates every year for, for responding to people.

00:28:51:10 - 00:29:26:09

Doug

For instance, I think we're doing more with helping people get to these catastrophe response centers, because that really is, an area of, of need. As I said, there are people that, you know, are able to quickly, you know, reach their insurance company. And, in addition to I don't know if people know this or not, but in addition to the check you receive for the damage done to your home, you also get, payments from your insurance company for, temporary living, you know, housing and, and food and, and that's what these centers for.

00:29:26:09 - 00:29:33:00

Doug

So anyway, I would say more work in, in that area to make improvements to getting people to these, centers.

00:29:33:02 - 00:29:53:21

Jason

Nice. What? I'm personally a big fan of templates. You know, if I have to send the same email twice, I'd sure like to have a template for it for the third time, you know? Yeah, yeah. And, and I always I'm encouraging my teammates to do the same thing. And, you know, we're working on a, kind of an internal project, right now of, you know, well, let's just come up with a library of templates for when this certain situation happens.

00:29:53:21 - 00:30:13:01

Jason

And, and to be specific for, you know, when we bring on a new client, let's make sure they're having the same consistent first class experience. We have a process for onboarding them. Let's make sure every step in our process has the one, 2 or 3 communication templates necessary to make it, you know, very successful. And my thing is let's not reinvent the wheel if we don't have to.

00:30:13:01 - 00:30:28:17

Jason

If you've if you've had to write something more than once, you should probably have a template for that. You can just go and pull any time or repurpose. And then in theory, Doug, if you're sitting on 1 or 2 versions you've already written once before, probably pretty easy to go back to it. And make it 1% better each time you use it.

00:30:28:22 - 00:30:48:22

Doug

Absolutely. So and the other thing that I would say that we're that may be in the way of, of tips is, for us, you know, a lot of this crisis communications, a lot of the work that's done out in the field, you know, some people at the company, you know, maybe aren't involved in that, but that really is our mission.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:12:17

Doug

You know, one of the important missions that we have as a company, as I said, that's one of the important reasons citizens exists is to, you know, provide this backstop, for people in Florida where we get a lot of hurricanes. And so there were certain people in our company that didn't feel as connected to that mission. So a lot of what we have been doing over the last couple of years is sharing that, that work with, our employees.

00:31:12:17 - 00:31:40:29

Doug

We've got, 1200 employees. And as I said, not all of them are out in the field or doing communications about, the hurricanes. So, yeah, we set up, catastrophe response page on our, intranet, on our internal website, and we're sharing stories about our response. We are sharing videos from the field, from people working up there and, and working with, with the customers.

00:31:40:29 - 00:31:52:29

Doug

And so we're doing a, I think a better job lately of, of sharing that, you know, the work that's going on in response to the, hurricane with other employees at the company. So everybody sort of feels connected to it.

00:31:52:29 - 00:32:10:14

Jason

So, Doug, I've got I have a question for you, and that is, are you actively, dispatching members of your communication team to these catastrophe response centers when you have, obviously a catastrophe? Or is that mostly just people who are there to get claims?

00:32:10:17 - 00:32:32:27

Doug

Yeah, yeah, we are. We realized, I think, you know, soon after I started there, I realized that, you know, these are, tell a lot of the story of what we do. So we do. We have, I'd say one, two, three people go, you know, to these catastrophe response centers. And obviously, as I said, they're near the side of the hurricane.

00:32:32:27 - 00:32:59:28

Doug

So we'll we'll get, you know, damage, imagery and, you know, we'll gather a lot of things out at these scenes. I personally went to 2 or 3 of them. I went to Irma, which struck the keys. I remember going down to the keys and seeing the damage and talking to the people at our crosses, and, yeah, we, from those will get, as I said, a lot of imagery.

00:33:00:05 - 00:33:27:09

Doug

We've gotten video of our workers, there, you know, we try to respect, privacy of our customers. So we do get them in the imagery, too, but we usually shoot them from the from the back. And we don't often speak, with them. Not not probably the situation to be speaking with the customers, but, so, yeah, we see that as sort of being rich for, as I said, for getting a lot of content about what we do.

00:33:27:12 - 00:33:44:28

Jason

A lot of the comments you're making speaks to, I think, the culture of your organization and that you obviously care and you're there to serve as opposed to just being, you know, the, you know, the solution that's the, least desirable, if you will, for your customers. And I, I think that really matters and goes, goes a long way.

00:33:45:01 - 00:33:57:28

Jason

When these people are in the, in the field, if you will, or on site at a, CRC, are they also doing are these also authorized, media and community spokespersons or is someone else taking on that role?

00:33:58:01 - 00:34:19:25

Doug

That's usually one of the people that we have at the CRC is, yeah, we have our, media relations, Manager Michael Peltier there. For that reason. Right. If there's media that, that, show up and want to know about, you know, how we're, helping the customers because we do tend to be of interest to the media.

00:34:19:25 - 00:34:36:07

Doug

As I said, we're we're taxpayer backed and, you know, we're we're we are responsible, you know, to the taxpayer. So they actually want to know how we're doing and how we're, processing the claims or whatnot. So yeah, it's usually that usually includes one of our, our media relations guy.

00:34:36:09 - 00:35:01:21

Jason

Gotcha, gotcha. And for our audience who doesn't know, you know, the media is almost always more interested in speaking to a nonprofit or an association or a government agency than they are a for profit organization. And so, you know, that that also gives you, you know, a unique opportunity and a unique responsibility. To be that voice, you know, for the industry, for the profession, for your customers, for the marketplace and other residents in general.

00:35:01:21 - 00:35:20:12

Jason

But, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of our clients don't really realize that. But, you know, we've been preempted. You know, I've arranged a, like, a national news interview with, like, you know, in or something like that with one of our clients who is an insurance and just, you know, CEO of an insurance company.

00:35:20:15 - 00:35:39:08

Jason

And, somebody somewhere is like, let's add a, you know, let's add the head of, you know, the spokesperson from, you know, a nonprofit association of insurance, companies or something like that to be part of the interview. And, you know, for me, I'm like, oh, you know, like I, you know, we pitched this, we arranged this whole thing.

00:35:39:08 - 00:35:55:23

Jason

And then the last minute they throw in another expert, to fill out the conversations. So it doesn't seem to be, you know, as commercial, if you will. Yeah. Which which just eludes the expertise and the content and timing of my client to be able to share their story. But, you know, I get it. That's good journalism.

00:35:55:23 - 00:36:00:20

Jason

And good journalism is more important oftentimes than getting what your client wants, even though that's hard to say.

00:36:00:24 - 00:36:18:16

Doug

You know, maybe they view it as being broad or more than one company. But I will agree with you that people in private industry are more have more expertise on their on their topic, than, than somebody at an association. So yeah, I can see your frustration there.

00:36:18:19 - 00:36:39:01

Jason

Let's talk quickly as we're wrapping up, about, professional development. What kind of things are you and your organization, you and your team? Where are you investing and professional development? What kind of programing or what's the expectation? Is there a criteria, you know, that you guys have that everybody must get, you know, certain hours of that or is it completely optional and what kind of tell me what that looks like?

00:36:39:06 - 00:37:04:27

Doug

Well, for us it's not required, but it is highly encouraged to get professional development. I, you know, I feel like that's the case across the division, our communications division, we have 35 people and I. And I feel like, I hear from most of them that they're encouraged to train, for me. I can speak for myself.

00:37:04:29 - 00:37:32:15

Doug

It's I I've been delighted, you know, by how much, support I've got, I, I belong I think you mentioned earlier, I belong to the International Association of Business Communicators, which I really like. I feel like they focus a lot on corporate communications, which is what we're talking about here today. I don't know if you like to mention, you know, certain companies or not, but I do like Reagan, communications.

00:37:32:15 - 00:37:53:23

Doug

I like their training. I like them all. And a lot of what I'm learning about is probably, become familiar to your audience now, and you're you're very good on this topic, too. I've seen a presentation by you, but a lot of what I've been learning about lately is I. I really feel like that's the big thing in our industry now, and it's really going to change the way we do our job.

00:37:53:23 - 00:37:57:06

Doug

So I've been investing a lot of time, and I.

00:37:57:08 - 00:38:15:12

Jason

Yeah. And a tip I'll just give our audience right now is we were talking earlier about templates. Right. And so you could go into AI and just say, hey, I send it. I tend to send this email often. Could you come up with a template for it or you know what, what am I missing from it? Or how could I make this template, you know, a little bit better, kind of thing.

00:38:15:14 - 00:38:35:14

Jason

And one thing that I've been we've been doing a lot of here recently is taking recorded interviews just like this, taking the transcripts, uploading it into AI and say, you know, hey, summarize this for us. You know, or, one of the things we're doing right now is we're saying, hey, Summer, you know, take this audio recording and summarize it into a, client conference report.

00:38:35:14 - 00:38:51:17

Jason

You know, including what was discussed, what were the deadlines, what are the action items and who's responsible for them. And it's far from perfect, but it's way better than staring at a blank screen and saying, okay, how do I summarize this meeting? Right. So if you've got somewhere that you can get a head start with, I think that's very valuable.

00:38:51:17 - 00:39:09:24

Doug

So I agree with your whole heart. I mean wholeheartedly and that I'm kind of just getting into it, now. But one of the things, right, that I've identified as being really valuable is, yeah, somebody gives you a lot. I mean, they give you meeting notes, they give you, you know, maybe some articles have been written on certain topics.

00:39:09:24 - 00:39:26:08

Doug

So you've got a lot of text and a lot of stuff to go through. I like starting with, given that to AI and asking them to summarize it, at least it gets you started. You know, you've got a sort of an outline. I mean, you may be able to write it and usually you can write it a lot better.

00:39:26:08 - 00:39:32:01

Doug

But yeah, it it's good for taking a lot of data and, and streamlining it for you.

00:39:32:04 - 00:39:47:04

Jason

Yeah. My only concern there is the accuracy. And so I just personally I got a, a recent health report and I put it in the system and said, you know, hey, summarize this for me. What are the top concerns and what, you know, and that kind of thing? And what do I need to do next based on what it said?

00:39:47:04 - 00:40:03:06

Jason

Because this is like a 80 page blood work kind of thing. And I just want that high level review. And, you know, one of the first things it listed, you know, I don't mind sharing this because it wasn't accurate was, you know, liver concerns. And I was like, oh, no, like my liver. You know, numbers are wrong.

00:40:03:06 - 00:40:19:11

Jason

And, you know, next thing you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm worried about these problems that I don't even have. And so when I, you know, when I dove into the report a little deeper, when I was able to meet with my doctor, he's like, I don't see anything about liver. Where did you get that from? And I want to be like, well, I put it in I and it came back.

00:40:19:11 - 00:40:23:26

Jason

And so you just have to be careful, with the accuracy of the information. So.

00:40:23:26 - 00:40:28:01

Doug

Wow. Wow. That's really so we just made it and made an error.

00:40:28:03 - 00:40:45:04

Jason

Yeah. I mean, and that's been an ongoing challenge, if you will. And you think, you hope it gets better? But, yeah. And what's funny, again, is I talked about in my presentation that we did with your organization, if you push back and say, well, you know, I don't think this is true, would you please verify?

00:40:45:04 - 00:40:59:27

Jason

Oh. Come back. Oh, yeah. I made a mistake. Sorry about that. Like, you know. Yeah, I, I don't know how, you know, in theory. You know, we used to always say computers don't make mistakes, right? The humans make mistakes. And so, I guess somewhere there's a gap in the program. But I would just forewarn you, because, you know, I had.

00:40:59:27 - 00:41:06:29

Jason

Well, I wouldn't say a panic attack, but I was certainly nervous. You know what's going on? My liver. Why am I suddenly having liver problems? And so I.

00:41:06:29 - 00:41:19:18

Doug

Would agree with you, no matter what it says, you need to, like, sort of double check. I mean, at least it streamlined it for you. Just go in and make sure that you agree with maybe the hierarchy of what it's given back to you and the accuracy. I agree.

00:41:19:20 - 00:41:40:14

Jason

Perfect. All right, Doug, if if someone in your industry, or in your industry, fellow professional who wants to, you know, pick your brain or talk more about this, or maybe they're interested in learning more. How do they best get Ahold of you? Would that be connecting with you on LinkedIn through a custom invitation, or do you have another preferred way for people to reach you?

00:41:40:17 - 00:41:58:15

Doug

Yeah, I really like LinkedIn. I'm probably not on there as much as you are. You're very good at LinkedIn, but, I do like it. And yeah, I, you know, I check it most days and, I think that's a great way to, to reach out to people on professional topics. So that's, that's, that's a great way to reach me.

00:41:58:15 - 00:42:12:21

Doug

And of course, you know, you can always reach me at, citizens. It's Douglas dot below Ross at citizens Florida, citizens Philly.com. And so, yeah, if it's a professional inquiry can always reach me there as well.

00:42:12:23 - 00:42:20:17

Jason

Perfect. Excellent. Yeah. Only professional inquiries. No, you know, no inappropriate inquiry. Talking.

00:42:20:19 - 00:42:25:22

Doug

Yeah. No. No requests for for dates or anything like that. So. Yeah.

00:42:25:24 - 00:42:48:21

Jason

Yeah. All right. Well, good. Doug, thank you for joining us for this episode. I really appreciate you being here. And, with that, I'm going to wish our audience, that they have much success in whatever endeavors that they are pursuing in this moment. And I hope this episode was helpful to them. And learning more about crisis communication, the insurance industry, whatever it is that caused them to tune in today.

00:42:48:23 - 00:43:03:25

Jason

You know, I hope we met and exceeded their expectations. If you have a friend or colleague that would benefit from this episode, please share it with them. And please feel free to leave us a review. If you found this episode helpful, we would really appreciate it. It'll help us reach even more, individuals who are interested in staying on top of PR with that is Jason Mudd from Axia Public Relations.

00:43:03:25 - 00:43:59:16

Announcer

This has been On Top of PR with Jason Mudd presented by ReviewMaxer. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and check out our past episodes at ontopofpr.com.

About your host Jason Mudd

On Top of PR host, Jason Mudd, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

Find more On Top of PR episodes on: