Two blizzards, one week. And PHH service delivery never missed a step.

February 16, 2010

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As you may have heard…we got a little snow last week. Here in Baltimore we were treated to a  combined 50 inches of snow from a blizzard on February 6 and another blizzard on February 10. Baltimore had the dubious, but brief honor of being the “Snowiest City in the US.” Take that, Syracuse.

It’s times like these that a company’s Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is put through the paces. Last week, we had a chance to demonstrate its effectiveness.

Here are some of the highlights of PHH’s response to the blizzards:

• Before the first flakes starting falling, business continuity planning was well underway. The BCP team met regularly by teleconference to discuss updates from each business unit focused on work volumes, connectivity capabilities, key events and challenges.
• We recognized even before the snow hit that we needed to dramatically increase our virtual private network (VPN) capabilities to allow personnel to work remotely. PHH’s Desktop Services created significant bandwidth, configuring 35% more remote connections three days before the first blizzard hit. This ability for our critical employees to work from the safety of their homes was the key to maintaining all our service levels. Despite the challenges, we maintained our statistics for time to answer across all the call centers.
• We overcame intermittent and localized power outages through work sharing and having folks volunteer to pick up the slack.
• All of our call centers worked together to maintain coverage during the snow emergency. Even PHH employees in sunny, snow-free Canada and Ft. Lauderdale jumped in to help – a unified effort that resulted in minimal impact to our clients.
• Other key areas of the business – from Account Consultants, IT and Client Technology Services to Tax, Title and Ordering – did an outstanding job of communicating, working together, resolving unforeseen challenges, and delivering the consistent, quality customer service our clients expect.

 A number of clients have told their account teams how impressed they were that we remained open and operational – “business as usual” – during this historical snowstorm. As Tom Keilty, our Chief Operating Officer said in an email to all employees last Friday, “Your dedication and commitment to client service is truly what makes PHH a world class service company.”

So, hopefully we’re finished with the snow this season. We will gladly resign our title as the Snowiest City in the US for the hope of an early spring!

Let us know how your company weathered the storm – all “Snowmageddon” stories are welcome!

Tags:  Customer Service

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