Who to Trust

An interview excerpt with Jeff Chester, Vice President

Interviewer: Who do you trust when a disaster happens?

Jeff Chester: Well I always say that the worst time to exchange business cards is in the middle of a disaster. You have a lot of predatory contractors that come through an area that’s been hit by a catastrophe. So, you really don’t know what their background is, whether they’re insured, whether they are capable of doing the job and whether they’re going to be there for you throughout the completion of the job. When we have a relationship in advance with our clients, they know who we are, but more importantly, we know who they are. We know what their specific needs are and we put together a list of what we call, service standards, unique to each company that tells us who needs to be in the communication loop and who has the authority to make decisions within that company. We try to take the catastrophe out of the catastrophe.