This story was related to me by as follows...
I recently received an urgent telephone call from my brother to go to his house immediately. When I arrived I was shocked to find that the fire brigade were just finishing putting out a fire in his kitchen. Fortunately no-one was hurt. As soon as the fire was out, we were allowed into the house to view the damage. Even though this was a relatively small fire the house was a complete mess. There were burnt out windows, soot blackened walls and there was a terrible smell throughout the house.
As the fire brigade said goodbye, my brother's wife asked the Chief Officer, "What Happens Now?". "Nothing" came the reply. The fire was out, their job was over. Clearing up the mess was our problem! The entire house was ruined. The electricity was cut off, there was nowhere to sleep, and there was a massive cleaning up job to do.
As you can imagine, when you are in this situation and it is 11 o'clock at night and your phone doesn't work, you are not in the best situation to deal with a crisis. There are 24 hour joiners to be contacted to make the premises secure, insurance companies to be called and hotels to contact to guarantee accommodation for the night - perhaps longer.
It occurred to me what a good idea it would be to set up in business as a Crisis Manager. Someone you can contact who can not only deal with the immediate problems, but help with the insurance claims and recommend suitable tradesmen to put matters right in the shortest possible time. The insurance companies and the people concerned would find such a service very useful.
This crisis management service would be offering a unique package that at the time of writing, does not exist in this accessible form in the UK.
Not only useful and unique, this service would provide peace of mind to anyone afraid of the consequences of an accident or crisis. Certain people would be particularly vulnerable in such a crisis and may have an even greater need of such a service. Included in this category would be single mothers, those with large families, people in isolated and out of the way areas, and those who may be new to an area and do not have friends and relatives nearby.
One possibility for any person undertaking this service is to secure a deal through an insurance company whereby the crisis management service is included under the insurance policy, thus charging the insurers for providing the service. Alternatively, it would be possible to take a percentage of tradesmen's fees each time you are called out.
Whichever way the scheme is marketed and charged for, it is certain that since it offers an invaluable service to people in distress, it represents a golden business opportunity.