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Onsite Insight Podcast by RV Housing Group
Welcome to Onsite Insight, the podcast where we explore the transformative power of onsite RV housing for displaced families. Hosted by RV Housing Group, we provide expert advice, inspiring stories, and practical solutions tailored for insurance reps and housing agencies. Whether you're navigating the challenges of temporary housing or looking to improve outcomes for your clients, Onsite Insight is your go-to resource for compassionate, innovative, and effective solutions.
Onsite Insight Podcast by RV Housing Group
Making Temporary Housing Simple: Quality, Reliability, and Customer Service
When disaster strikes, what separates exceptional temporary housing providers from average ones is their dedication to service, quality, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Not all temporary housing partners are created equal – the best ones act as an extension of their client's business
• Red flags to watch for include vendors who overpromise and underdeliver
• Quality providers maintain newer, well-maintained RV units that are regularly refreshed
• Exceptional customer service means having live technicians available to troubleshoot issues by phone
• Emergency placements can sometimes be accommodated same-day when families have nowhere else to go
• Communication excellence keeps insurance reps informed without burdening them with maintenance issues
• The best housing partners focus on continuous improvement rather than becoming complacent
If you're looking for a reliable temporary housing partner, visit rvtemphousing.com to request a quote or reach out to us directly. We'd love to demonstrate why insurance representatives across the country consider us their go-to provider.
When disaster strikes, families need more than just a place to stay. They need stability, comfort and a solution that works for them. Welcome to On-Site Insights, a podcast that gives insurance reps and housing agencies the tools, strategies and insights they need to make temporary housing simple, effective and stress-free. I'm your host, gene Powell, and each week you'll hear from Braddy Terriaga, ceo and founder of RV Housing Group, how we can streamline housing placements, serve families better and take the headache out of temporary housing, because when people need help, the right solutions make all the difference. Let's get started. What's up, brad? Hey, man, how are you Good?
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:All right, so I'll kick off today's podcast with a random question A little more of like a get to know Brad moment. So people may not know this about you, but you are a. You're a big traveler. You like to travel, you like to see new places, you like to experience new places, eat different foods. Yep, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to. In order, tell me your top three places you've ever visited and why, starting with the third, all the way to the top place okay, let's go.
Speaker 2:Uh. The third was or is, because I've been multiple times, I would probably say out west, in Montana and Wyoming, oh yeah, man, like Yellowstone, jackson Hole, bozeman, just man, the whole area, the Grand Tetons are unbelievable. So let's start there with third. Number two I would say is I would say Hawaii, probably Really. Yeah, hawaii was definitely nice man, yeah, definitely picturesque. And then number one, I think is hasn't, hasn't happened yet, that's a perfect answer.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, like you know, man, I haven't done too much traveling outside of the US. You know I have Roatan and Honduras is really nice, cuba is awesome, and you know, obviously that hits home for me.
Speaker 1:But I thought you were going to maybe say something up in them because you love the Northeast so much.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to maybe say something up in the, because you love the Northeast so much, man, bar Harbor, maine, you know all of that, that along the coast there is all beautiful, you know but and I have a great time up there, but it's, I think, the the first thing hasn't happened yet, like where I'm just like man. This is like, oh my gosh, that's the best ever. I'm also going to go to Europe this year, so you know that's probably going to rank up there you know, well, sounds like that's probably an RV housing team trip that we need to go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, we need to have our next meeting there, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk a little bit about what makes a great on-site housing partner, and we probably could do a whole episode that would be as helpful or more helpful on what doesn't make a great on-site housing partner. Sure, there's a lot of that out there, but we just want to talk about how to ensure quality, reliability. Yep, you know, and really it's unfortunate, but really not all and really no two temporary housing partners are the same. It doesn't mean they're all bad, they're just different qualities, different things. Partners are the same. It doesn't mean they're all bad, they're just there's different, different qualities, different things. Something that you're really passionate about is you. It's important to you to be the best, and you've been unapologetic about that. You want. You want people to be like hey, we only use RV housing group, and the reason why is because they offer the best service, best quality, all those different things. It's really important to you. Um, so let's just start more in generalities. What separates a great temporary housing provider from an average one? In your, in your mind, your experience?
Speaker 2:well, just based on experience, man it's, it's uh one second before you answer that.
Speaker 1:My dog's growling like crazy.
Speaker 2:I would beat her ass and put her up hold on yeah, uh, I think you know, first of all, it's it's just about being understanding how to be a good partner, right.
Speaker 2:It's understanding that we are a partner, right, and that we're not just, um, you know, we're not just a, uh, a company that's kind of doing our own thing, like we're very thoughtful about our clients, right, and and understanding how they do business and they're wise and you know, uh, just making sure that we are like a arm of their business, right. And I think from there it's just making sure that we do everything that we can on our end to pay attention to all of the details, right, there's so many things that can fall through the cracks in what we do, and I'm always thinking through little ways that we can do things a little bit better, right, and ultimately, in hopes that that will make what we do and our partnership better. And I think that as long as we continue to think along those lines how you know, rather than being complacent, how can we be better? Right, just because we're, you know, we're doing well today doesn't mean we'll do well tomorrow. So let's look at how we can continue to improve on the things that we do, and I think, as long as we have that mindset, you know. I think our clients and our partners right are noticing, they're taking notice of our willingness to make sure that we're trying to be as good as we can be at everything we do. That's great.
Speaker 2:What are? What are some?
Speaker 1:some red flags maybe that an insurance rep should look out for um when choosing a housing vendor. What are some of the things that they should pay attention to?
Speaker 2:Well, uh, first of all, hearing someone tell them that they can do just as good of a job as the of a running joke. Uh, for on-site providers, you know, is oh hey, we have the best service we have. You know, all of our units are new and all of this stuff, right, and it's just over promising and under delivering, right, I mean, at the end of the day, um and you know that's been one of my sticklers from the beginning is that we've got to do what we're telling people we can do, otherwise you'll never last in this business, right, I mean it's, it's pretty cutthroat, you know and too many situations are complicated.
Speaker 1:Right, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but like every case is different. So to to go in and just give a blanket, here's what we can do for you. It's, it's naive.
Speaker 2:100 yeah, every situation is different. Every placement we we do is unique. There's going to be different nuances to every single placement that we have and it takes time to learn those things. Man, this is not something that, and shoot, I always say I've learned so many things the hard way, unfortunately, dude. I always say I've learned so many things the hard way, unfortunately, right, but also fortunately, because that's, you know, that's helped me understand the industry better, right, and it's helped me learn valuable lessons and you know what mistakes not to make again and all of those things. And you know, I think I could be doing this for 40 more years and I'm still going to continue to run into issues you know that I've never seen before, right, that's just man. That's the nature of the beast in this business, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which, honestly, you love. I mean that's part of, that's part of what you and the team loves is we love to. I mean, listen, not that we want things to be difficult, but we love to try to figure out how to solve complex situations. You know our team kind of specializes in that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're good at it, right, it's like, do we love it? I don't know, we embrace it for sure, right, and we're good at it. You know we have, we have, um, kind of mastered the art of of problem solving and finding solutions to issues and situations that are not typical, right, um, and you know that that certainly is is great, because we'll have clients approach us with a very unique situation and they're like I don't think that we can, you know, think that you're going to be able to help us. But I'm just throwing it out there because, you know, you guys are usually really good at figuring excuse me, figuring something out, and then, boom, it's like, okay, all right, we figured it out. And they're like, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:That's why you know why I knew we can call you and if anyone could do it, you guys could do it, right, right, and so, yeah, that's a great feeling and it's great to get those calls, because that means, too, that they trust us, right, mm-hmm. And so, yeah, we'll keep doing it. I don't see that ever stopping, because there's so many unique situations and and you know, almost like barriers that people are up against, um, that, uh, that they reach out to us about hoping that we can kind of find a solution for them yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this question how does the rv housing? How, how do we vet our fleet of rvs when it comes to making sure there's consistency and comfort and, when someone's going to get an rv from us, that it's up to our standards?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, we want to use, only provide newer units, right, we want to make sure that everything that we do, as we're getting these units prepped to go out, they're extremely clean, you know that everything is in working order, that they you know that they haven't been used and abused for years. I mean that's the other thing is is that we're constantly turning over our fleet, you know. So we're not going to continue to place place rvs on long-term placements, because you get a lot of wear and tear right without, uh, you know, without either up, you know, completely remodeling them, or we sell it off, you know to to purchase something new. Um, you know that that way, the uh, the insured or you know, or the policyholder can can have something that's in really good condition, right, because we don't want them to be getting second best, we want them to have really nice units.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. What are some other common complaints that insurance reps hear from, uh, from policyholders about temporary housing? I'm just curious what are some common things that come up and then how? The follow-up question that?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, you know, I think I think that, especially in on-site housing right, and what we do um a lot of it is can, can we live in an rv, right, when we're we've been living in our home, um, because there's no home that's not going to be larger than an rv.
Speaker 2:We're going to provide pretty much, you know right right so it's like can we, can we do this for three months or six months or eight months, right? And I think that in order to answer that, you also have to really weigh out. You know the benefits as well, right. So that's certainly one of the cons, if you will, but the pros, when you lay everything out, may really outweigh that. And so, whether it has to do with your kids or your job or being on your property for whatever reason, right. And I think that as long as you can look at this being a temporary solution rather than your long-term living, then you can get by and get past some of those things that you may not typically deal with when you're living in a house.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure when it comes to pain points that you've invested a lot in, both personally, from a leadership standpoint, and also from a team standpoint, which is customer service, and we talk about this almost every episode because it's so important to the culture that you're creating um, but a lot of companies don't have a team of people that can answer if they come up with an issue in their RV.
Speaker 1:Right, a lot of it it's like hey, we're just going to deliver this RV and you're on your own and hopefully you don't have any issues with it, and if you do, you know they're blowing up the insurance rep with all these issues. Yep, talk about that a little bit, because it's really important for you that once we deliver the unit, we want to be the point of contact for any issues so that there's no headaches for the insurance rep and we have a team that is able to either solve the problem over the phone or quickly get a tech out on site to fix the issue, which I think is a differentiator for our company. Talk a little bit about the importance of that and kind of how that process works for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this kind of goes back to the other question you asked me about. You know some of the red flags with other companies and you know one of those would be for sure that I didn't mention and then I'll expound on it but is so many companies don't have a level of service at all after they drop the unit off, right, so things can go immaculately up until drop off, right Even the trailer. The trailer is nice, right. But what happens when those people have an issue, right? How well are they being taken care of when issues arise?
Speaker 2:And that's what you're referring to with us, for sure, you know we have a number that has a live person that they're going to talk to when they have an issue, and these rv techs will troubleshoot them over the phone, right, because a lot of the stuff we deal with is is user error. You know what I mean. They just don't, right. They're in such an emotional headspace they don't remember all the things that we tell them you know whatever you know, and it's and it's minor things. They just they just don't remember. And the things that we tell them you know whatever you know, and it's minor things, they just don't remember. And so we, you know we put that into the user error category. Well, we need to have somebody that actually knows about these units and that can help actually diagnose the issue with them over the phone.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, you know, it's just wasting everybody's time, and so what they're going to do is they're going to talk to one of our techs and the tech is going to walk them through how to troubleshoot these issues, and then, in the case where we cannot figure that out, then we're going to get a local tech to come out and fix the problem Right. And this is something that, as you know, is really our whole team. We want to make sure that the issues that they're experiencing are taken care of quickly, because we all know that they've already dealt with enough, so we want to make sure that they're taken care of as issues arise, and that's not something we take lightly at all.
Speaker 1:Right and let's be honest, I mean a lot of the reasons why insurance reps sometimes won't actually offer up RVs as an onsite solution is because of the headache they might get from the policyholders right, like we can just call that for what it is. And so a lot of times it will take a policyholder actually asking specifically for an insurance rep that they want an RV. We're trying to change that narrative a little bit, and how we're changing it is through offering this kind of customer service. And how we're changing it is through offering this kind of customer service. And one of the reasons why they don't sometimes pitch an RV as a solution is because all they can think of is man, this is just going to be a lot of headache or this is going to be less profitable for me, or whatever it might be. For sure you care deeply about that. You want to partner with people on those two things specifically. You speak a little bit to those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%, man. Look, best case scenario is they don't hear from the policyholder through the duration of their stay, unless they're calling to check in on them, right, and then they can hear yeah, hey, everything is going well. When issues arise, we are their point of contact. They're going to reach out to RV Housing Group. Hey, the heat's not working right. Okay, the reps do not want to hear about that stuff, I can promise you.
Speaker 2:And that's why I've built the business the way that I have, and that's why we staff so many people, right, I mean, so many of my competitors do not have the staff that I have. Because and it's important to me I'm just like, every time I find a hole, I'm like, hey, everybody's already working as hard as they possibly can. We can't add that to somebody else's plate. We have to hire somebody right, right, this is all because I want to be the absolute best. You said it earlier. That is exactly true. You know me very well. I make no bones about it. So in this instance, when it comes to service, it's no different man. We want to make sure that these people are taken care of, just like we would take care of our family if they were in the same situation.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and, on that same note, you've already talked about a little bit, but what are some of the things that housing reps should ask kind of when evaluating even us or a provider I mean? So we've talked a little bit about that. We've talked about what does your service department look like? How are you going to handle that? You know units like what does your fleet look like? What is you know of rvd? Is there anything else that insurance reps should kind of check those boxes? You know communication, maybe, like maybe that's another one where you know what does that look like? I know one of our vps, chris, just to give a shout out, that is the most like he is on top of it with communication and a lot of the reps deal with him and he he comes from that world, so he knows what it's like to be on the other side.
Speaker 1:So, man, you talk about a guy that's glued to his email and responding all day long, because we know that's a big part of of being a great partner absolutely well.
Speaker 2:Chris has a lot, has brought us a lot of value right and a lot of a lot of clout in this space, because he did it for 20 years. So he sat on that side for 20 years, right. So he knows exactly what they're looking for, um, and and I think that that's really important because we're always, you know, whether it comes to a quote that they're requesting, they're getting it like that. You know we're responding very quickly to get them the quote they need. Whether it's a service issue, you know. If it happens to get on their desk, you know, or they get a phone call about it, we're taking care of that quickly. It doesn't really matter what it is.
Speaker 2:Man, our communication is unbelievably good and quick, and I think that's what it has to be, and I think that's why we've grown so much, man. I think that's why we continue to see growth every year is because these little things that some people don't do a great job at really really matter to us that we do a phenomenal job at it Right, right, real quick.
Speaker 1:Before I let you go, I want to talk a little bit about like emergency placement. So I know a lot of times, like almost all of our clients, especially when we're working in the insurance space, it's speed is the name of the game. We're trying to get things to them quick. But how do we handle these, the real last minute emergency placements? What's your thought process around that? Can we, are we equipped to handle that, and what does that look like from our side of things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are, we're equipped to handle that. I mean, we've done same-day deliveries before. It's more the exception than the rule, but we have definitely. You know, if we hear from a rep and they're like, hey, this is a dire situation, this family has no way, you know, there's no hotels around, there's no housing around, they literally are going to sleep in their car tonight. If we can't get a unit out to them, then that's. You know, all hands are on deck and we usually will figure that out. So we have the capability to do it.
Speaker 2:There's just, you know, with what we do, there's things that have to. You know, we've got to think of utilities, right, so power, water and sewage, um, now, sometimes, that's, we've had situations where we drop the trailer off and that's kind of an afterthought, because they just need a safe place to stay sure, sure, but, but yeah, I mean, we certainly have the ability to do that, um, it's, it's something that, um, that we can do. We've done in, done in different cat situations, but most of the time we want to make sure the property is prepared to receive the RV and that way it's a win for everybody. There's no kind of oh man, we forgot to do this. We forgot to do that. However, it's certainly possible.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure. Well, what I'm hearing you say is it's about quality, it's about service reliability, like consistency. You know what you're going to get. Every time If a problem comes up emergency, whatever we're going to work it out. We're going to jump in, we're going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to be a partner for you and work that out.
Speaker 2:Any any final words about you know being a great a great provider, a great housing partner for our insurance reps. I think it would just be um number one. We're super thankful. You know, we're really thankful, uh, for the business that that we've received uh to date. Um, but we hope to continue to grow. You know, um, you know, if you, if you have not done business with us, uh, I would encourage you to give us a try. You know, um, we are so many of the reps we deal with uh, throughout, you know, throughout the insurance industry Um, like they absolutely uh are. You know they pack no punches when it comes to letting us know that we're the best, we're the best they've ever dealt with. And so, you know, if you haven't given us a try, man, I'd love to, I'd love to uh love to get, give a, give us a shot Right, and and let us prove to you, uh, you know how, how thorough we are and and why we do what we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good stuff, but you reach us through our website, rvtimphousingcom. You can request a quote on there or you can just reach out and contact us directly, or you know even our, our leadership team, you and Kristen and Chris and whatever if we need to jump on a call and just have a conversation, whatever, whatever it takes you know again, just to re-emphasize like we.
Speaker 1:We're a relational team and we want people to feel like they. You know it's. It's not uncommon for us to go to a city and take our partners out to dinner just to say thanks and to get to know them, we want them we want them to know who's who's working with them, and so um for sure I appreciate what you said, because we do have a great deal of gratitude for our great partners all over the country. Yep, all right, brad, thanks, man, great Another great episode and we'll be back at it next time.
Speaker 2:All right, sounds good.
Speaker 1:Take care, man See you, bud Well, thanks for joining us on Onsite Insight, where we break down the future of temporary housing and how you, insurance reps and housing professionals can make the process easier for your clients and your team. If today's episode gave you new ideas or insights, we'd love to hear from you. You can connect with us online at rvtemphousingcom or reach out to us directly on LinkedIn, and if you found this valuable, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with someone who needs it. Until next time, I'm Drew Powell and this is Onsite Insight, where housing meets solutions.