Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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ISS Restoration unveils enormous, purpose-built flood and fire training house
A major investment in training and customer service has been launched by ISS Restoration with the unveiling of what the company believes is Europe's biggest purpose-built flood and fire training house.
The three room bungalow, which has been constructed inside ISS Restoration's national training centre in Mansfield and is part of a £250,000 programme of investment to enhance customer service, will be used to provide training on flood and fire restoration techniques for ISS Restoration personnel and for customers' employees.
ISS Restoration Managing Director, Phil Else, told more than 50 insurance industry guests at the October 1st launch: "We believe this is the most sophisticated building restoration training facility in Europe and we are sure that it will bring major benefits to our customers and to ISS Restoration alike.
"It will deliver practical hands-on training and provide an invaluable resource in developing skills and knowledge for our 500 technicians across our UK network. It will also enhance the knowledge of our customers' personnel. In fact, we have already carried out 1000 hours of customer training sessions in the run up to the official launch.
"As a result of this facility our teams will be able to quickly assess the most effective restoration methods which will help us to pass on efficiencies to our customers and their policyholders."
Each of the bungalow's three rooms has been designed for a set purpose. One is for flooding floors, walls and cavities. Another has been designed for dealing with odours and the third has been constructed to show smoke damage across contents and buildings.
ISS Restoration Training Manager Nick Jeffrey said: "There is no better way to gain both relevant and realistic training. The training in the house helps to develop skills by practicing in a real time environment.
"We are able to select each area for wetting, including the demonstration of hot water in under floor pipes for leak detection examinations. We have also installed overhead systems for making sure we have water in the wall cavities especially behind the rendered walls.
"Additionally, we are able to demonstrate 'Pre Incident Condition' issues as well as looking at potential fraud in the flood house as we have purposefully built problems into the construction such as air bricks being covered and missing roof tiles.
"We took soundings from major clients and our own network and other industry specialists to look at what materials we should have in the building for the purpose of training the appropriate skills.
"We have designed the property with different wall and floor construction types including concrete, brick, bison beams, timber, conventional cavities and floating floors.
"It is vitally important that our technicians fully understand building components when drying out a property. We need to meet our client's expectations in getting their customers back into properties quickly whilst reducing overall claim costs, and delivering excellent customer care."
ISS Restoration's training facilities and initiatives have been developed in collaboration with the standards set by both the BDMA's (British Damage Management Association) PAS 64:2013 code of practice and ISS' corporate programme. The launch of the training house is the latest in a series of major investments in customer service by ISS Restoration.
These include Spectrum on Site which uses iPad technology for fast and effective real time reporting on individual claims and RIVAS - a national flooring and furniture service designed to restore carpets and furniture and save insurers costs on unnecessary replacements. Where replacement is necessary these are provided at highly preferential rates by a network of retailers.
ISS Restoration is part of ISS Facility Services and includes domestic and commercial restoration specialist Rainbow International.
Image: Phil Else Managing Director, ISS Restoration & Rainbow International (right) with guest speakers Jonathan Davison, Strategic Development Director of the BDMA (centre) and Chris Netherton, Technical Author of PAS 64:2013
17th October 2013