Updated on June 25, 2020
We wanted to let everyone know how Elliott Insurance Services is handling the global pandemic for our offices, employees, and loyal clients.
We have contingency plans in place for how we will respond to the outbreak if it progresses further. We are asking that clients limit their visits to our offices if there are other ways to communicate (email, phone, etc.) until the end of the outbreak.
While the risk to Canadians is still low, we are taking steps now to ensure our make sure our clients and employees remain safe during this trying time.
For more up to date information, please visit our website: https://elliottinsuranceservices.com/covid-19
Table of Contents
Office Visits
Elliott Insurance is setup so that we can do almost everything we need to remotely or communicate entirely through online communications with our clients. For this reason, until the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been contained, we are closing our offices for public access.
We are still 100% operational and capable to ensure that your insurance needs are taken care of.
We can accomplish almost everything we can do in our offices over the internet or phone. For example, we can:
- Accept payments online or over the phone
- Communicate through email or over the phone
- Obtain signatures electronically
- Bind new insurance policies through e-signatures
- Make changes to your policy over the phone or email (without broker confirmation of completion, consider the policy change not completed)
Requesting Changes to Your Policy
As mentioned above, we are still 100% operational. If you need changes to your policy or even a new policy, we can get this done for you. You have a few options to contact us.
- Phone
- Our Client Self Service Insurance Portal
What if Things get Worse?
If the outbreak gets more severe, we will have our employees work from their homes to ensure their safety.
How We Are Protecting Our Staff
We have been monitoring the outbreak for some time now. We started off asking the public to limit their access to our offices for the safety of everyone. We are cleaning and disinfecting every morning and we are all practising the hand washing, social distancing, and avoidance of touching our faces.
We have now closed our office doors to the outside public to ensure that our staff does not come into contact with someone who is carrying the virus. Not everyone shows symptoms, so it is crucial that we avoid contact with others.
We also have some of our staff already working from home to allow us the proper social distancing in our office setups and to ensure any higher risk individuals stay safe during this time. If the outbreak continues to get worse, we will move towards the majority or possibly all of our staff working from home.
We are a technology savvy insurance brokerage so we do already have the capability for all of our employees to work from home if need be. We are currently balancing the safest most effective ways of protecting our employees and our clients while still delivering the service levels that our clients have become accustomed to.
Tips to Stay Safe
First and foremost, stay home. If you are able to stay home, please stay home. You can still go for walks or get fresh air, but if we all stay home, there will be less sick people at the hospital and we will not overload our healthcare system all at once.
Social Distancing
If you have to be around other people, you should maintain distance from other people. Keep at least 1 metre of distance between yourself and other people. If this is a workplace, you should ideally have 2 metres between yourself and other peoples work areas. That might seem a bit far, but that is directly from the Government of Canada (Being Prepared).
Avoid Touch your Face
You should be avoiding touching your face with unwashed hands or other parts of your body or clothing. Especially avoid your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. You do not want to put this virus in your body.
Hand Washing Procedures
Proper hand washing procedures are very important. You should be rubbing the soap on your hands for at least 20 seconds before you rinse your hands. Read more here: Hand Washing Infographic
Resources
The Canadian government has created a dedicated page to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This will be your best resource for news, tips, and general information about the virus outbreak. Here are some good resources to get you started on your information gathering: