The Pre-Storm Customer Outreach SOP

Purpose

When a forecast event is two or three days out, a short list of customers is far more likely than the rest to be hurt, flooded or frozen by it: people who told you they rely on powered medical equipment, owners of houses nobody is living in, and customers whose new generator, sump pump or heat cable has never been through a real event. This procedure makes sure each of them hears from the shop before the event, with the same safe message, and that the shop can show afterward who was reached and what they were told. Without it, the calls depend on whoever remembers, the vacant house with the sump pump on an unplugged cord floods, and the post-storm list starts with no idea who was ready.

Scope

Covers: outreach by phone and text to existing customers between the declaration of a forecast event and the event's arrival, for three tiers of customer, ending with the handoff of the list to post-event work.

Does not cover: securing the shop's own job sites and fleet (see related: How to Secure a Job Site Days Before a Forecast Storm), scheduling and dispatch limits during the event (owned by Operations), the first call after the event (How to Advise a Customer After a Hazard Event), or inspections after it (The Post-Event Equipment Inspection SOP). It is not marketing, and nothing in it sells.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Declare the event from a forecast product, not a feeling. The owner or operations lead declares outreach when the National Weather Service issues a watch or warning for the shop's service area (hurricane or tropical storm, winter storm, high wind, flood, or a red flag warning in fire country), or when the electric utility announces a planned public-safety power shutoff. The declaration names the event, the forecast arrival time, the affected ZIP codes or routes, and the dispatch cutoff, which a common starting point sets at 24 hours before forecast arrival for any pre-event service visit. Acceptance: the declaration is written in the log with a time stamp and all four fields filled. What wrong looks like: "a big storm next week" from a news app with no watch issued; stop and wait for a forecast product, because outreach on rumor teaches customers to ignore the next one. Hazard: the cutoff exists so no one is sent onto roads or roofs as conditions arrive; a booking after the cutoff needs the owner's explicit approval.

2. Build the list in three tiers from fields, not memory. Tier 1 is customers flagged in the customer record as relying on powered medical equipment or having limited mobility, a flag set only when the customer told the shop and agreed to be contacted for it. Tier 2 is homes flagged vacant or seasonal, with the owner's or property manager's contact. Tier 3 is installs in the last 90 days of generators, sump pumps, heat cable, outdoor units on new pads and backwater valves, plus open jobs with exposed work (roof tarps, open walls, trenches). Acceptance: each tier has a count, every entry has a phone number, and the list is complete within 2 hours of the declaration. What wrong looks like: an entry with no working number, or a tier over what the office can call before the next sweep (a common starting point is 40 calls per person per half day); the overflow in Tiers 2 and 3 goes to text, Tier 1 is never moved to text only. Hazard: medical information is private; it stays in the restricted field and never appears in a text, a group message or the shared log, which records only the tier.

3. Approve one message with no offer in it. The owner approves a short script for calls and a text version for Tiers 2 and 3. Every version carries the same three reminders: run a generator only outdoors, more than 20 feet from the house with exhaust pointed away from doors and windows, per CDC guidance, and never plugged into a household outlet; know where the main water shutoff and main breaker are; shut the gas off only if you smell gas, and let the gas utility restore it. Acceptance: the approved text is pasted into the log, contains no price, discount or sales offer, and has a reply-STOP line on text. What wrong looks like: a promotion added "while we have them on the line"; remove it, because it turns an informational message into a marketing message, which federal TCPA rules (an FCC instrument) and state laws such as Florida's and Oklahoma's treat differently, and the shop's counsel should approve any marketing text. Hazard: the message must not tell anyone to climb, cut power to a flooded room or move a generator inside to keep it dry.

4. Call Tier 1 personally, first. The office lead calls each Tier 1 customer, gives the message, asks whether they are registered with their utility's medical or priority program and whether their medical provider or equipment supplier knows about the forecast, and says plainly that the shop cannot get their power restored and cannot provide medical help. Acceptance: each call is logged as reached, voicemail or no answer, with the time; a reached customer gets the three reminders read back as given. What wrong looks like: a customer who describes a current problem (equipment failing now, trouble breathing, no backup supply); stop the script, tell them to hang up and call 911, or call 911 for them with their address if they cannot. Hazard: the caller gives no medical advice and makes no judgment about how sick someone is; their medical provider and emergency services own that.

5. Reach a named local contact for every Tier 2 house. The CSR calls the owner or manager of each vacant or seasonal home and confirms who will check the house before and after the event, that the thermostat is held at a freeze-safe setting for a winter event (a common recommendation is no lower than 55 F), that the sump pump is plugged in with its backup working, and, for a freeze event in a house with no heat source, whether the water is shut off and lines drained. Acceptance: a named person with a phone number is logged for each house. What wrong looks like: no answer after two attempts at least 4 hours apart; stop and hand the house to the owner, who decides under the customer's service agreement whether to send someone before the cutoff. See related: How to Protect a Vacant House Through a Hazard Season. Hazard: any visit to a vacant house is inside the cutoff and by two people, never alone into a house nobody has checked.

6. Confirm each Tier 3 install will do its job. Generator customers are asked to run the generator's test or exercise cycle outdoors per its manual, confirm fuel is stored outside the house, and confirm the transfer switch or interlock is in its normal position; sump customers are asked to pour water into the pit and watch the pump start and stop; open-job customers hear what the crew secured and when. Acceptance: each item is logged confirmed, not reachable, or failed. What wrong looks like: a generator that will not start, a transfer switch showing a fault, or a pump that does not run; the CSR passes it to the service manager, who books it only if it fits inside the cutoff, and otherwise the customer is told not to improvise a connection (no cords into outlets) and the job is queued for after the event. Hazard: the test runs outdoors only, with the generator in its operating position, never in a garage.

7. Sweep the unreached at 24 hours before arrival. The office lead pulls every Tier 1 and Tier 2 entry not yet reached and makes a second attempt. Acceptance: every Tier 1 entry is reached, or has two logged attempts and a final disposition; every Tier 2 entry has a named contact or an owner decision. What wrong looks like: a Tier 1 customer still unreached; call the emergency contact in their record if they gave one, and if the owner judges the situation urgent, request a welfare check through the local police non-emergency line, never 911 unless there is a known emergency. Hazard: the office does not send a staff member to an unreached house as the event arrives.

8. Close the log and hand it forward. At the cutoff, or when the event arrives, the office lead closes outreach, writes the counts per tier and disposition, and hands the list to the service manager. After the event, Tier 1 and the failed Tier 3 items are called first, starting with the safety screen from How to Advise a Customer After a Hazard Event. Acceptance: the closed log has counts that add up to the list. What wrong looks like: entries with no disposition; resolve each before closing. Hazard: the first post-event call to every house restarts from the safety screen, because a house that was fine before the storm may have gas, water or a downed line now.

The record this produces

One log per event, in the job system or a shared sheet, read by the owner after the event and by anyone reconstructing what the shop did: the declaration (event, arrival time, area, cutoff, who declared); the approved message text; one row per customer with tier, attempt times, disposition (reached, voicemail, no answer, named contact, failed item, owner decision), the person who made the attempt, and any booking. Medical details are never in the log; the tier number is. The log is kept with the shop's records for the event.

Worked pass

A tropical storm watch is issued on a Tuesday at 11:00 for the shop's coastal county, with tropical-storm-force winds forecast to arrive Thursday at 08:00.

OUTREACH LOG  Event: tropical storm  Arrive Thu 08:00
Declared Tue 11:20 by owner  Cutoff Wed 08:00
Area: routes A through D (whole county)
List built Tue 12:55: T1 4  T2 7  T3 12  total 23
Step 3: draft had "10% off generator tune-up" - REMOVED
  approved text pasted Tue 13:10
T1  4/4 reached by Tue 16:30, none needed 911
T2  6/7 named contact. #T2-5 no answer Tue 14:00,
    Tue 18:30 -> STOP, owner decision: vacant-home
    agreement, 2 techs Wed 07:00, inside cutoff
T3  12/12 reached. #T3-9 generator won't start ->
    no slot before cutoff, told no cords to outlets,
    queued post-event
Sweep Wed 08:00: T1 none open, T2 #5 visited Wed 07:00
Closed Wed 08:00: 23 rows, 23 dispositions

Three steps left the happy path. At step 3 the draft text carried a discount on generator tune-ups; the owner removed it before anything went out. At step 5 one vacant house had no answer after two attempts four and a half hours apart, so the house went to the owner, who sent two techs at 07:00 Wednesday under the customer's vacant-home agreement, an hour inside the 08:00 cutoff; they confirmed the sump pump ran on its float and the backup battery tested. At step 6 one generator would not start, and with no slot before the cutoff the customer was told not to connect anything through an outlet and was queued for after the storm. Counts: 4 plus 7 plus 12 is 23 rows, and the close shows 23 dispositions.

References

• National Weather Service watch and warning definitions for your area
• CDC guidance on portable generator placement and carbon monoxide
• FCC rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and your state's telemarketing law, for text and call content
• See related: How to Advise a Customer After a Hazard Event; The Post-Event Equipment Inspection SOP; How to Protect a Vacant House Through a Hazard Season