The Ascendant

Chapter Thirty-Two

Hobbs called me into his office on Friday afternoon and I closed the door behind me, as he requested.

‘So Ben, what progress do you think you have made this week?’

‘I think I’ve made significant progress Paul. My understanding of the process has come on in strides since I’ve been working with Mike. Watching him work at close quarters has been a great experience.’

‘In what respect Ben? Could you tell me what you have actually learned?’

‘Sure; seeing first hand how Mike deals with clients and contractors has been extremely useful in itself. He is meticulous in his planning before he meets anybody, and he is a very skilled talker. The way he dealt with Nigel Smith of Chambers Benjamin and Bartlett was subtle but certainly clever; he allowed Smith to manoeuvre the course of the meeting but Mike still got his points across in a very adroit manner. And when he deals with contractors he doesn’t pull any punches, he tells them exactly what he expects of them. He’s totally fair but he stands for no nonsense.’

‘Yes, Mike knows the job inside out and he is very good at it. That’s why I placed you with him Ben and I’m pleased to hear you think it has been worthwhile.’

‘Oh, definitely.’ It’s really not very difficult to act like Mr Eagertoplease when you’re utterly desperate. ‘The whole week has been an education, whether we were out in the field or here in the office. Whereas last week I was struggling to piece together all the various facets and intricacies of the job; this week they seem to have come together all at once. In fact, as I was reflecting on the nature of the whole process last night, I came up with one or two ideas of my own. I don’t know if you would be interested in hearing them, Phil?’

‘Of course, I’d be very interested to hear your ideas Ben.’

‘Well, it concerns the downsizing of the approved contractor panel. Some contractors seemed keener about the prospect than others but one thing they all mentioned was maintaining open dialogue, and I presume no final decisions have been made as to who will be on the revised panel.’

‘No final decisions have been made at all. We aren’t even sure if we will downsize the panel, it’s something we will be looking into over the next six or twelve months. It doesn’t mean we will change anything, merely that we are considering it.’

‘Absolutely, it’s important to weigh up all our options.’

‘Quite.’

‘So what I thought was, if we wish to convince each contractor that no decisions have been made, and that no decision will be made until a full on-going review of their performance has been completed, then why not prove that to them.’

‘What do you mean Ben?’

Well, rather than merely maintaining an open dialogue with these guys, when they may think they’re just being fobbed off or strung along, why not publish a league table and post this to them on a weekly basis?’

‘Something along the lines of which I asked you to compile for me on Monday you mean?’ said Hobbs, smiling coyly.

‘Absolutely,' I responded with a slight smirk, 'we would have to make sure they were all exactly aware of how they are to be marked and rated, perhaps with points awarded for completing works on each individual insurance claim within an agreed time scale. Points could also be deducted for claims overrunning the time scale, with further deductions made for any complaints which are upheld, or costs which exceed estimates. It would be somewhat complex but if it can be worked out so that each category is given a certain weighting – or tariff – then the table would be a totally fair means of evaluating their performance. We could tell the contractors when the review period would officially commence and measure the results from there. Then at the end of the review period there would be three clear winners for each region.’

‘You’ve clearly given the matter a serious amount of thought Ben. We were of course already looking at the idea of producing such a table; this was one of the reasons I was so surprised with the table you prepared on Monday morning. I can see you've moved on from there now and your point regarding the publishing of the weekly figures is an interesting one. There are downsides to it, however, most notably those who may go through a bad period may become disillusioned and lose interest, resulting in unhappy customers. But there are ways around that, and if that were to happen we could merely expedite proceedings and divide their workload between the other six.’

‘Or perhaps award their work to the leading three contractors, to illustrate that the incentives are real and it really is worth them making the extra investment.’

‘Good point, Ben. I must say I am rather impressed, you really do seem to have turned your situation around. On Monday you didn’t seem to have the faintest grasp of what we are trying to do here. Working with Mike really does seemed to have benefited you a great deal.’

‘No question about it, and now I have a greater understanding of the nuts and bolts of it all I truly think I shall be able to make a positive contribution. I want to get out there and apply some of the tricks I’ve learned, and hopefully come up with a few of my own. I’m really very excited at the prospect.’

‘Well, that’s wonderful to hear Ben. I’ll tell you what, we’ll see if we can allow you to work more independently from the early part of next week, you have clearly responded well to your training. David Weston, who runs the Surrey and Kent area for us is in the office on Monday, and it’s about time you met and had a chat with David. Angela will be in on Tuesday, I should think it may be worthwhile you working with her as well, to see another way of approaching the job, and then perhaps arrange a few appointments for you in the remainder of the week. How does that sound?’

‘It sounds brilliant Paul.’

‘Well ... that’s that agreed then!’