When a hurricane hits, it can bring chaos and unexpected damage. Those affected by this kind of disaster need a knowledgeable, reassuring restoration partner to help them recover. However, standing strong and remaining calm during these times requires a massive amount of behind-the-scenes preparation.

Cotton recently hosted our annual Hurricane Forum to ensure our team knows exactly how to respond when a tropical cyclone is on the way, ensuring we can be a source of hope for the communities we serve. During the forum, we covered critical topics and training to prepare our people to provide the best possible service and restoration in the midst of disaster.

Ensuring Alignment Among Our Teams

We’re able to achieve our goal of delivering high-quality services to our clients by focusing on preparation before an event so all of our teams can work together and ensure a coordinated, expedient response. Throughout this year’s forum, we looked at mission-critical tasks for our teams, such as:

• Leaders - Leadership was a central focus at this year’s Hurricane Forum. Successful leaders are expected to keep their team committed, healthy and safe during moments of crisis while balancing and prioritizing goals.

• Business Intelligence Center - The Business Intelligence Center (BIC) plays a key role in providing situational awareness and key information before, during and after a hurricane.

• Sales - We strive to provide service that exceeds our clients’ expectations, and when a hurricane strikes, our sales team takes care of and coordinates with clients in the affected area. We reviewed key leader responsibilities for the sales teams during disaster events.

• Marketing - We discussed how the marketing team develops communication plans during disaster events. We also explored how this team drives awareness for the Cotton Companies so that those affected by a catastrophe know about and engage Cotton’s turnkey services.

• IT - Ensuring connectivity in a disaster area is paramount for successful restoration, so our IT team contributes to maintaining voice, data and video connections to keep the communication channels clear.

• Culinary - Focused on feeding operations and emergency food catering, the culinary team provides essential service when a disaster disrupts normal food and water operations.

Throughout the forum, it was clear that a successful hurricane response relies on all of our teams working together in alignment to give the best possible service to our clients.

Passing the Benefits of Our Preparation on to Our Clients

Our thorough mapping of various possible occurrences, planning for any scenario and preparation for the unexpected allow us to provide our clients with many benefits, including:

• Enhanced Situational Awareness - Our BIC is able to push out routine updates surrounding upcoming storms to our clients, giving them plenty of time to prepare their facility to withstand a hurricane.

• Enhanced Communication - Our teams work in conjunction to ensure our project managers have all the information they need to help guide our clients forward during a restoration job, meaning you don’t have to worry about multiple points of contact.

• Financial Savings - By efficiently managing and tracking our resources, we can ensure you’re getting a good deal on your project.

• Faster Response Times - Because we mobilize to an area before the event, our teams can work together to respond to your property within minutes of your call.

• Risk Mitigation - Our HSE team is always prepared to evaluate a situation and provide the safest approach for our employees, preventing mishaps, injuries and other occurrences that may slow a project down.

Having completed our annual Hurricane Forum, the Cotton Team is as ready as ever to support your business through any disaster this year. Remember, there’s no storm we can’t weather together.