Business as usual on the Costa Del Sol Spain? asks Marbella Now’s Nicole King

I felt honoured to interview Patricia, the director of the motor department of Linea Directa.
As my regular viewers and readers will know, Linea Directa has been so supportive of Marbella Now and all our incentives as a community, particularly for road traffic safety.
Although a major company which relies principally on the Internet and telephone, when it comes to it, you can tell that the company really has heart and everything is very personal.

Perhaps it’s because they treat their staff so well and they’re all proud of what they do. As I understand it they don’t make staff stay for late meetings and are also unique as its entire call staff are on full contracts. You can tell that their system works as everyone I’ve ever met or spoken to from the company boasts a sense of pride and goes out of their way to live up to the company’s claims and our expectations. Even now in crisis, they have had to adapt like everyone else but not one ERTE has been issued, which means no staff have been laid off.

What they had to do is firstly enable all employees to work from home, not so easy as not everyone has the same computers or Internet speed to access documentation. Even though the cars aren’t out as much, as usual, they’re apparently as busy as ever with over 125,000 calls taken in the past days and dealing with over 5000 claims. They are also opening up their lines to non-customers with staff having volunteered to also help answer questions about Coronavirus and assist with information for those with family members in hospitals. They have also given 80 courtesy cars in the provinces of Madrid and Catalunya to be used by the medical staff that now need more ease of mobility than ever, plus they have their call centre ringing our elderly internationals over the age of 65 years, just to check on them, say hello and see how they’re doing.

With everything working now so smoothly I asked Patricia if they’d perhaps carry on with staff working more from home when this is all over but she said even in lockdown, they meet online regularly, and not just to oversee work but to also maintain the sense of community of a common goal so they are all anxious to be back at the offices.

The Motor Department is privy to some horrific statistics relating to drinking and driving so when people ask me why Linea Directa gives its clients a free taxi up to four times a month and sponsors the #ZeroHero breathalysers I reply that it must be cheaper than picking up our remains from the roads but I should also add that they actually care about their clients too and believe in being part of the community, which for them is not a ploy, it is just business as usual.
Take care everyone, #StaySafe #StayHome #BetterTogether