If you're like the typical benefits professional, you've just succeeded in adding nearly 40 percent of your year's production. As you wrap up all that January 1 business, it's already time to consider your plan to keep it. Profitability doesn't come from acquiring business, but from retaining happy customers and the benefits of the revenue stream they create.
From a customer's viewpoint, benefits that are purchased and not used don't have much value, so it's in their best interest to keep the benefits they purchase. One would think this is a simple win-win proposition, but stats tell us that all too many customers will purchase benefits that become effective this month, and then drop them, creating no value for anyone.
Customer retention at the employer level is a matter of proactive communication. Begin the year by reporting and discussing the results of the most recent enrollment with the employer. Discuss what went well, issues that were encountered and results. If specific carriers or products had issues and underperformed, have discussions with both the product provider and employer to understand and eliminate the drivers. If the employer used a ben admin system to process the enrollment, review how it performed in the customer's eyes. Make sure the employer knows that your role is to step in and help them whenever an issue arises during the year.
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Once the review is complete, the discussion should immediately turn to planning for next year. This can cover planting seeds for addition of products, changes in plan design and enrollment administration process, and services that can help minimize the work they need to do to support a successful enrollment.
Keeping employee customers is just as vital. When employees choose to drop voluntary coverage, it sends a message to employers that the benefits may not be considered valuable. And there's also a loss of revenue when employees drop coverage.
It used to be difficult to communicate with employees at times other than annual enrollment, but today's technology facilitates communication. Studies consistently show that employees are interested in making the right choices and welcome educational opportunities to better understand their benefits.
However, you don't want to bombard employees with information off-cycle. Communication should be carefully planned so employees are reminded of opportunities to learn more without feeling they receive too much "ben-spam."
We recommend conducting a brief survey asking for feedback on the recently completed enrollment. A couple of months after the enrollment is complete, it might be appropriate to send out a reminder of where plan documents are stored, carrier microsites that describe the benefits offered and the number to call or text if there are benefit related questions. Third, in the late summer, it's a good idea to send out a reminder that open enrollment will begin in the fall, that the available time to consider benefits will be limited, and that they can access resources to help plan. Examples include benefit summaries, videos and needs calculators.
In the end, planning to keep customers comes down to effective planning of communication with customers.
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