The employee benefits market is evolving

Summer provides a great opportunity to think about our business strategically. Here are a few ideas to help.

The employee benefits market is evolving. Winning organizations focus on easy-to-use services and positive user experience more than ever before. Why? Product innovation is important, but it’s easy for customers to become confused by differences in products that represent differentiators. It’s a lot easier for customers to recognize intuitive systems and packaging than it is to analyze product nuances. The easiest product parameter to determine continues to be price, so customers are increasingly interested in great service at an acceptable price point. We need to consider the service that customers never even notice is the best kind of service.

How are services evolving? The hot topic these days is the use of language-based artificial intelligence packages like ChatGPT. It’s important to be aware of how AI can be used to augment our services. But it is also important to be aware that, “intelligent” as they seem, these services are, in essence, computer programs. The famous principle “garbage in garbage out” is truer than ever. If we are going to use AI to augment our services, we need to be sure we define its role and carefully set parameters for its use. In service, people count, big time! The humans applying AI make it deliver positive results, just like any technology.

What about products? They definitely still have a place. The breakdown of the concept that benefit products are divided into “core” and “ancillary/voluntary” opens the opportunity for advisors to help employers create a robust array of options to meet the diverse needs of employees and their dependents. For years, the market has trended towards multiplication of product options, and we can expect this to continue. We need to stop thinking about traditional benefit hierarchies.

Let’s think about the implications of this for people who serve our customers. As our market evolves, products multiply, and available tools like AI are incorporated into our process, we need to incorporate a learning mindset into our operations. The tools and techniques of employee upscaling, learning, and development are more important than ever, and our organizations need to allocate resources in this area. The “how to” of our business is dynamic, so it’s impossible to define business parameters using a static set of processes. And never forget that you need to help customers adopt change by providing an intuitive experience.

How do we communicate all the benefits we offer? We can no longer strictly focus on January 1 to December 31 planning. We need to advise employers on breaking out of the traditional mindset of calendar year planning into a more flexible approach. This provides the opportunity to communicate throughout the year, breaking away from the daunting menu of product choices. My most recent column, “Improving Benefit Communications,” provides additional insights in this area.

Related: How to increase benefits ROI during open enrollment

Finally, always keep in mind that customer satisfaction is not static; it’s constantly evolving. Progress made today simply raises the bar of customer expectations tomorrow. As Bob Dylan sang: “He not busy being born is busy dying.”