How to Improve Your Client Communication Process for Open Enrollment

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Since open enrollment is the only time clients may make changes to their employee benefits, it’s important they have all the knowledge needed to make an informed decision on time. Both insurance agents and employers need to have a clear communication strategy in place to ensure employees (clients) can make informed decisions.

In recent times, employees have come to expect benefits that cater to their mental and physical health along with their general wellbeing and family benefits. 

Effective communication during open enrollment season can be a huge challenge. Leaving employees ill-informed or confused can lead to HR departments, employers or insurance agents being inundated with questions and swathed in frustration. 

Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is key.

Shortcuts:

How to get the benefit plan right

Why should insurance agents and vendors care about open enrollment?

How can new insurance agents generate leads during open enrollment season?

12 tips on how to improve client communication for open season

  1. Early communication is key
  2. Communicate deadlines clearly
  3. Utilize different delivery mediums
  4. Be clear and upfront about any changes
  5. Insurance agents should communicate with employees as well as business leaders
  6. Create a communication calendar
  7. Review the previous success of open enrollment
  8. Keep communication person-centric
  9. Get feedback at the end of the open enrollment season
  10. Highlight the consequences of missing deadlines
  11. Create fun discovery meetings
  12. Look out for people who don’t engage
  13. Make it easier for clients to give consent and attest

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

How to get the benefit plan right

Businesses are already struggling to attract quality employees and as such, they review and change the benefits they offer from time to time to keep their packages attractive. However, there is a balancing act between building a great benefits package and managing costs. 

So, for insurance agents to secure big employment clients, they must be able to educate and communicate the benefits they can offer in a way that clients can understand whilst also meeting the brief of the client. 

But, before any communication takes place, insurance agents should work with business leaders to put together a package that’s right for employees. If the insurance agent understands the needs of the company they can find insurance coverage that suits them and will find communicating the benefits much easier.

To do this, business leaders should first define their goals and ethos as a company, so that everything in the package is aligned with that and reflects the company the employees chose to work for.

Businesses should consider the value they place on their employees and work with insurance agents to develop a program that offers a valuable reward for the work they do. 

Next, insurers should work with businesses to determine what’s achievable within their budget. How much they can afford to spend can have a massive impact on the packages you’re able to offer.

Then, review the competitiveness of your benefits package. Is it attractive enough to the caliber of clients you seek? And how does it compare to similar offers from rival companies?

Finally, it’s important to work with business clients to consider the needs of their employees. The level of insurance coverage you provide can have a huge impact on employee wellbeing and morale. Offering a more comprehensive plan can help clients access a level of coverage they never had before.

By working closely with employers, insurance vendors can prepare clients and find the right package to meet their needs. Communicating a package that works for clients is the first part of a successful communication strategy.

Why should insurance agents and vendors care about open enrollment?

Open enrollment is the time of year when clients have the opportunity to make changes to their employee benefits. In addition, employers are continuously reviewing benefit packages to ensure they are attractive to employees. It’s therefore a key time for insurance agents to maximize earning potential through commission. 

To an insurance agent, a client could be an individual or a large company looking to provide benefit incentives to employees, so lead generation way in advance of open enrollment should be a fundamental part of any insurer’s client acquisition strategy.

How can new insurance agents generate leads during open enrollment season?

As a new insurance agent, it can be tricky to generate leads and find new clients. Great communication with clients starts with putting yourself forward as an expert in your field so potential clients can see what you can do for them. However, there are a range of other marketing tools and techniques that will help to attract new clients.

  • Ask satisfied clients for referrals
  • Have a clear, informative website with good SEO and a strong call to action
  • Attend networking events
  • Use automated email campaigns
  • Maximize the potential of social media
  • Look at using lead vendors
  • Get involved in sponsored events
  • Enter into partnerships

However, once you’ve generated leads, effective communication through open enrollment season is vital to secure clients for the future.

12 tips on how to improve client communication for open season

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

1. Early communication is key

With open enrollment season typically happening in the fall, now is the time to start the communication process if you haven’t already. Starting communication early gives clients the chance to fully absorb the information they’ve been given and allows them the opportunity to ask questions and explore their options.

As open enrollment nears, insurance agents, HR staff, or business leaders should have a common goal to communicate the benefit plan on offer and to share more detailed information to clarify understanding. 

By starting early, there is time to layer information up and address queries as they arise rather than information-bombing clients at the last minute.

2. Communicate deadlines clearly

Short, to-the-point communication is easier to read and absorb. Concise communication such as ‘If you’d like to make changes to your benefits package this year, you must do [insert action here] by this date’. Communication like this leaves little room for confusion or error.

It’s also a good idea to layer communication and limit the amount of information that is sent out in one go. This type of communication is more easily digested.

Reminder emails are important too. Early communication is great, however, people can forget and if an employee misses the open enrollment window, it will be a long wait until the next one.

3. Utilize different delivery mediums

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Emails are a great way to get information out quickly. But not everyone absorbs information in the same way. People have different learning styles and respond to different communication methods. 

Webinars or live presentations can be a much more visual way of explaining what new benefit options are available for example. Using a PDF writer can help HR departments put professional brochures together which highlight the details of the benefits offered during open enrollment.

Another option is categorizing clients based on what’s on offer to them and managing communications with different groups in different ways.

By running either in-person or virtual meetings for categorized groups, more specific information can be given to relevant parties, and the risk of ‘information overload’ is reduced. These methods cater for remote workers too and are interactive, allowing clients to ask questions and receive a tailored explanatory response whilst posters or emails may be more accessible to other clients.

4. Be clear and upfront about any changes

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Any changes should be communicated in a clear and concise way. In a recent survey, one-third of clients stated they didn’t understand the benefits they selected during the last open enrollment. 

This statistic emphasizes that more can be done to improve the communication process for open enrollment and improve the employee experience. Changes can have a positive or negative impact on employees and not being upfront can have an impact on staff morale.

5. Insurance agents should communicate with employees as well as business leaders

The best people to demonstrate what the insurance policies offer are insurance agents. Insurance agents can do much of the leg work saving HR teams time and resources. What’s more, insurance agents can utilize screen sharing for lead generation and show clients the best insurance policies to meet their needs and that what they offer is impartial and unbiased.

By using trusted vendors, you can take away much of the pressure of communication from the HR team and give employees direct client access to knowledgeable people.

6. Create a communication calendar

Open enrollment usually only happens once a year but communication can take place all year round. Having a communication calendar can keep insurance agents and employers on track with their communication. For example, any changes can be communicated as soon as they’re in place and monthly updates and reminders can be scheduled.

It’s a great idea to set a goal for your calendar using the SMART rule of thumb. The goals should be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic 
  • Time-bound

Smart goals can be tracked and monitored so any weaknesses in the communication chain are more likely to be identified and addressed in good time.

Monthly workshops or presentations can be diarised so employees can gain clarity on both the benefits on offer and the process of open enrollment. Communications can be streamlined by using packages such as 8X8 cloud communication software which can bring together easily accessible communication mediums and create record logs.

7. Review the previous success of open enrollment

Using data review software, information on clients’ previous experiences can be analyzed. Reviewing things such as what the benefit take-up and utilization is can demonstrate whether employees can see the benefits or not whereas checking email open rates can help you determine how effective that form of communication has been.

A log and analysis of the types of questions clients have had in previous years can also help determine where communication gaps have occurred in the past and insurance agents and employers alike can use this information to pre-empt and inform clients by providing this information up front. 

8. Keep communication person-centric

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Open season can mean different things to different clients. A person who has just got married or had a baby may have different needs than a single person who has just bought a house, for example. 

Communication can therefore be tailored to suit subsections of employees. Communication is not a one-size-fits-all approach and giving the wrong information to the wrong people can disengage them from future communication as they may not deem it relevant.

Businesses can employ a business communication platform, which uses cloud technology to bring a whole host of innovative communications channels together not just to clients but employees too by incorporating instant messaging, video conferencing, cloud fax solutions, and VoIP systems.

9. Get feedback at the end of the open enrollment season

Improvement is constant. It’s an ongoing process as opposed to something insurance agents need to do once. By gaining feedback each year, improvements can be made to target specific areas of weakness next time. The simplest way of doing this is by using a digital survey once open enrollment has finished.

Most survey software allows you to compile and categorize answers, making analysis easy.

10. Highlight the consequences of missing deadlines

Short snippets of information about benefit changes are great, but what happens if someone misses the deadline? Communicating the consequences is a way of highlighting the importance of taking action and prompting clients to review the information available.

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

11. Create fun discovery meetings

Let’s face it, insurance isn’t the most exciting topic. Low engagement could be overcome by making fact-finding sessions more enticing. 

Q\&As with drinks and nibbles? Donut mornings? Meetings with lunch provided? What’s the method most likely to attract your clients or their employees to a discovery meeting?

If a meeting about insurance sounds boring, come up with something that isn’t.

12. Look out for people who don’t engage

Monitor who isn’t opening emails or attending meetings and find out why. Is it due to confusion or a lack of understanding, perhaps? If you can address these issues and increase open rates, you’re a step closer to improving communication and discovering the reasons that can help you plan improvements for next year.

13. Make it easier for clients to give consent and attest

Before you can start enrolling, you must have it on record that you are the agent that will enroll the client. The best way to do it is by having the client fill out the ACA consent form electronically. With CrankWheel, your client can sign it on a mobile without effort in a screen share.

Some agents also want an ACA Marketplace Client Attestation before submitting the application. Then they have it on record that the client has verified that the submitted information is correct.

Final thoughts

Open enrollment is a fantastic opportunity for insurance agents to generate leads and gain new clients. It’s also a great time for employers to review what they offer and determine how competitive their packages are.

Poor communication can lead to a lack of understanding and engagement which is bad for insurance vendors and employers alike. It’s therefore vital they work together to provide the right cover and make sure everyone understands it and knows what they want to sign up to.

There are so many forms of communication that can be utilized – from traditional methods to innovative digital ones – and it’s clear that using a mixed approach will yield the best results.

Implementing a solid communication strategy is one major aspect of a successful open enrollment season, ensuring that communication is ongoing and areas of weakness are consistently targeted.

With so much to do, what are you waiting for?