Three Tips to Get More Out of Enrollment Off-Season

Three Tips to Get More Out of Enrollment Off-Season

 In Insurance

Every industry has a busy season, and for insurance agents, that season is marked by open enrollment and the months leading up to it. Over the past few years, the open enrollment period has significantly decreased, putting more pressure on individuals and agents alike. With a shorter time frame, it’s more important than ever for agents to get more out of the off-season. Here’s how to make the most of the long off-season.

Get Organized

The short timeframe for open enrollment season makes it busy and hectic for both agents and clients. The best way to keep the craziness under control is to be extremely organized, and an agency management system (AMS) can help you do just that. Consider setting up an AMS before open enrollment season begins to start off on the right foot.

An AMS is an easy way to keep all of your Individuals, Groups, and Policies organized and updated. You can assign an activity pertaining to an Individual or a Policy, and attach important documents to each, so you never have to go looking for a paper file. You can even run reports based on carriers that pertain to the open enrollment period, ensuring that you reach out to all of your ACA and Medicare clients to remind them when the open enrollment period begins.

Another way to get organized is to conduct contract reviews. Client needs are always changing, which is why it is important to review contracts each year. These reviews should be carefully considered and not put off until open enrollment. During open enrollment, clients are more likely to be focused on their medical coverage with less attention paid to their other benefits.

Taking time to make a complete assessment of needs will ensure that your client maintains appropriate coverage year after year, and ensures there aren’t any underlying issues with coverage that have gone unnoticed. No one wants to discover that coverage is inadequate at claim time. Using the off-season to conduct these client surveys allows both agent and client to be more focused. Additionally, your client will appreciate your effort and consideration, and a review could open the door for more business.

Focus on Marketing

Data analytics and targeted digital marketing can make a big difference in the type of membership a plan attracts. No longer can agents simply measure conversion to determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Instead, the focus needs to be on attracting the right clients.

Successful marketing programs have a real-time-closed-loop process to determine the effectiveness of various campaigns. Also known as a feedback control system, these marketing programs are designed to automatically achieve and maintain the desired output condition by comparing it with the actual condition. Enrollment off-season is the perfect time to ‘close the loop’ on marketing efforts. It’s important for agents to understand what happens to the leads they receive so they can understand their best and worst lead sources.

Agents that use the off-season to make improvements to their marketing, while engaging with clients throughout the year, will have a significant advantage over their competitors. After all, just as success is a journey and not a destination, great customer experiences are a journey, too.

Prepare for Open Enrollment

The end of the year is not only your on-season, but it is also a period of intense business for many industries and a busy time of year in general for individuals. Advance preparation can help ease the load on everyone’s’ shoulders when demands are high.

Communicate early and often with your clients as open enrollment season approaches. Prepare to make voluntary benefits a big part of the open enrollment message. You can use these benefits to enrich existing core benefits and augment the total benefits package. The most popular voluntary product offerings include vision, dental, accident, disability, and life insurance.

Plan to reinforce wellness programs. Many employers are adopting workplace wellness programs to reduce health insurance costs, become an employer of choice, recruit and retain employees, and sustain a healthy and productive workforce.

By planning ahead and using your off-season time wisely, you can streamline demands during open enrollment, build relationships, and grow your business. Follow our tips to maximize your potential throughout the year.

 

Our  ASPECT Management team is here to support you in making your business the best it can be. If you are ready to get started with ASPECT Management, pick up the phone and call us at 1-866-736-0130.

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