Retaining and winning clients in a different world
In a world permanently changed by COVID-19, what have you done to evolve the way you service employee benefits clients?
That can be a tough question, especially if you are put on the spot and haven’t given it too much thought. While Covid remains in our thoughts, many now feel it’s time to change the mood music, come to terms with the new reality and achieve some sense of normality.
After some 15 months, we probably all see the world slightly differently now than we did before. You may have come up with ways to adapt your brokerage practice to help retain clients and win new business. You likely already have a story to tell clients and prospects about how you’ve changed.
But just suppose, you’d done more than just change. Imagine you could show them that you have really transformed your processes to meet their needs?
Deep and lasting changes to how we work
As if we needed further proof of its value, technology has been a winner. Going forward, it is indispensable for allowing us to conduct business as normally as possible within the altered operating environment.
Commuting every day is being rejected by employees and businesses. Many companies are moving to more flexible working, with a hybrid work model where people only attend the office two or three days each week, with implications for the familiar face-to-face collaborative processes.
Consequently, it is now harder for broker teams and client-side stakeholders to be in the same place at the same time to meet, as both may be working remotely from their workplaces.
Pre-Covid trends amplified by lockdowns
The crisis has seen strong growth of some technology trends that were already well established before Covid hit:
- The pandemic has accelerated the uptake of technology – Research data from the new McKinsey Global Survey of executives suggests companies have accelerated the digitization of their internal operations by three to four years.
- Demand for online video-conferencing has exploded – But using tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams is just a ‘baseline’ technology. Industry specific platforms expand capability, enabling greater collaboration and productivity in virtual meetings.
- Many are working remotely using digital documents – Going back to paper is going to seem archaic. Using paper is clumsy, uneconomical and has environmental impacts. It requires manual processes for printing and binding. Additionally, presenting data in static formats provides little value-add.
- There is an increased emphasis on viewing data in dynamic formats – Sharing and manipulating information onscreen powers analytics, helping to uncover trends and intelligence, providing significant value-add.
If we consider the impacts of previous waves of technology, one important conclusion we can reach is that the uptake of these technologies is very likely to determine whether a company is set to be a winner or a loser in this new world.
Don’t just adapt: Transform your brokerage
The Vertical Fox platform provides employee benefits brokers with features that enable you to conduct business in line with these changes and tech trends.
Vertical Fox provides an excellent talking point that lets brokers reinvigorate and excite clients about how they are better able to understand and manage their employee benefits programs.
The system lets clients look at data and see it in a way like never before. This enables collaboration with clients to execute employee benefits as a strategic practice compared to a series of short term disconnected tactical moves.
Using Vertical Fox to manage employee benefits allows you to:
- Combine all client data on one dedicated platform.
- Evaluate plans, and financial and demographic information by just about any variable including location, business unit, employee class and length of service.
- Understand your client’s population, build an effective strategy, and uncover cost drivers.
- Compress the renewals process and leverage underwriting engines to negotiate and evaluate funding alternatives.
- Evaluate complex contribution models collaboratively in real time, model acquisition mutualizations/spinoffs, and compare plans to the benchmark.
Be ready to impress clients and prospects with Vertical Fox
When it comes to adapting to today’s world, your clients and prospects want to hear new ideas, not a defense of the old ways. With Vertical Fox, brokers are better prepapred for when a client asks how you have adapted your processes to the challenges of the post-COVID-19 world.
Want to know more about how Vertical Fox helps brokers to adapt to the world changed by COVID-19? Book a demo today to learn how the Vertical Fox platform can help you thrive in the new reality.
