If you’re feeling the crunch of peak season, one thing to consider to expedite your groups’ enrollments is to increase your use of technology. Here are five ways tech can help you and your clients.

How Technology Helps Brokers Streamline Open Enrollment

 1: Leverage a benefits administration platform

Benefits admin platforms allow you and your clients to streamline your groups’ employee enrollments, reduce paperwork, improve benefits management, and enhance compliance. There are multiple options available, including Ease, Employee Navigator, Rippling, bswift, Gusto, BambooHR, Benefitfocus, and others. Some include features like automated administrative tasks, carrier feeds, customizable dashboards, and robust reporting. The right platform can also automate some of your most tedious tasks, eliminate errors, and improve the overall enrollment experience for your clients and their employees.  

2: Automate benefit communications to employees

Using your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, you can easily set up automated email campaigns or text reminders to inform employees about benefit updates, open enrollment deadlines, and frequently asked questions. You can also implement chatbots or virtual assistants to answer common questions 24/7. Read our prior CRM blog, Ranking the Best CRM Options for Insurance Brokers, for more information.

 
3: Offer virtual benefits education and information.
You can host webinars, video tutorials, and virtual question and answer sessions to help educate employees about their available plan, coverage, and provider network options. Interactive tools like benefits calculators or decision-support software are also useful in helping employees make more informed benefit choices.

 
4: Data analytics support better decision making

Analyze your prior enrollment data to identify trends, such as common employee questions or the plans selected most often by employees Use your insights to tailor your communications strategy. Recommend plans that align with employees’ needs and budgets.

 
5: Offer mobile-friendly enrollment

It gives employees around-the-clock access, boosts completion rates, reduces administrative burdens, and simplifies the whole process. When paired with biometric authentication (like fingerprints or facial recognition), it also provides a higher level of security. For you and your agency, it offers increased efficiency, centralized data management, and greater accuracy because of reduced risk of human error and misplaced paperwork.
 
Technology can significantly improve your clients’ experience, boost your agency’s operational efficiency, and provide you with data-driven insights to enhance your sales and service. Stay up to date on what’s happening tech-wise by regularly reading our Tech blogs in the Word & Brown Newsroom.