Every company loses business from time to time. While sometimes the loss of a client is unavoidable, oftentimes, there are steps brokers can take to minimize the risk. There can be warning signs, and you may benefit from reflecting on your current strategies (and the common pain points that tend to cause clients to switch brokers).
Are you certain you’re providing the best service possible? Here are some factors to consider, as well as some ways to add value and ensure your clients never want to leave.
Why Clients Leave Their Brokers
High benefits costs
The cost of benefits can actually play an essential role in employers’ satisfaction with their brokers. For small and mid-sized businesses, it’s especially important to go above and beyond just running quotes.
Employers have more benefits plan options than ever before, and offering top-tier benefits will help them acquire and retain high-quality talent and keep them competitive. You can strategically advise clients on which plans would best suit their specific workforce—at the lowest prices. Consider whether you’re going the extra mile when educating clients on available options, even if you don’t think they’ll take advantage of them immediately.
Low-tech, non-comprehensive advising
Positioning yourself as a comprehensive advisor with access to streamlined tech solutions will minimize the risk of clients leaving you. Benefits are generally offered to improve recruitment and retention of employees; so many employers are looking to their brokers for help and knowledge in these areas.
Adopting HR technology and offering it to small and mid-sized businesses as part of your value proposition can help keep you competitive and give employers’ more reason to continue working with you for years to come.
Poor customer service
Customer service is always essential and will very likely dictate employers’ decisions when it comes to their brokers. Offer support to clients regarding claims issues, calling carriers, finding insurance cards, and fixing other miscellaneous errors. If you don’t currently maintain communication throughout the year and offer top-tier customer service, it may be time to take an objective audit of these criteria to find your weakest points and begin building processes to improve.
How Brokers Can Add Value
Control costs
As previously mentioned, high benefits costs can influence how employers’ feel about their brokers. However, controlling costs should go beyond benefits—you can advise your clients on how to reduce overall business costs. Offer wellness programs to reduce long-term costs and decrease labor costs with time and labor management systems.
There are always ways to dig deeper and cut costs—ask yourself whether there’s an opportunity for commuter accounts, or if the business has maximized its pre-tax benefits accounts. Your clients look to you as an expert, so don’t hold back with recommendations—even extending beyond HR to financial and retirement planning as well.
Create efficiency
Employers are looking for more than expertise with benefits; they want a broker who can provide modern HR technology as well. We are so accustomed to innovative technology in our personal lives—it should be essential to your strategy with clients as well.
Using proper technology to deliver accessible data, access to carriers, and simple payroll management are easy ways to give clients the most efficient and streamlined experience possible.
Confront compliance head-on
Compliance concerns continue to mount for businesses, and maintaining it is becoming more and more frustrating. But, as their broker, you can alleviate some of that frustration—even if compliance is outside of your typical scope of work.
Some agencies hire compliance attorneys to handle benefits questions and other related issues. If your agency doesn’t have the resources to hire an attorney, there are ways to creatively broaden your specialty. Sometimes there’s the option of partnering with someone who can facilitate compliance management for a fraction of the cost of an attorney.
Having deep access to employee data and policies can really make a difference in helping employers identify and correct compliance errors—especially those regarding employee classification.
If you’re unsure whether you’re providing your clients with the best service possible, Clarity Benefit Solutions can help. We offer products and services to help keep your clients compliant and running efficiently. At Clarity, we provide benefits administration and TPA services backed by decades of experience and dedicated customer support. Our easy-to-use programs and tools are designed to innovate, integrate, and automate—helping employers and employees make the most of their benefits. Discover more solutions tailored to work for your business on our brokers’ page.
Sources:
1. https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/12/19/why-employers-leave-their-brokers/
2. https://www.benefitspro.com/2016/02/23/3-ways-brokers-can-add-value-and-eliminate-client/
