AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (August 12, 2003)�In a recent study by Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc., Worksite Enrollment Practices: Is the Industry Ready for Alternate Methodologies?, 60 percent of the worksite companies responding say they are using web-based enrollments in some of their cases and 45 percent are sometimes using telephonic enrollments. Additionally, more than one in five carriers are working on these capabilities.
Why all this interest in non-traditional enrollment? It’s pretty simple. Enrollment is the lifeblood of worksite sales but it also accounts for much of the expenses associated with selling worksite. Many carriers, as well as brokers or producers, would like to find ways to lower the costs. Historically though, the non-traditional enrollment options that have been tried have not produced reasonable penetration numbers. Fortunately, some carriers and marketing organizations have continued to experiment with non-traditional methods hoping to find something that works.
In Eastbridge’s latest spotlight report, Worksite Enrollment Practices: Is the Industry Ready for Alternate Methodologies?, the company takes a close look at market trends in enrollment and, specifically, the use of various enrollment alternatives (e.g.: web-based and telephonic enrollments). The study finds that these new alternatives, while still representing only a small percent of worksite sales, are making inroads and that carriers and producers are finding ways to improve the penetration results.
“Both telephonic and web-based enrollments are being used with more success today,” says Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge. “The organizations successfully using these methods have learned that you can’t have a ‘passive’ enrollment and expect good results. Instead, these folks are developing customized, multi-faceted marketing and communications campaigns that help drive employees to make the call or to go to the website to learn more.” “This is critical to getting acceptable results,” adds Lowerre.
Will non-traditional enrollments replace our traditional one-on-one or group meetings? “Probably not in the short run,” says Lowerre. “But these methods are very likely to be used in a higher percentage of enrollments in the future�either because the employer won’t allow traditional methods or the economics of the enrollment after the first few just don’t allow traditional (expensive) enrollments.”
Worksite Enrollment Practices: Is the Industry Ready for Alternate Methodologies? is now available for purchase for $1,500. With more than 60 pages of text, charts, and graphs, the report explores the current state of worksite enrollment and looks at the expectations for the future. For more information, go to the company’s website at (www.eastbridge.com). To order a copy of the report, email us at [email protected] or call (860) 676-9633.
