As you look back on your sales success and open enrollment (OE) meetings during Q4, it’s good to consider what worked and what didn’t. It is not just your experience that is important, it’s the feedback of all parties: your employer-clients, those enrolling (employees/members), and your enrollers (you and others you may engage as part of your sales process).
I would like to suggest some questions you might ask when surveying these groups. The goal, of course, is to help you make your future enrollments even more successful.
Your Client/Employer Survey
For your client survey, you want to ensure your clients felt “listened to” and that your efforts made enrolling easier for the employer and employees.
- Ask about pre-enrollment communications. Was it sufficient? Or too much?
- What format is preferred? Digital, printed, other, a mix?
- Did employees clearly understand their options? Was anything missing?
- Were the decision-making tools provided helpful to you and your employees?
- Were there enough benefit choices?
- Was anything missing? A carrier? A plan type? A provider network?
- Were there specific needs that were not addressed?
- Were costs fully disclosed? That includes more than just the employer and employee share of the premium.
- Were copays and deductibles clearly communicated?
- What additional information or resources would have been helpful?
- How confident do you feel about the benefit choices you made this year?
- Did the open enrollment process meet your expectations?
- If your enrollment was online, did you find the platform easy to navigate?
- How would you rate the open enrollment experience – on a score of 1-10, with 10 being outstanding?
- Do you have other feedback you would like to provide?
- For some questions, you should allow respondents to expand on their answers.
Your Enrollee/Member Survey
For enrollees/members, you probably want to ask many of the same questions.
- How would you rate pre-enrollment communications? Were they sufficient? Or overwhelming?
- In what format do you prefer these communications? Digital, printed, other?
- Did you clearly understand your benefit options? Was anything missing? If yes, provide details.
- Were the decision-making tools provided helpful?
- Were you offered enough benefit choices?
- Was anything missing? A carrier? A plan type? Something else?
- Were any of your specific needs not addressed?
- Were your potential costs fully disclosed? Do you understand what you’ll be paying?
- Do you think your share of the costs is reasonable? (This can be a Yes/No with the opportunity to provide additional feedback if the respondent chooses No.)
- Were your copays and deductibles clearly communicated?
- What additional information or resources would have been helpful?
- How confident do you feel about the benefit choices you made this year?
- Did the open enrollment process meet your expectations?
- If your enrollment was online, did you find the platform easy to navigate?
- How would you rate the overall open enrollment experience – on a score of 1-10, with 10 being outstanding?
- Do you have other feedback you would like to provide?
- For some questions, you should allow respondents to expand on their answers.
Your Enroller Survey
In seeking feedback from those that helped employees enroll (whether on paper or electronically), your goal is to find out what went well – and what went wrong.
- How would you rate the group’s pre-enrollment communications? Do you think enough information was provided, so fewer questions came up during the enrollment meeting?
- Do you think employees clearly understood their benefit options?
- Did you receive any single question repeatedly?
- Was anything not addressed? Can you provide details?
- Do you think there were enough benefit choices?
- Was a carrier, plan type, or anything else missing?
- Were there any specific needs not addressed?
- Were potential costs fully disclosed? Was there anything employees repeatedly asked about related to costs?
- Were copays and deductibles clearly communicated?
- How would you rate the overall open enrollment experience – on a score of 1-10, with 10 being outstanding?
- Do you have recommended changes to the open enrollment process?
- Do you have other feedback you would like to provide?
- For some questions, you should allow respondents to expand on their answer.
You don’t, necessarily, have to ask all of these questions. But these ideas might help you develop a survey that works for you.
Conducting a post-open enrollment survey is a simple, powerful way to get valuable feedback that can help streamline your process and improve your future enrollments.
