A Tale of Two Messages

You Can Make Your Benefits Communications Great Again

In the course of one hour this week I experienced two radically different communications experiences. Both reflected on a sector that often confuses us more than anything — health care and retirement benefits.

If you think benefits communications at your organization are an only-open enrollment time of year affair, I encourage you to think again. When the national news is awash with stories about the impact of healthcare legislation, people (your customers) get naturally nervous, creating an opportunity for you to provide clarity when possible and calm when appropriate.

Amid chaos, ask: Are your communications helping people simplify their life? Or are they adding confusion?

Take my experience from this week:

Communication #1: A major financial firm sends me a form email to tell me that all funds have been withdrawn from one of my accounts. I hadn’t made the withdrawal, so naturally a bit alarmed, I called the company. It turns out the company had opened a new account and transferred all funds of the type I had into new accounts without informing their customers about the creation of the new accounts — key information that had been missing form their email.

Communication #2: The insurance broker we use for health insurance personally called me to advise me about the 2017 timeline for coverage options. She said she wanted to call because she knew healthcare was in the news a lot, and she felt it would be worth touching base to be sure I understood, that regardless of the Congressional healthcare debate, here was the schedule of what we could expect for 2018 coverage. She expected my current provider would continue to have a similar option to our current plan but would not know the details of that plan until at least September.

She communicated when she didn’t need to, and it made all the difference.

In the case of the financial firm’s email, I’m made nervous, suspecting fraud and prompted to act through alarm. In the healthcare case, I’m left delighted, knowing I can trust my broker to be proactive on our behalf. She communicated when she didn’t need to and it made all the difference.

Neil H. Simon is a partner at Bighorn Communications and has advised large corporations on internal and external communications. For a free consultation on how you can improve your benefits communications this year, email him at neil@bighorncommunications.com.

Bighorn Communications

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Bighorn Communications helps people communicate simply.

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