Quoting season is always a stressful time of year for Brokers. From the heaps of paperwork Brokers need to collect to produce multiple quotes for Employers, it can be hard to picture what a stress-free busy season would look like.
Collecting medical information and pulling rates from Carriers can cause stress for Brokers. Especially since each Carrier requires slightly different information on their forms. Then, Brokers have to create a unique presentation for each client, which takes up more time and leads to longer hours. And, if forms are filled out incorrectly or signatures are missing from the documents, Brokers have to go back and forth with Employers. Who has the time or patience for all of this? Certainly not Brokers.
Want to make next busy season less stressful? It starts with understanding what is causing you stress and then having the right tools to get the job done as stress-free as possible. FormFire rounded up a few ways Brokers can reduce stress levels during busy season.
Main Causes of Stress for Brokers
The less time Brokers have, the more stressed out they are likely to be. The first step to managing stress is to understand where time is being spent. As a Broker, are you spending too much time waiting for signatures or putting together presentations for Employers? The more time spent on these important, yet time-consuming tasks, the more stressed out Brokers are likely to be. Look at the average week for a Broker during busy season to identify what percentage of time is being spent:
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Gathering quotes
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Creating presentations
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Entering data
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Obtaining signatures
Once Brokers determine how much time is being spent where, ask which tasks are causing the most stress. For example, if gathering quotes takes up 40% of the work week, then there’s less time to create a tailored presentation for a prospect. As a Broker, that means you’re going to stress yourself out trying to get everything done in time for enrollment.
How Brokers Can Alleviate Work Stress
Not having the right tools can add extra stress to Brokers. Would a mechanic be able to get the job done without a wrench? Along the same lines, how could a Broker be able to produce quotes efficiently without the right tools? Fortunately, FormFire has several tools that will help automate and streamline a Broker’s workload, which can help save time and make busy season less stressful.
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Paper applications
Collecting paper applications can be a very drawn-out task when Brokers are going back and forth with Employees, answering their questions, finding missing information or correcting inconsistent data. One-way Brokers can alleviate that stress and streamline the collection of health data is to take an online approach. Rather than dealing with the same questions being asked in different ways, FormFire’s online interview helps Employees fill out their information while basing the next question off an Employee’s previous answers. Brokers can also utilize a feature that checks for missing or inconsistent information, which cuts down on the time a Broker would spend correcting the data. These tools will eliminate any guesswork or blank answers that require Brokers to go back and forth with an Employee.
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Producing quotes
Pulling quotes from multiple Carriers for each Employer—and keeping track of that information—can become stressful for a Broker. Not to mention, Brokers surely have had instances where an Employer needs to update their organizational data or Employee data. Now, the Broker has to go back to a Carrier portal to pull another quote. You can reduce that time and stress by using a tool that allows Brokers to view multiple medical carriers at once. The tool works by gathering quotes from Carriers using just one source of basic info. This means that once the basic census data is collected, quotes can be pulled from any applicable Carriers. What will really save a headache is that Brokers can also pull details from any Carrier, for any plan into the same work session, which offers a side-by-side comparison with what their Group already has.
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Creating presentations
Creating a tailored presentation for each client can add a personalized touch to the quoting process, but it can take up a lot of a Broker’s time. Rather than driving yourself crazy trying to make sure each presentation is just right for each Group, Brokers can automate the process entirely. Form Fire’s Quoting Engine allows Brokers to present multiple quotes to prospects in a polished, employer ready proposal. In one controlled, a private document, Brokers can show Groups multiple plans side-by-side, which saves time and eliminates stress.
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Collecting signatures
It can be stressful having to track down Employees when they forget to sign a page. E-signatures eliminate the need to get signatures on paper applications because it easily shows Employees where they need to sign and won’t let them submit the documents until all signatures are complete. As a Broker, you want to make sure you choose the right e-signature. Not all e-signatures from third-party software or platforms are created equal. An e-signature must pass several legal and compliance issues to be valid, which is why it’s important to have an e-signature that’s most universally recognized and accepted by Carriers. Not having the right tools can create a lot of stress for Brokers, especially during quoting season. Between the time wasted gathering quotes and creating presentations to the back-and-forth of answering questions, correcting info and obtaining signatures can make a Broker wonder why they’re still using paper forms when there are online tools available for Brokers to use.
Ready to make the switch to online technology for a less stressful busy season? Contact FormFire today to learn more or request a free demo to test out our system for yourself.