This is a follow up to my column in the November issue, when I tried a bit of crowdsourcing to discover how the voluntary benefits business can do better at retaining customers. Here are some of the ideas.

Richard Logan of Jones & Associates in Mt. Laurel, N.J., said employee retention begins with offering the right product through pre-sale planning and fact-finding about the customer. A client who understands the who, what, why and how of the need for coverage is more likely to retain it. This creates a more durable customer than we see when a prospect says “I can afford $x a pay period or month” and we make a cash sale.

To me, this concept is a key way to make the policy have more value. It will be a key challenge to those designing the “defined contribution” exchange approach, which is expected to be a growing element of voluntary benefit marketing … how will the customer relate the product to need as opposed to just the money allocated to pay for it? We’ll consider this more next month.