This post takes a look at consumers whom we call optimizers. These are the customers who look at alternatives and who are more open to making monthly payments. They rarely interact with brokers and are most likely to pay attention to extra benefits.
We borrowed the term from psychology, where there people are described as either being maximisers or satisficers. It’s an oversimplification but maximers are looking to maximize their gains while satisficers are trying to efficiently fulfill a need. One consistent finding is that maximers can struggle to make
decisions and so are more likely to suffer buyer’s remorse. The goal is to make sure that they never decide to switch plans.
Our optimizers are close to maximers and the important thing we know about them is that they’re very much more swayed by extra benefits that different plans provide. They’re very much looking for what else they can get from the purchase. We need to interrupt their search for the next best thing to reduce
churn.
As payers already know, extra benefits are a great way to drive consumers to sign up. Our recommendation is that any extra benefits provided are directly associated with care and that they provide an ongoing reminder of the value that the plan provides. What this suggests is that payers should prioritize experiences and services over things or one-off solutions. A good example might be an ongoing transportation benefit or even access to a meal service. These are tangible, more salient benefits and are more likely to make plans sticky.
Beyond extra benefits, it’s also important to show Optimizers the detail of the various plans. On a website, this is the difference between a consumer who is ready to make a decision based on a couple of larger factors, versus the consumer who wants to go deeper into the detail. If somebody clicks through a number of plan choices, there is a good chance that this consumer is looking to make sure that they won’t be disappointed in the future. Here, the challenge is to make sure that the consumer doesn’t fall into a rabbit hole and that they receive guidance throughout the purchase process.
As ever, early churn remains a risk and so it’s crucial to review plan benefits with these consumers to make sure that there are no surprises. The good news is that these consumers are more willing to pay premiums and so there might be additional options available to them.