For providers, this is when you are  most vulnerable to churn, which should come as no great surprise. But what can save the day is a prominent, yet not always positive trait that many have: Complacency.

“I was going to shop around, but frankly got busy and there was no time,” one individual health plan member recently confessed. “I just keep on paying the monthly premium because it’s on auto-pay and I just don’t even think about it.”

There are so many truths in this statement that marketers can potentially plumb for insightful tidbits. Can you take for granted that…

1. If rates are going up a little bit, count on customer inertia to help you avoid major member loss? (Maybe.)
2. Get individual member accounts on credit card auto-pay so that the decision to re-up goes virtually unchallenged every pay period? (Yes, please.)
3. Members are really that un-enthusiastic about their health plan that the decision to stay or go ends up becoming a choice between the evil of the two lessers? (Quite possibly.)

All sad reality aside, what organized CRM activities can a proactive, smart-marketing health or insurance organization deploy ahead of a premium increase? Is there any proof that doing anything will reduce churn?

The answer is: Do one thing at a time so you can measure—but do two or three things to retain each valuable customer.  And yes, case studies prove that certain activities will absolutely reduce churn by as much as 60%, while stimulating cross-sells at no additional marketing cost.

So what are the two to three smart things you can do? We’ll give you one today. (After all, we want you to stay with us.)

• Figure out who’s worth saving. This somewhat Darwinist exercise will force your IT folks to earn their salaries and will potentially put you in bonus contention. You can’t save everyone, as the captain of the lifeboat will tell you. The answer to the burning question “Who’s the most valuable?” is different for each organization and depends on analysis of customer data. Know that you’ll be ranking those lucky members for targeted communications going forward.

For actions two-three, stay tuned!

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The answer is: It doesn’t matter what the definition is because whether it fits it or not, Valentine’s Day is a holiday.

Why? Because it has reached a level of popularity ─ through marketing and promotional strategies ─ based around what society wants to believe in, which is the natural instinct to love and be loved.

Whether you believe Valentine’s Day survives because of commercial reasons or not, you cannot deny that February 14th has the ability to persuade (some would say guilt) people into participation. So how did it happen? We have 3 ideas, which are based around common marketing practices:

• Take Advantage of Key Emotions ─ Love is a great one (and one of our favorite). There are also emotions like competitiveness, and unfortunately, negative emotions, like hate (which too many utilize). These are all things tied to human nature, so can be utilized to sell an idea.
• Keeping it Consistent ─ Whether it is daily, weekly, monthly, or annually, being reliable helps. At first,  it can generate phrases like “oh no, its THAT time again!” But, if you can develop ideas, content and products that the public is interested in, those phrases will quickly turn into, “isn’t it THAT time again yet?”
• Brand, Brand, Brand ─ Make your organization about something. It can be a feeling, a philosophy, a way of life, etc. This will draw in the people you want, and perhaps bring with them the people that don’t know what they want.

The bottom-line is this:

Was there a Valentine that this day originally celebrated? Yes.

Did he invent the heart-shaped box of chocolates? No (well, we don’t think so).

Does anyone seem to mind? It doesn’t seem so yet.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

February is typically when that map of great intentions starts hitting some temptation-packed bumps in the road (think Super Bowl Sunday’s chili-meatballs-nachos-beer drive-by, followed immediately by the Valentine’s Day chocolate-fueled fender-bender).  Add in gym burnout, and it’s a five-car, health-resolution pile-up.

As a health plan, broker or other influencer, what can you do to keep those members on the road to better health?

Well, it’s true that you can’t solder shut the fridge door or make sure the fast-food window won’t take members’ orders. But some upbeat encouragement delivered direct to your members’ devices and computers can sure make a difference.

Herewith, some of our cost-effective thoughts to consider:

1. Monthly email support: Offer your members an opt-in to receive ongoing tips and useful tools to keep up their resolutions. Cardio workout ideas, healthy recipes, emotional support tools, stress reducers and cheat-busters are all worthwhile and value-add content to help members cope.
2. Encourage a dialogue: Live chat, counselors/coaches for specific disease management (obesity, heart disease), member-driven blog for weight-loss, smoking cessation and getting-into-shape activities can provide opportunities for members to take control and communicate directly with you and one another.
3. Employer groups outreach: Provide tools and materials to help employers foster healthy choices in the workplace. Healthy cafeteria menus, exercise options, and smoking cessation programs can be amazingly effective when the employer gets behind them.

Bottom line: Everyone benefits from having a heart.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

1. Customer churn reduction: In plain English—keeping the customers you’ve got. When they are lost, it’s $$$$ gone and you’ll need to spend more $$$$ to attract new ones.
2. Blue-ocean strategies: With all the sharks scrapping over the same old whales in the nearer depths, it is time to head farther out, where the fishing is less competitive. Who are the new audiences for your products and services?
3. Technology innovations (or new uses for existing technology): What else can you do with the proprietary IT and data tools you’ve invested in? Where else can you leverage those investments?
4. Efficiencies that enhance brands (without loss of value): Discover a better, faster or—sorry for this ugly word—cheaper way to do something and it can pay dividends.
5. Lighten up: Go leaner, springy, more nimble, and better able to hit the muddy road of today’s marketplace. From a business perspective, are you hauling a big rig, or a fuel-efficient, pound-for-pound power ride?
6. Refresh yourself: Is your message right for right now? Does your brand still have impact, or is it looking a little 2007-ish?
7. Value-add: In the words of the guy at the buffet, “What else you got?” Do you bring more than just the minimum to the table? Minimalism is one of the biggest enemies of excellence. What services or consulting can you appropriately package as a deliverable?
8. Innovation: It is still possible in the year of lean and less to think big. Innovation pushes everything forward, including your business. Where can your team deliver innovation, even in small ways?

Will these ideas still be relevant in a month from now? Subscribe to our blog to keep tabs on which have gained more traction than others.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The pizza is ordered; the beer is ‘’fridged’ and the couch is awaiting its owner. All that needs to happen is to tune into CBS, when the unthinkable happens: There is nothing there.

This was the reality of the Verizon FiOS subscriber over this past weekend in Central Pennsylvania, and with DirectTV (although with different networks) in places like Miami and Boston. The reason was the ongoing fee negotiation between carriers and providers to broadcast.  And while we do have an opinion on how these negotiations have gone, that isn’t what this post is about.

This post is about what we are paid to think about: What the Public Wants.

Too often, a company’s Marketing Department (or agency) is required to confer with their legal department on a campaign or a message. Rarely is the shoe on the other foot, but in this case, it should have been. If an organization like ours were consulted, we would have made it clear that beyond the ratings juggernaut a game like that would be, the perception immediately becomes that neither side is willing to take a step back from the conflict in order to do right by its customers. Whether it was a 48-hour extension or an accelerated timeline to get the deal in order, the absolute last case scenario should have been a blackout.

Some make the argument that the public doesn’t have the inalienable right to expect to watch a football game, but the public has a funny way of determining what they expect (and an even funnier way of retribution against those that take away what they expect). Companies can take that moral and philosophical stance of “business is business” argument, but shouldn’t do so without considering the repercussions. Viewers aren’t inanimate objects. They’re people.

We conclude with this thought. A company like Verizon or DirectTV could explain its actions by discussing how it’s working to improve stock prices and, in turn, help the stockholder. That’s a great Monday morning answer, but on a cold, Pennsylvania Saturday night in January, the average stockholder just wants to watch the game.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.